Illinois parents will pay the Midwest’s highest sales taxes on back-to-school shopping.

The tax makes soda sold in Chicago among the most expensive in the country.

High-priced government workers cost taxpayers in Illinois $10 billion a year, with municipal managers in areas surrounding Chicago reaping the most benefits.

In trying to force a Chicago bailout, proponents of Senate Bill 1 are throwing hundreds of thousands of downstate and suburban students into limbo.

House Joint Resolution 69 would create a special task force to investigate and report on state and local property tax assessment, appeals processes and other property tax policies.

AFSCME officials proposed seven tax increases for Cook County as a way to save union jobs, including an increase in the county sales tax, a new head tax and doubling the amusement tax to 6 percent, despite the county’s local tax burden already being among the highest in the nation.

Slush fund hits record amounts as Chicago looks to the state for a bailout.