Just when you were breathing a sigh of relief at the close of another tax season, a new study comes out showing the hit that Illinoisans take on property taxes compared with residents in other states.

Illinois has the highest median property tax rate in the nation, with various agencies and entities taking a combined 2.67 percent bite, according to a CoreLogic analysis of real estate property taxes nationwide.

Nationally, the median property tax rate is 1.31 percent, said the Irvine, Calif.-based data provider to financial services and real estate companies. That means that a home valued at $200,000 will, on average, pay annual total property taxes of $2,620.

In Illinois, that homeowner would pay $5,340.

Should a man too poor to make bail spend 114 days in jail awaiting trial for allegedly stealing a Snickers bar? What about 308 days for a homeless man accused of snatching toothpaste and breath mints?

Those were real cases in the Cook County Department of Corrections. And taxpayers were on the hook for more than $60,000 for the two of them combined.

Spurred by stories such as these from the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, Gov. Bruce Rauner in 2015 signed a law aimed at cutting down on excessive pretrial jail stays for low-risk defendants.

A new bill in Springfield would provide much-needed expansion of the 2015 reform.

Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner on Wednesday sought to strike an optimistic tone that a “grand compromise” with Democrats can be reached by May 31 to end the unprecedented budget impasse that’s threatened universities, caused havoc for groups that care for the vulnerable and led to a large stack of unpaid bills.

Whether Rauner’s optimism has a basis in reality was at best unclear, however.

Rauner said he is not backing away from the business-friendly, union-weakening agenda he says must be a part of a larger agreement. That wish list, which Rauner says will help the state’s economy rebound, remains a non-starter with Democrats who say it’ll hurt the middle class. The impasse has Illinois poised to end its current fiscal year without ever passing a full budget.

But it’s an election year, and both sides are trying to pin blame on the other for the mess at the Capitol. By broadcasting he’s open to a deal, Rauner is seeking to avoid blame as an obstructionist should an agreement remain elusive.

Illinois stripped former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert of his teacher’s pension on Wednesday, but his sentencing for a federal financial crime linked to past sex abuse will not cost him a second, more lucrative state pension.

The state Teachers’ Retirement System moved swiftly after Hastert’s sentencing by ending his $16,622-a-year annuity from 16 years of teaching in a far western suburb of Chicago, where the sexual abuse to which he admitted occurred.

But Hastert will not lose his $28,025 annual pension from his six years as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives.

Madison and St. Clair County residents are buying opioid prescriptions at a rate that soars above the national average, according to new data from federal agencies.

In 2014, there were 14,367,940 oxycodone and hydrocodone pills sold in Madison County, and 9,031,240 sold in St. Clair County. That’s the most recent year that statistics were available from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration diversion program, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

That’s approximately 34 pills per St. Clair County resident, and 54 pills per Madison County resident.

By comparison, the statewide average per Illinois county is 153,841 pills a year, and the national average is 182,742 pills. That translates to 1.22 pills per Illinois resident or 1.73 pills per U.S. resident — a fraction of the ratio in Madison and St. Clair County.