The tax hikes will devastate Cook County businesses, which already stagger under unsustainable property tax loads. Owners of apartments and office buildings will pass along at least some of the rising tax tab to tenants through rent hikes, driving the steep costs of living and doing business here even higher.

Illinois policymakers continue to ignore the long-term economic effects of excessive property taxes. A legislative task force appointed late last year to study alternative funding sources for local government services accomplished nothing, lending credence to skepticism that the group was mere