Which state has the highest taxes in the Midwest? Not Illinois, that's for sure.

The Illinois Policy Institute is claiming otherwise, citing "new research." But that research was actually based on tax collections from Fiscal Year 2013, when the Illinois state income-tax rate was 5 percent. Today - in Fiscal Year 2016, more than two years later - the state income tax rate has dropped to 3.75 percent. So if you look at tax collections in the first six months of this year, under the new rate, Illinois' state tax collections come out to $1,597 per person - more than $60 lower than Wisconsin's $1,661. That's just a fact.

Beyond that basic inaccuracy, that letter simply ignored some fundamental facts about state taxes - the first being that comparing state tax burdens is like trying to compare apples and mashed potatoes.

Take Indiana. Its income-tax rate is a flat 3.3 percent - which looks pretty good next to Illinois, right? But in Indiana, almost every county imposes its own income tax - which can range up to almost 3 percent, for a total income tax rate of 6.3 percent. That's a whopping 68 percent higher than Illinois!

And while it's true that people in Illinois pay more in income taxes, per person, than people in Missouri, there's a very good reason for that: We make more money. The average per-capita income in Illinois is $29,666 - above the national average, and substantially higher than the Missouri per-capita income of $25,649. So if you want to move to Missouri and pay less, remember that's because you're likely to make less.

Then there's the huge issue of comparing Illinois' regressive flat income-tax rate with our neighboring states' progressive rates. In Wisconsin, people in the highest income bracket pay a top rate of 7.65 percent. Iowans pay almost 9 percent on taxable income over $68,000. And people in Minnesota pay a hefty 9.85 percent on taxable income of $154,951 and above.

Here's the real point: When you start cherry-picking statistics on state tax rates, you can prove just about anything you want. The real task is figuring out the best, fairest way for a state government to raise the revenues necessary to pay for the services that its people demand. And you can't develop smart, effective tax policy based on a misleading, simplistic, and out-of-date chart.

But if you could, I'd choose one from the Tax Foundation (that same place the Illinois Policy Institute cited) that ranked the combined state and local tax burden in every state. Illinois comes in at number 13 - compared with Wisconsin, which had the fifth-highest tax burden in the nation.

Elizabeth Austin, Vice President for Policy & Communications
Innovation Illinois

How many times have you heard the phrase "It's just a dog"? But time is certainly changing our opinions and treatment toward - and our lives with - our furry companions. "A dog is a family member" is a good way to describe the evolution taking place.

Focusing on "It's just a dog" suggests that dogs are creatures with no ability to think; they just follow humans around for food and shelter. Consequently, dogs must have no feelings. No joy, no anger, no love, no loss.

We are lucky to live in a time in which such viewpoints are changing, and huge kudos must be given to early dog trainers and animal behaviorists for realizing that the "dogs have no feelings" argument is clearly wrong.

Last year, gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner pledged to "crack down on waste" in government in order to save taxpayers over $140 million. He also vowed to cut $500 million from the Illinois Department of Central Management Services and find another $250 million in Medicaid savings.

Very little of that has happened to date, as the governor himself inadvertently admitted during a speech last week in the southern Cook County suburbs.

Instead of saving $500 million at CMS, for example, Rauner touted just $15 million in savings, mainly from grounding the state's fleet of airplanes - although that doesn't take into consideration the cost of paying mileage reimbursements for all those folks who can no longer fly.

The governor identified a grand total of $107 million in what he said are savings he's found this year, but most came from cuts at the Department of Healthcare and Family Services, and people I've talked to aren't buying those numbers because some major state cost controls have been allowed to expire. He also failed to mention that he vetoed a bill that the Democrats say would've resulted in $400 million in DHFS savings - far more than his own stated campaign goal and lots more than the $70 million he claims to have actually saved.

Governor Rauner also bemoaned the lack of a budget and the myriad court orders which are forcing state spending at last fiscal year's levels. "I can't control" the court orders, the governor said. That's true, but the governor could try negotiating with the stakeholders and the courts to come up with more affordable orders. He's not a complete victim.

And, of course, he repeatedly complained that the Democratic General Assembly hasn't allowed votes on a single one of his Turnaround Agenda items.

He has a right to complain, but he's not a legislator and needs to eventually realize that he can't pass bills on his own.

The Illinois Senate had been scheduled to return to Springfield on October 6 after not being in session since September 9. But last week, the Senate President postponed session until October 20.

The reason is pretty straightforward.

The Senate has overridden several gubernatorial vetoes. It's pretty easy for the majority party because the chamber has 39 Democrats, three more than the three-fifths required to override a veto.

The House has 71 Democrats, the exact number of votes required to overturn a veto in that chamber. So the Senate Democrats can be missing a few people or have some folks who don't want to go along and still override the governor on partisan votes. But the House Democrats need every member in town, and they all need to be voting the same way for that chamber to succeed.

Because of that tight margin, and because the Republicans have marched in lockstep with their party's governor, the House has only overridden one veto this entire year: the Heroin Crisis Act.

And the House was only able to override that bill because Governor Bruce Rauner allowed House Republicans to vote against his amendatory veto, which stripped out state Medicaid funding for heroin-addiction treatment. Rauner now gets to portray himself as fiscally conservative, while the Republicans got to do the right thing and make the much-needed criminal-justice-reform legislation an actual law.

To date, the governor and his staff have successfully fought off 62 override attempts, mainly in the House.

So much for Speaker Michael Madigan's much-vaunted veto-proof House majority.