This morning Illinois was forced to delay a $500 million bond sale – essentially, borrowing $500 million to finance state government operations. The delay was due to a drop in lender confidence in Illinois’ credit worthiness.

Just call it an opening skirmish in what portends to be a protracted conflict.

by Ted Dabrowski Earlier this year, lawmakers raised income taxes by a record amount. The tax increases included a hike in the state’s corporate tax rate to 7 percent, up from 4.8 percent. When combined with the personal property replacement tax levied on businesses in Illinois, they now face a corporate tax rate of 9.5...