Also in big trouble are Connecticut and Illinois, where the overall state and local tax burden (especially property taxes) is so onerous that high-income residents will feel the burn now that they can’t deduct these costs on their federal returns. Blue states will lose millions of people in the years to come—and they aren’t ready.

The Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority voted Tuesday to sell a painting by Chicago artist Kerry James Marshall, estimated at $8 million to $12 million, at a Sotheby’s auction next month. The MPEA purchased the monumental canvas “Past Times” for $25,000 in 1997,

Despite that momentum, major doubts remain about whether such a provision would be upheld by the IRS. Specifically, some financial experts say, establishing a system in which Illinois taxpayers would donate to a charity supporting local public schools and, in exchange, get a credit on state income taxes that would be fully deductible on their federal returns is a little too cute to make it past the tax agency.

But now, a Chicago tax law expert who has researched the issue says he’s concluded conventional wisdom is wrong, and the proposed workaround “might just work.”

With a 66 percent increase in opioid-related ER visits in Illinois last year, the number of children who will require protective services could grow by as much as 20 percent. While their parents receive medical treatment, undergo rehab or receive parental skills training, these children will need the state of Illinois to care for them.

Yet they will be coming into a system severely strained by the pressure of high employee turnover tied to rock-bottom wages and disinvestment by our state. Private social service agencies across Illinois report that employees are leaving at a rate of 42 percent,

Comment: Long overdue. The administration and lack of transparent, current financial reporting on local pensions is appalling.

A bill in the Illinois Senate could axe the state’s first-ever tax credit scholarship program.

Ives said she plans to tour the state raising awareness of issues such as pensions and fiscal responsibility, and campaigning for fellow Republican candidates in an effort to win a majority in the state House of Representatives.

“I haven’t come to a final decision,” he said Monday.