An underused airport near Belleville, Illinois, has required local taxpayers to chip in $119.5 million since 2002 to keep it operating. Even with pandemic money, 2020 was even worse.

When Gov. J.B. Pritzker and state lawmakers doubled the gas tax in 2019, they built in automatic annual increases. The next boost hits July 1. Perfect timing, as Pritzker spends $6 million to ask Illinoisans to take a drive.

Illinois has a chance to fix its state finances, thanks to federal relief. But unless pension growth is brought under control, both retirees and taxpayers will be at risk as debt continues to consume state services.

Excise taxes have failed to improve Illinoisans’ health while creating an undue burden for those with the least. But lawmakers have yet to kick the habit.

Members of Pritzker’s administration, advisors and lawmakers have suggested a progressive income tax should tax retirement income in Illinois.

Multiple members of the governor’s inner circle have publicly backed retirement taxes, even though Pritzker now denies he will use his “fair tax” on the state’s seniors.

Illinois would have lost an additional 10,577 seniors from 2012 to 2018 if outmigration were as severe as in Connecticut, the last state to enact a progressive income tax.

Taxing retirement income is not a new idea to Illinois politicians, but denying they want to tax seniors is new since that part of the “fair tax” plan slipped out.