Illinoisans bet more than $275 million on March Madness in 2022, with the state netting more than $2 million in tax revenue. Revenue totals for sports betting in 2022 were the second highest in the nation behind New York.

A credit rating agency found Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s ‘fair tax’ would fail to close the state’s deficit or adequately fund essential services.

Illinois politicians are already talking about taxing retirees, adding “surcharges” and city income taxes if they can convince voters to abandon the Illinois Constitution’s flat tax protection and give lawmakers greater taxing power.

During the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Illinois Farm Bureau twice made it a priority to tell members to oppose Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s progressive income tax hike. Their opposition is about values and principles.

The years 2010 through 2019 will go down in Illinois history as a decade of public policy failure and economic decline. High fixed costs for pensions and government worker health care have prevented the state from balancing its budget in any year since 2001. Since the Great Recession in 2008, the state’s fiscal imbalance has...