Combined state and average local sales tax rate tallies 8.85% in Illinois for 2024. That’s the highest in the Midwest and seventh highest in the nation.

Bad habits are tough to break, and Illinois lawmakers can’t ditch their habit of depending on sin taxes to raise revenue.

Out of 150 cities, Chicago came in almost at the bottom when the quality of city services and the total budget per capita were ranked, confirming what most Chicagoans already knew.

Illinois employers are hurting from a lack of workers while the state unemployment rate remains high. When a parent can stay home and make $51,627 on unemployment, the prospects of getting more workers back to work this summer appear dim.

How fair is it that some of the highest-paid state employees in the nation are getting a raise that must be funded by an economically wounded bunch of taxpayers?