PolitiFact

While critiquing a Democratic plan to replace Illinois’ flat income tax with graduated rates, the Senate Republican leader claimed the state lost more middle-class families than any other income group after the last tax hike.

While defending new tax and fee hikes for state capital projects, the House Republican leader said a bridge in Joliet is in such bad shape that school buses are prohibited from crossing it.

Following a bloody Memorial Day weekend, Chicago’s new mayor shared an unverified rumor that the union representing thousands of rank-and-file officers may have told cops not to perform their sworn duties.

The number of New York filers with income over $200,000 has increased every year since that state raised rates on top earnings to levels similar to those Illinois lawmakers are considering.

Many graduated-tax states have outpaced Illinois’ economic growth in recent years. So has nearly every other flat-tax state.

The Democratic lawmaker says fewer teens smoke pot after it is legalized for adult use, but data from states where it’s allowed is inconclusive at best.

The state senator from Mattoon has it backwards: Illinois gained nearly 50,000 jobs the year after its previous wage increase was signed into law.

Newman’s claim accurately reflects the results of the single survey she is relying on, but it appears to be an outlier among similar polls.

Illinois is one of just nine states that tax income at a flat rate. But a graduated tax system alone doesn’t guarantee the wealthy pay a higher rate.

There has been a major decline in the share of Chicago high schoolers who smoke cigarettes, but the city doesn’t come close to leading the nation.