When it comes to the taxes closest to home, the less you earn, the harder you’re hit.

That is the conclusion of an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy that evaluates the local tax burden in every state, from Washington, labeled the most regressive, to Delaware, ranked as the fairest of them all.

According to the study, in 2015 the poorest fifth of Americans will pay on average 10.9 percent of their income in state and local taxes, the middle fifth will pay 9.4 percent and the top 1 percent will average 5.4 percent.

Hundreds packed a South Side auditorium Tuesday night for a raucous meeting in which a University of Chicago plan to use public parkland for the construction of the Barack Obama Presidential Library was both celebrated and jeered.

Before the public input meeting began, convened by the Chicago Park District at Hyde Park Academy High School,  charter buses deposited attendees while TV cameras zoomed on a group of activists protesting the university’s failure to open a level-one hospital trauma center.

Mayoral candidates — including Ald. Bob Fioretti, businessman Willie Wilson and County Commissioner Jesus  “Chuy” Garcia — mingled with the crowd. Absent was Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who is working to allow the university to build in the park.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday will unveil an ambitious, second-term economic development agenda that calls for spreading the wealth outside Chicago’s glistening downtown to impoverished neighborhoods.

In fact, the mayor will argue that he has already done that — in neighborhoods like Englewood and Pullman — contrary to critics who have called his focus downtown-centric.

The mayor will deliver the major policy address on a Far South Side site that will soon be the new home of Method Manufacturing, Pullman’s first new factory in 30 years.

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has issued an executive order banning some state employees from negotiating for a lobbying job whileworking for the state.

The order issued Tuesday also prohibits employees in state agencies and the executive branch from taking lobbying positions for one year after they leave their state job.

The Winnetka Republican says government needs to restore the trust of taxpayers after a history of ethics problems. He says Illinois has to regain its good name.

Just before leaving office yesterday, now-former Governor Pat Quinn signed a slew of bills. One of those bills spells out when the state can take over a school district.

Before this bill became law, the Illinois State Board of Education was theoretically required to intervene when any school district spent at least three years on the academic watch list. That’s about a hundred districts, but the board has neither the resources nor the desire to take such drastic action in so many schools.

So the board crafted legislation to define the rules for intervention, and how control is returned to the community.

On Friday, I posted this chart, showing that nearly all the job growth since the recession ended has been in full-time jobs. Part-time employment is pretty much flat.

I wasn’t trying to make a political point, but many readers saw one anyway. Specifically, they saw it as a refutation of a frequent Republican talking point: that the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare,” is killing full-time jobs because it requires employers to offer health insurance to their full-time (but not their part-time) workers.

The reality, though, is a bit more complicated. Obamacare hasn’t led to a shift from full-time employment to part-time. But the evidence suggests it has led some employers to limit the hours of workers who were already part-time, effectively giving a pay cut to some of the most vulnerable Americans.

Sugar Grove took another step Tuesday toward creating a second tax-incentive financing district to attract industrial businesses near the Aurora Municipal Airport.

The village board voted to study the land in question to see if it qualifies for TIF designation, and started a registry for landowners and other parties who are interested in being kept apprised about the status of the work.

The land in question is generally on the north and east sides of the airport, in the Municipal Drive corridor between U.S. Route 30 and Wheeler Road. A map of the area is available at village hall, and in the village board packet for Tuesday’s meeting, at sugar-grove.il.us.

In an op-ed last week, Treasury Secretary Lew defended Dodd-Frank against efforts by the new Congress to reform the financial law. In his view, changing-or even suggesting changes to-Dodd-Frank seems to be tantamount to inviting another financial crisis. Far from being the cornerstone of a new era of financial stability, however, Dodd-Frank is more likely to be at the root of a future crisis.

Secretary Lew argues that Dodd-Frank has “made our financial system safer and more resilient, and consumers, investors and taxpayers are now protected from the types of abuses that helped cause the crisis.” Before we kick back and enjoy this new Dodd-Frank era of financial stability, let’s take a closer look at whether the new financial regime will work.

Dodd-Frank builds upon the crisis prevention mechanisms that failed us last time. Contrary to the deregulation mythology, the financial industry washighly regulated prior to the crisis. Some of those regulations gave banks a financial incentive to invest in securities that ran into deep trouble during the crisis. Others encouraged financial institutions to make loans to borrowers that would have difficulty repaying. Still other regulations caused investors to rely on credit ratings rather than looking at underlying credit quality. Meanwhile, the industry’s many regulators failed to identify building problems at the financial institutions under their watch.

A planned 47-mile expressway between Illinois and Indiana is on hold after new Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner issued an executive order aimed at addressing the state’s deep budget problems.

In his first act after taking office Monday, the Republican suspended planning and development of any major interstate construction projects pending a “careful review” of costs and benefits. Rauner spokesman Lance Trover said Tuesday the planned Illiana Expressway is among the projects that fall under the executive order, adding that it’s part of “a broader review to maximize taxpayer investment in infrastructure.”

It was unclear Tuesday how long that review may take.

Attorneys for state government are asking the Illinois Supreme Court to reinstate a controversial law curbing public employee pensions, contending that constitutional protections of retirement benefits are not absolute.