More than 240 years ago, a group of individuals stood up against a far-off king who taxed them without recourse. Americans honor their efforts each year on Independence Day. The Illinois General Assembly had a funny way of celebrating this year. On July 2, the Illinois House of Representatives passed a budget that includes the...

Medicaid has ballooned to cover more than a quarter of Illinois’ population, with spending at $5.4 billion, up 141 percent 2015 compared with 2000. Now that a federal judge has ruled Illinois must speed up its Medicaid payments, the state’s Medicaid payment will increase $83 million each month, for a total monthly payment of $376 million.

Though the Illinois House of Representatives appears close to overriding Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of a tax hike budget plan, and thereby ending Illinois’ more than two years without a full-year budget, Moody’s Investors Service has said it might still downgrade the state’s credit, largely due to Illinois’ unsustainable debt.

Moody’s Investors Service said simply passing a budget won’t be enough to avoid junk because it doesn’t address Illinois’ many crises.

The Illinois House of Representatives has lacked a quorum for two straight days, rendering it unable to vote to override Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of the tax hike and budget plan passed by the General Assembly. The Illinois Senate passed the budget plan and tax hike and overrode the governor’s veto on July 4.

The House will need 71 “yes” votes to override Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of a permanent 32 percent income tax hike. The July 2 vote to pass the tax hike received 72 yeas.

The Land of Lincoln needs to end the phony math and restructure its debts and pensions. But legislative incompetence will keep the state in a death spiral.

Use our tax hike calculator to find out how much the permanent 32% income tax rate hike will cost you.

More than a dozen Republicans joined House Democrats in passing a budget that includes a massive tax hike and no structural spending reforms. Gov. Bruce Rauner said he would veto the plan.

House Floor Amendment No. 2 to Senate Bill 9 would permanently increase the individual income tax rate to 4.95 percent and the corporate income tax rate to 7 percent, but would not expand the state sales tax to services.