Jennifer Smith already had her Chase loan application approved and had submitted her paperwork to the financial aid office at Roosevelt University in Chicago when she was told that, instead, she would be borrowing directly from Uncle Sam.

“They never told me why,” the 24-year-old integrated marketing communication major said. “All of a sudden I had direct loans of this and that much.”

As Cook County's newly increased sales tax rate entered its second day Wednesday, shoppers from communities along the county's border with Indiana flocked to retail outlets across the state line, where taxes are now more than 3 percent lower.

The new Cook County rate of 10.25 percent-an increase of one percentage point-dwarfs Indiana's statewide sales tax rate of 7 percent.