Peoria Heights’ mayor vetoed a grocery tax, saying the village would not balance its budget on the backs of families at the grocery checkout. Now Chicago is considering taking $73.5 million through the tax.
Illinoisans paid the highest state and local taxes for wireless cell phone services in the nation in 2024 – $136 per family more than the average. An increase in Illinois’ telecommunication tax July 1 just made them even higher.
State data shows 31,937 members of Illinois’ five pension systems collected $100,000 a year or more in retirement benefits during 2024. Some got over $500,000. See the full list below.
Illinois is adding a 25-cent fee to all bets and 50-cent fee to high-volume sportsbooks such as DraftKings and FanDuel starting July 1. Illinoisans lost $1.12 billion in 2024, with $700 million of that on parlays. The new fees will add even more to that total.
While 47 states celebrate freedom with fireworks blazing across the sky, Illinois clings to a 1942 ban that limits autonomy and ignores safety data. Illinois residents cross state lines to partake in fireworks fun, while the state loses revenue and credibility.
Just in time for Independence Day travel, drivers will face Illinois’ latest gasoline tax hike. Gov. J.B. Pritzker has added 29 cents per gallon since 2019 – costing the average driver $143 more per year.
J.B. Pritzker wants a third term as Illinois governor, but based on his history of boosting taxes and creating spending records, can Illinois afford him for four more years? Will the state grow even smaller as Illinoisans get fed up and leave?
The average retired career state employee in Illinois was paid $93,558 in pension benefits last year. That’s $24,538 more than the average Illinoisan working to pay for those retirees.
For most bills filed in Springfield, taxpayers will have to guess at how much more will be demanded of them. Illinois General Assembly members only worried about costs 10 times for 3,859 of their bright ideas about how to improve the state.
Chicago’s $1.15 billion projected budget gap is the latest in a decades-long string of structural deficits. Making Chicago’s high taxes worse is not the solution.