The study also said 55% of all moves within the Midwest were outbound moves. Chicago ranked in the top 10 U.S. metropolitan areas experiencing outbound migration, with 69% of moves being outbound.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, so far, 427,000 doses of the vaccine have been sent to Illinois – population 12.6 million. A total of 176,000 people here have received the first dose, or 41 percent of the vaccine in the state now.

“It’s often been said that no Illinoisans life, liberty or property is safe when the legislature is in session,” House Republican Leader Jim Durkin said. “That has never been more true today and the week ahead.”

“All those extra services and programs that were passed, they all require state funding to operate,” Rep. Dan Brady (R-Bloomington) said. “While the Democrats hit send on the press releases announcing them, they never let you know after the fact that a tax hike will be required to pay for them.”

Illinois’ eviction moratorium is set to expire Saturday but a similar federal measure is in effect until the end of January. Illinois extended the eviction moratorium through 2020, but added stipulations that renters who plan to skip out on payments must prove to the property owners they’re unable to pay.

In the Tax Foundation’s analysis, those state tax systems that have low minimum and maximum rates, stick closely to the federal taxable pay levels ($7,000 in base pay), and don’t impose more surtaxes or additional benefits were rated the highest.

The budget that lawmakers passed during that special session with only Democratic votes was about $5 billion out of balance. But it was passed on the assumption that Congress would soon pass a stimulus package that would include aid to struggling state and local governments and that voters in November would approve a constitutional amendment to allow the state to levy a graduated income tax. Neither of those two things happened.

Manar will be paid $278,000, annually according to the governor’s office, half of which will be paid out from a limited liability company created by Pritzker to compensate several of his top aides beyond their state payrolls.

House Revenue Committee Chairman state Rep. Mike Zalewski, D-Riverside, said he doesn’t expect a last-minute tax increase to surface this year despite a 2011 tax hike passed during the lame-duck session. “It really is not going to be easy for us in a convention center during COVID with a leadership fight going forth to then turnaround and also pass a tax increase.”

“So why was this vaccine delayed for a full year? Because the FDA prohibited rapid ‘challenge trials’—where volunteers take the vaccine and then expose themselves to the virus in a lab, rather than waiting agonizing months to see how many catch the virus ‘in the wild.'”

UIS professor Gary Reinbold said data he reviewed from nearly a dozen different studies indicates in-person education is safe. “When I say in-school that doesn’t necessarily mean back to going to school all the time because most of the data is coming from places that are doing some form of hybrid schooling. But having them in school at least part of the time doesn’t seem to be leading to new cases.”

The states and territories in the worst financial shape include the Virgin Islands, New York, California, Hawaii, Texas, Kentucky, Ohio, Massachusetts, Illinois, Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, Minnesota, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Georgia and New Mexico.

According to Gov. J.B. Pritzker the answer on when things could begin to reopen isn’t concrete.

A GOP-sponsored proposal would allow voters the power to initiate recall proceedings against elected officials. While voters have held such powers in the case of the governor for more than a decade now, Former House Republican Floor Leader candidate Peter Breen (R-Lombard) rages much of what is now playing out in Springfield strongly points to the need for those powers to be extended.