In a remote hearing Tuesday, Federal Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer described pushing the deadline for candidates to submit petition signatures to the State Board of Elections to a date in the first week of August and reduced the number of mandated signatures by 85 to 90 percent, according to attorneys present for the hearing.

State Rep. Darren Bailey, R-Xenia, said that was unlikely because the majority of General Assembly members are in the same party as the governor. “That’s the interesting conundrum of living life in a state with a supermajority, nobody is calling for anything,” Bailey said. “Everybody is just sitting on their hands. Nobody cares to seem to want to do anything.”

Comment: Pritzker would not provide data or a new model showing why he moved the goal post. Nor has he offered an explanation why his previous “science” was wrong.

The budget reductions — totaling about $870,000 — took effect April 3 in response to an anticipated huge loss of sales tax revenue during this pandemic. Oak Brook faces a challenge that most municipalities in Illinois don’t because it doesn’t levy a property tax; instead, it relies on a normally strong sales tax base that covers slightly more than half of the general fund expenditures.

Hospitalizations, however, have remained relatively level, according to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office. Pritzker’s office said there were 13 fewer ICU beds occupied by coronavirus patients from Sunday to Monday.

The rate hikes being covered — the first for Illinois residents in six years — would have affected only freshman and transfer students. The increases will be reinstated for the 2021-22 school year and beyond. Increases for nonresidents and graduate students will proceed as planned in the fall.

Pritzker was asked about differences in the Chicagoland area and downstate Illinois when it comes to fighting the virus, and he said there are different infection rates depending on region. That could inform changes to the stay-at-home order, the governor said, although he did not directly respond to a follow-up as to whether some counties might reopen before others.

The new coronavirus that causes COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan, China, in late 2019. It has since spread across the globe, throughout Illinois. “Back then … information was still coming out, but I think everybody knew at that point that China had at least withheld information purposely, silencing doctors and silencing scientists that we should be listening to,” State Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer said.

Rating agencies and investors increasingly expect Illinois will push some of its worsening fiscal pain off to cities, schools, and transportation agencies as the state government grapples with plunging revenues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The contagion effect could come in multiple forms.

“He has done the right thing by these heroes; however, we are concerned that once this crisis has passed, plaintiffs’ lawyers and judges will try to invalidate his executive order,” said John Pastuovic, president of the Illinois Civil Justice League. “This type of executive action has not been tested in court, and we fully expect plaintiffs’ lawyers to mount a challenge.”

Pritzker spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh said the governor and his staff don’t watch the president’s briefings “because they are not a source of factual information.”

“Gov. J.B. Pritzker has repeatedly said his response to COVID-19 has been informed by science. But a massive income tax hike in the midst of the most sudden and severe downturn since the Great Depression is counter to what economic experts recommend.”

At his briefing Trump said states have sufficient testing capacity and called out two governors by name — Pritzker and Republican Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland — accusing them of not fully grasping the issue. Pritzker spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh said the governor and his staff don’t watch the president’s briefings “because they are not a source of factual information.”