To address the city’s worsening financial crises, Chicago politicians turned up the dial on their usual answer to budgetary woes: raising taxes.

Chicago City Council expanded its 9 percent amusement tax to include businesses subscribing to satellite television – another way to nickel and dime the most taxed residents in the state.

The Liberty Justice Center sued the city of Chicago in September to compel the city to stop collecting a 9 percent amusement tax on Internet-based streaming video, audio and gaming services.

“Pay to play” might take on a whole new meaning in Chicago.

Chicago’s 9 percent “Netflix tax” is illegal, and the Liberty Justice Center has sued the city to stop collecting it.

City officials are pushing property-tax hikes, sales-tax hikes, and even a commuter tax and financial-transaction tax.

Buying local just got a lot less appealing for Chicagoans. The city reclaimed the highest sales-tax rate of any major city in the nation on July 15, when the Cook County Board, which oversees Illinois’ largest city, voted to raise its portion of the sales tax, bringing Chicago’s combined rate to 10.25 percent from 9.25...