Ralph Martire biography

Ralph Martire is executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability ( "CTBA"). He also serves as a regular columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, the State Journal-Register and The Herald News on issues involving government accountability, tax, fiscal and budget policies. Ralph served on the budget advisory board to Governor Rod Blagojevich's transition team, where he acted as chairperson of the state revenue subcommittee. Ralph was the principal author of a study CTBA produced that identified revenue enhancement proposals to address the 2002 fiscal crises in the state of Illinois. Five of the proposals identified in that study ultimately became law. Ralph also was a key member of the research team that produced the groundbreaking "State of Working Illinois" report, which detailed industry, employment, wage and benefit trends in Illinois over the last 15 years. A joint project of CTBA and Northern Illinois University, the State of Working Illinois has been featured in over 150 media (print and broadcast) placements nationwide.

Ralph was the recipient of the 2004 Ben C. Hubbard Leadership Award, presented annually by Illinois State University to an individual whose leadership has significantly benefited education in Illinois.

A frequent lecturer on fiscal policy, Ralph teaches a Master's level class on fiscal policy and a Doctoral class on the politics of education at Illinois State University, and has taught tax policy seminars for the International Fulbright Scholar Program, the National Labor College and the national Women in Government lecture series. Ralph has been featured as a tax policy expert for numerous television and radio news programs such as WTTW, the Chicago PBS affiliate, and WPWR, the Chicago NPR affiliate. Prior to joining CTBA, Ralph was a partner in a law firm, with a sophisticated transactional practice focused on intellectual property, structured finance and mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Martire has conducted domestic and international seminars on technology, patent and trademark development and licensing, is a frequent lecturer at Northwestern University Law School on intellectual property transactions, and is a member of the Northwestern Journal of Technology & Intellectual Property Advisory Board.

Mr. Martire served as the deputy issues director for Dawn Clark Netsch in her gubernatorial campaign, and issues director for David Wilhelm in his run for the United States Senate. He is also a former candidate for the Cook County Board. His prior appointments include serving as a member of both the Cook County State's Attorney's Council on Hate Crimes Prosecution and Cook County Special Task Force on Domestic Violence.

Mr. Martire graduated from Indiana University Phi Beta Kappa, with a B.A. in history and received his JD from the University of Michigan.

He is married to Mary Kay Martire, and has two children, a son Nicholas, age 8, and a daughter Valerie, age 4.