The recent legislative session was historic — but in a good or bad way?

Gov. J.B. Pritzker could hardly wait to take a victory lap when the House and Senate adjourned their recent session after passing a slew of Pritzker-proposed measures.

In celebration mode, the newbie politician celebrated what he called “one of the most ambitious and consequential legislative sessions” in state history.

The last state to adopt a progressive income tax was Connecticut in 1996, and we know how that turned out. Now Democrats in Illinois want to follow Connecticut down the elevator shaft with a referendum replacing the state’s flat 4.95% income tax with progressive rates they will set later. This is a classic liberal bait-and-switch—vote now on a promise to fix a fiscal mess, pay later as the fiscal mess gets worse.

Illinoisans will be paying more for gasoline, cigarettes and annual license plate fees to help pay for the $45 billion public works plan the General Assembly passed during the final days of its spring session.

Republicans and Democrats joined together in supporting the tax increases that will fund major upgrades to roads, bridges and transit, coined “Rebuild Illinois.”

New Illinois tax hikes aimed at generating revenue for transportation and building improvements may send consumers running for the border to get cheaper gas and cigarettes.

The taxes may also force hundreds of convenience stores in Illinois to close, according to industry advocates, costing potentially thousands of jobs and creating a veritable slushie desert across some regions of the state.

Expect a hiring boom from the state’s marijuana producers by the end of the year—and a likely boost in union membership.

The law that legalizes recreational marijuana use, which the General Assembly approved Friday, has two distinct features: a quick timeline and clear language that encourages union jobs. Existing players in the state’s medical-cannabis market plan to move into the bigger recreational business, resulting in a hiring surge that will dwarf the industry’s initial wave.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot didn’t get the city-owned Chicago casino she said she would have preferred, but on Monday she set a course to move ahead with the giant privately operated gambling facility state lawmakers approved in the final hours of the spring legislative session.

Chicago mayors long have pined for a casino run by the city, a proposal that repeatedly has fallen short of the necessary votes in Springfield. Lightfoot said that version wasn’t going to land this year either amid the flurry of late-session deals, because of downstate opposition to special treatment for Chicago. So she took what she could get and framed it as a huge step forward after decades of inertia.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Monday he would prefer a newly allowed Chicago casino be located separately from the downtown business district and away from McCormick Place.

While stressing the decision on locating the casino belongs to Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the Chicago City Council, the governor said his preference is for the casino to be put in an area that hasn’t benefited from downtown’s building boom.

In addition to a new casino, south suburban Cook County is in line for its own separate new “racino”—a combination horseracing track and casino — under the state’s massive gambling expansion legislation.

The track, which would be devoted to harness racing, would have all the rights of current and existing Illinois racetracks. That soon will include the ability to offer slot machines, table games and sports betting.

Longtime Chicago Ald. Edward Burke is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday on sweeping corruption charges alleging he abused his City Hall clout to extort work for his law firm and other favors from companies and individuals doing business with the city.

The arraignment before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Cole will mark the first time Burke, 75, will enter a plea in court since he was first charged with a single count of attempted extortion in January.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot won praise from allies and some city officials for the new school board picks she announced Monday — but she drew criticism from the Chicago Teachers Union for choosing the board at all.

While Lightfoot said she still supports the elected school board she backed in her campaign, that would require a change in state law. So on Monday, she formally tapped former state senator Miguel del Valle as the new board president and appointed six other members, including an outspoken critic of former Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s school closings and a University of Illinois at Chicago history professor who recently published a book on black politics and education.

Of the 17 townships in McHenry County, six are slated to receive less property tax revenue for the 2018 tax year than they did in 2017 and several others will experience a minuscule increase of less than a thousandth of a percent.

Grafton Township saw the biggest decrease in its property tax extension – or the dollar amount a taxing district can receive for that fiscal year – which dropped from about $948,000 in 2017 to about $859,000 in 2018.

Changes passed over the weekend by the Legislature to the way online sales platforms like Amazon and Wayfair collect and pay state or local sales taxes could benefit central Illinois communities, officials here said Monday.

Peoria City Manager Patrick Urich estimated the state sales tax collections — for which communities get a share based on their population — could bring in another $100,000 annually to the city when they begin on Jan. 1, 2020. And a later change on local sales taxes that goes into effect July 1, 2020, will have “a significant impact” on the city, as well as local school districts, he suggested.