The itemized explanation includes families, small businesses, larger industries and state and local governments.

The change comes five days after the same move was made by the federal government, which also pushed the deadline to July 15. Pritzker said delaying the filing deadline will help soften the immediate economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A letter to House members from Jessica Basham, chief of staff to House Speaker Michael Madigan said members “should be prepared to return to Springfield to address urgent matters, including during the weeks of April 5 and April 12 (the legislative spring break).”

Last year, Moody’s Investors Services issued a report identifying Illinois and New Jersey as the two states that would be least able to weather a recession. In the case of Illinois, that was based the state’s lack of cash reserves and its high fixed costs for debt repayment, its backlog of unpaid bills and pension obligations.

The decision aims to offset the hit from the state’s prohibition of dine-in service, enacted earlier this month.

State employee pension funds entered the coronavirus crisis with $137 billion less than they needed to cover future obligations to retirees, an aggregate shortfall of about 60 percent. With the stock market down 30 percent in a month, and no bottom in sight, that gap is growing rapidly as the decline takes its toll on pension plan investments.

On Tuesday, Pritzker mentioned his administration will work with the General Assembly to craft a new state budget, which would take effect once Illinois’ new fiscal year begins July 1.

The broker said he remains optimistic for what’s to come, though: if the housing market made it through the 2008 recession, then it will make it through the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Illinois Department of Health reports two correctional officers and one inmate at Stateville Correctional Center, in Crest Hill, have tested positive for the virus. Also, a contractual worker at Sheridan Correctional Center in Sheridan, has tested positive.

The Illinois Department of Public Health said Wednesday that a total of 1,865 cases have been reported across the state. The three latest deaths include a Kane County man in his 90s, a Cook County man in his 60s, and a Will County woman in her 50s.

While direct public health interventions and assistance to those in economic distress are the most urgent needs, tax policy will play an important role in this process, both in states’ efforts to provide relief and, ultimately, to cover the costs of these outlays.

Top state income tax rates range from a high of 13.3 percent in California to 1 percent in Tennessee, according to the Tax Foundation study.

“Policy-wise we seem to be using sledgehammers when we should be thinking about using scalpels.”

The coronavirus outbreak could have caused Illinois hospitals to run out of beds in about a week if the current stay-at-home order were not in place, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Tuesday at his daily news briefing.

University of Illinois System leaders have added their voices to the many sectors seeking relief from Congress as it considers extensive emergency coronavirus aid. In a letter to the Illinois congressional delegation yesterday, System President Tim Killeen and chancellors at the system’s universities in Urbana-Champaign, Chicago and Springfield said billions of dollars are “urgently needed” for U.S. higher education because of unexpected expenses nationwide.

The urgently needed pandemic response measure is the largest economic rescue measure in history and is intended as a weeks- or months-long patch for an economy spiraling into recession and a nation facing a potentially ghastly toll.

“Unfortunately, an unintended, although perhaps expected, consequence of social isolation has been virtual paralysis of the American economy…Comparisons to the Great Depression are no longer unthinkable.”

“To make it out of this crisis, all Illinoisans will make tremendous sacrifices; all we’re asking is for Pritzker and lawmakers not to raise our taxes while we try to save and rebuild our lives.”