Jake Leahy believes he’s the youngest person in Illinois currently serving in an elected position – and he very well could be.

The numbers are prompting a warning from the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association: this crisis will keep eroding the middle class.

“The problem this would create for Illinois…is that investors will surmise that legislation that allows Puerto Rico to write down a portion of all its debts would serve as a template for Illinois when it finds itself unable to pay its bills. If that became accepted wisdom in financial markets, investors would become even less inclined to lend, causing interest rates on Illinois debt to jump even more and hastening the day of fiscal reckoning.

Comment: Well, that didn’t take long. (We said yesterday this was coming.)

“A long-term property tax freeze alone is ill-conceived, especially if any companion revenues could later be independently changed or dropped. But the action by the suburban mayors does nothing to encourage the needed compromise and seeks to take one of the most important chips off the table.”

Companies have announced billions in new business investment in Kentucky a few months after the state passed key economic reforms. Illinois lawmakers should take note.

Limits on fees lead banks to charge the poor more for other services—or to stop offering them at all. Comment: Classic grandstanding from a leader in the stuff-that-doesn’t-work crowd.

Rod Blagojevich was pretty open about his view on patronage hires and power politics, even trying to sell Barack Obama’s vacated U.S. Senate seat. But it appears “the reformer” administration of Gov. Pat Quinn raised it to a fine art, with 70 IDOT jobs going to the politically connected.

Comment: Read this for a wonderful illustration of rampant idiocy in the Illinois General Assembly. This foolish bill passed the House 108 to 1 with little discussion and little press.

When it comes to property taxes in southern Illinois, homeowners face a wide variety of rates. Though not as expensive as the record-high property tax rates in the greater Chicago area, property taxes are still a significant expense for many homeowners in southern Illinois.