With a new year comes 220 new laws in Illinois — everything from increased speeds on tollways and interstates to new ways to track cyberbullying and stricter boating-under-the-influence punishments.

Beginning Thursday, drivers on Illinois’ tollways were supposed to legally be allowed to drive 70 mph — up from 55 mph. But not so fast, literally. The Illinois Tollway must still conduct a traffic engineering study and the Illinois Tollway board must review the results and approve the measure. The Illinois Department of Transportation also must  approve the measure before it’s posted by the secretary of state.

In other words, the speed limit remains 55 mph for drivers.

State officials on Wednesday missed their self-imposed deadline to award licenses to grow and sell medical marijuana in Illinois before the end of 2014.

On New Year’s Eve, a state spokeswoman said no announcement would be made regarding the limited and highly sought licenses.

In a statement, officials said, “We are strongly committed to bringing relief to thousands of people across the state and ensuring Illinois is the national model for implementing medical cannabis. We are working hard to make sure this is done right. We are conducting a comprehensive review of every cultivation center and dispensary applicant to ensure that only the most qualified are approved for this important program. We will announce the recipients when this important review is finished.”

Whether the state’s income tax rate would drop as scheduled Jan. 1 was one of the biggest questions in Illinois politics for the last four years.

And now that it has, leaving taxpayers with somewhat fatter wallets at the start of the new year, that question has been replaced with what could be a more complicated one.

Now what?

Three years after tolls for passenger cars nearly doubled on the Illinois Tollway, higher rates for trucks have finally arrived as well, with both increases paying for a record-setting, multibillion-dollar rebuilding and expansion of the highway system.

The 40 percent hike for trucks and trailers that went into effect Thursday is only the beginning. Two more 10 percent increases for those vehicles will kick in over the next two years, and annual hikes linked to the rate of inflation will start in 2018.

Truckers say the higher tolls will be passed on to consumers who buy the goods being shipped, although experts say the impact will be hard to measure.

Much has been made about the shaky financial footing of Millennials. And it’s true; young adults today have high rates of unemployment and student-loan debt, which can keep them in a holding pattern when it comes to starting their adult lives.

But a recent study by the St. Louis Fed took a look at Millennials who had managed to take the first step in creating independent households—getting a job and finding their own place—in order to see how the financial health of young Americans today stacks up to that of previous generations.

“Financial well-being early in life…has important implications for lifetime wealth accumulation; recent evidence suggests that today’s young adults may have accumulated less wealth than their parents had at the same age. However, because they are still in the beginning of the life cycle, today’s young adults may be better equipped to weather economic upheaval than older generations, especially in the long run,” the study found.

I believe the topic for this month is the one big fantasy for 2015 (well, something like that). So here it is: my idea is that our political leaders actually work together to address the nation’s challenges. As opposed to elected officials acting as if parties that alternate winning by a small margin every two years always have a mandate to have things their own way.

So let’s willingly suspend disbelief for a moment or two and imagine that in 2015, a sudden surge in bipartisan spirit will enable the United States to:

Each year, the Illinois Auditor General hires its own actuary and submits a review of the actuarial reports for each of the five state pensions and certifies the amount taxpayers will have to contribute. The most recent Auditor General report was released this week, linked here.

As it did last year, the report says, in bold face for each pension, “the statutory mandated minimum funding requirements [which is what taxpayers pay] call for inadequate funding” and the funding method “does not meet generally accepted actuarial principles.”

That’s despite a $680 million increase in taxpayer contributions to the pensions. Specifically, The report certifies the amount the state is required to pay into the pensions under the state’s accounting methods is $7.5 billion for the current fiscal year, an increase of about $680 million over last year. That’s more than a fifth of the state general fund budget.

With the dawning of the new year, take-home pay could get a little sweeter for millions of Illinois workers while the sour financial picture of Illinois government will turn ever more so.

The same 2011 law that hiked state income tax rates by 67 percent kicked into its built-in second phase Thursday with a partial rollback. Overnight, the tax rate for individuals dropped from 5 percent to 3.75 percent, while for corporations it declined from 7 percent to 5.25 percent.

The financial wisdom of allowing rates to drop, significantly reducing state revenue, was the subject of heated debate during the recent battle for governor between incumbent Democrat Pat Quinn and Bruce Rauner, the Republican who defeated him. Quinn said the state couldn’t afford it, while Rauner positioned himself in favor of tax reductions over the long run while remaining vague about what he wanted near-term.