With all the rain that fell in the Chicago area on Wednesday, standing water can become a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

With that in mind, Illinois state health leaders have sounded the alarm about a spike in cases of the West Nile virus.

Southwest suburban Evergreen Park is one of many villages and cities that spray for mosquitoes in the summer. It is one way communities get a handle on West Nile.

Former Evergreen Park Mayor Jim Sexton caught the virus, and had a warning Wednesday — especially with the virus already having been reported in 17 counties.

“I would never wish this on anyone,” Sexton said.

Sexton fell ill with the West Nile virus 13 years ago, and ended up losing feeling in his right arm.

“I had a glass in my hand, and it just went,” said Sexton.

He said the virus was attacking his system.

“The whole system,” he said. “it was in there and attacking it.”

In the summer of 2012, the then-mayor of Evergreen Park found himself in the ER at Advocate Christ Medical Center in neighboring Oak Lawn.

“This 60-year-old man in great shape, still very active,” Sexton said, “and a little mosquito gets you.”

That one mosquito was carrying the West Nile Virus.

“I was just out of it,” Sexton said. “I mean, almost like you would be having a stroke, or you couldn’t communicate.”

It took doctors two weeks to figure out what left Sexton bedridden.

“I did 45 days in Christ Hospital — two weeks in intensive care,” he said. “There was a lot of encephalitis.”

The inflammation on Sexton’s brain left him speechless. His wife, Karen, never left his side.

“Get me up and got me going,” Sexton said.

Sexton underwent months of physical therapy. That is why when he hears of West Nile already present in 17 Illinois counites this year — including Cook, DuPage, and Will — he wants everyone to take heed to the warning from the Illinois Department of Public Health.

“So you can take precautions — fix the screen, wear repellent, wear long-sleeved clothing,” he said.

Evergreen Park is, again, of many communities that take the steps to spray for mosquitoes. Sexton, before retiring as mayor, worked hard to make sure the village was proactive in protecting residents.

Meanwhile, 13 years after he was infected, he is still sometimes hesitant to be outside. And with so many people venturing out this summer, the former mayor of Evergreen Park is living proof of how anyone can catch the virus.

“We think we’re still making progress, but I’d hate to find out otherwise,” said Sexton.

West Nile virus is spread to people from infected mosquitoes, most commonly in the summer. Eight out of 10 people infected do not develop symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  

When it comes to the West Nile virus, the Illinois Department of Public Health stresses the three R’s — reduce your exposure, repel using insect repellent, and report any standing water seen longer than a week, which can breed the virus.    

The public is advised to wearing loose-fitting clothing, and, if possible, avoid peak mosquito feeding times, typically around dusk and dawn. 

Severe illness from the West Nile virus can occur in about one in 150 people and is most likely to occur in people over age 55 or with weakened immune systems.

The Illinois General Assembly just enacted a $55.2 billion General Fund budget for the upcoming 2026 fiscal year. A sizable chunk of that budget, $16 billion, covers mandatory spending obligations Illinois is required to pay either by law, such as debt service owed to bond holders, or contract, like health insurance for state workers. That leaves around $39 billion for services, over 94% of which goes to education, health care, social services and public safety, the core services families rely on across Illinois.

Most of the commentary since the budget passed has highlighted one of three things: what the incremental increases were for various items, like the state’s school-funding formula, which got $307 million instead of the $350 million originally proposed; what got cut, like $330 million in health care for noncitizens between the ages of 42 and 64; or what didn’t get addressed at all, like the $771 million fiscal cliff facing the Regional Transportation Authority. Certainly, this short-term stuff matters. That said, it doesn’t paint a complete picture of state finances.

For instance, while the $307 million bump for K-12 is welcome, the shortfall in what the evidence shows every school needs to provide an adequate education to all students will grow from $2.6 billion this year to $2.7 billion next year. Meanwhile, fiscal year 2026 appropriations for higher education will be around $2 billion, or 42% less, in real, inflation-adjusted dollars than they were 26 years ago. In fact, while year-over-year spending will increase slightly, total FY 2026 General Fund appropriations for the four core services are 12% less in real, inflation-adjusted terms than they were back in FY 2000.

