The sales-tax hike Cook County officials approved in July takes effect Jan. 1, 2016, just in time for end-of-season holiday shopping deals.

Cook County’s new 1 percent hotel tax will raise Chicago’s combined hotel tax to 17.4 percent in 2016.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle resorted to the same tired formula that has all but bankrupted Chicago.

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

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...

The driving goal of the Illinois Policy Institute is to transform liberty principles into marketable policies that become law. The ultimate sign of success is when free market ideas are enacted into laws that change Illinoisans’ lives for the better. Illinois Policy Action’s 2014 legislative agenda emphasized the importance of a financially responsible and limited...