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There’s a battle brewing in the Illinois Senate over how much of the state’s remaining $3.5 billion in federal COVID aid should be used to repay the state’s $4.5 billion in unemployment debts. Illinois’ Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund, normally financed by taxes on state businesses, was wiped out after hundreds of thousands of Illinoisans filed unemployment claims as a result of the pandemic lockdowns. The federal government loaned Illinois the $4.5 billion so the state could issue unemployment checks.

One of the few positives in Illinois we’ve been able to cheer over the years has been the state’s flat income tax rate. For years, Illinois was a flat tax state surrounded largely by progressive tax states, including Iowa, Kentucky, Wisconsin and Missouri.

Illinois school district superintendents keep finding ways to retire with generous Illinois pensions while continuing to get salaries to boot.

Nearly a year after Illinois lawmakers requested an audit by the Illinois Department of Employment Security of fraudulent unemployment claims and a tabulation of losses during the pandemic, nothing has come forth.

The Illinois Supreme Court on Friday rejected the Pritzker Administration’s request to appeal a lower appellate ruling, thereby effectively ending the statewide school mask mandate. Individual school districts became free across Illinois to decide for themselves on school masks. After the ruling, Pritzker said his mandate will end on Monday, a mandate he has claimed is legal and still effective despite lower court rulings to the contrary.