Despite cutting real spending on services for decades, the state still couldn’t balance its FY 2026 budget without bumping a number of taxes and fees by $482 million, sweeping some $237 million from other state funds, not making a $171 million scheduled transfer to the Road Fund, and creating a tax amnesty program to raise a quick $228 million.

So why does Illinois, which has an economy of over $1 trillion, the fifth largest of any state, have to manufacture a combined $1.1 billion in revenue to balance its budget, even though real spending on services will be less next year than at the start of this century?

No short-term budgetary analysis will explain that. However, a review of the long-term data does. And that data shows the Illinois General Fund has a structural deficit. A structural deficit exists when over time, tax revenue growth doesn’t support the inflationary cost of maintaining the same level of public services from year to year. The long-term data also shows that flawed tax policy caused this structural deficit, and those policy flaws are clear: Neither of Illinois’ two primary revenue sources — the income and sales taxes — are designed to respond to the modern economy. This has created a tax system that’s both unsound and unfair.

Start with the Illinois sales tax, which applies primarily to purchase of goods, not services. That’s a losing proposition, given that the sale of goods accounts for just 17% of state gross domestic product, while the sale of services accounts for 74%. Failing to levy sales taxes on most of the largest and fastest-growing segment of the economy means the revenue it generates can’t grow with the economy. Fixing that requires assessing the Illinois sales tax to the purchase of all consumer services, like neighboring Iowa and Wisconsin do. That reform would generate over $2 billion in new revenue.

Then there’s the income tax, which is supposed to create some tax fairness and respond to how income growth is actually shared among taxpayers over time. Since 1979, the real incomes of the bottom 10% of earners has declined. Folks in the middle realized a modest 8% growth in income, while the wealthiest 10% saw their incomes jump by 30%. So to respond to reality and tax people fairly, the income tax should vary with ability to pay, by imposing higher tax rates on higher levels of income and lower rates on lower levels of income.

Except the Illinois income tax can’t, because the state Constitution requires utilization of only one, flat rate. To fix this, the state’s flat income tax rate should be increased by 1.5 percentage points, to 6.45%. That’s enough to generate about $4.4 billion in net new revenue, after covering the cost of implementing a new, refundable tax credit to offset the impact of the aforesaid tax increases on low- and middle-income families. Collectively, these reforms would eliminate the structural deficit, while simultaneously making state tax policy fairer for people.

Bottom line: Getting Illinois’ fiscal house in order is the only way to fund core services sustainably over time, and getting there requires aligning Illinois tax policy with today’s economy.

Ralph Martire is executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, a nonpartisan fiscal policy think tank, and the Arthur Rubloff professor of Public Policy at Roosevelt University.

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GARY, Ind. – Two men from Illinois were shot Monday night while walking through a gas station parking lot in northwest Indiana, police said.

What we know:

Gary police were called to the Pilot Travel Center at 2501 Burr St. around 9:30 p.m. for a report of two people shot.

When officers arrived, they found Gary Fire Department medics treating a 22-year-old from Matteson and a 23-year-old from Lynwood. The men are cousins.

According to Gary police, the 23-year-old had been shot multiple times, while the 22-year-old was struck once in the chest. One of the cousins told officers they were walking through the lot when people inside a dark-colored SUV began shooting at them.

He said he ran into the gas station and hid in a bathroom after being hit. The other cousin would not talk to officers, police said.

Investigators reviewed nearby security video and spotted a dark-colored Jeep Cherokee speeding away from the area around the time of the shooting.

Officers also recovered a handgun from one of the victims.

What we don’t know:

It’s unclear if the victims were targeted.

What you can do:

Gary police are asking anyone with information to call them at 219-881-1209.