The minimum wage for residents working in Chicago and Cook County is increasing July 1. Research suggests the rise in wage rates will benefit the working Chicagoans at the expense of the city’s vulnerable unemployed.

Cook County’s first property tax payments are due March 2. In Chicago, property taxes have grown more than 3 times faster than inflation for 20 years.

Cook County property taxes have grown at triple the rate of the cost of living. The “fair tax” backers promise it will bring property tax relief, but the evidence refutes their claim.

There’s no doubt: the county taxed soda more, so people bought less of it. It’s a simple lesson. So why doesn’t Springfield get it?

Springfield lawmakers have yet to learn the lesson that money walks. And it’s not just to other states. Sometimes, it walks past the legal dispensary with a 40% tax rate and into a dealer’s house.