The governor is expected to extend his order again this week, but this time statehouse Republicans want changes, calling for state parks to reopen, hospitals to start performing elective procedures and some businesses to reopen.

Charts and graphs reflect the spread of COVID-19 and associated deaths by various demographics.

Comment: “States are already taking drastic steps to trim any costs they can,” this says. What has Illinois done on that? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Both the House and Senate have formed what they are calling “working groups” that are focusing primarily on how to resume state services and reboot the state’s economy once the COVID-19 pandemic subsides. The House has organized 14 such working groups; In the Senate, there are 17.

“Majority Leader McConnell is certainly important to the process of getting things done in Washington D.C., but he is not the only person involved and there are an awful lot of senators on both sides of the aisle that disagree with him,” the governor said. Pritzker has repeatedly said that Illinois must fund its pension obligations.

Illinois’ taxes and fees on gasoline keep the pump price high, even when oil producers are paying for someone to take excess crude. The state gas tax is set to rise again in July.

The Illinois Supreme Court ruled that teachers can’t defer maternity leave until after summer break for births that occur at the end of the school year. Justice Anne Burke said the state statute was intended to give teachers paid sick leave in the time right after the triggering event, whether that even was falling ill or giving birth.

“At a time when many are waiting for relief from the federal and state government in an effort to make payroll and retain workers, they will now be forced to pay for additional medical and salary costs regardless of whether an employees’ illness was contracted outside of the workplace,” said group attorney Scott Cruz.

Said state Sen. Dan McConchie, R-Hawthorn Woods, said. “I recognize that this is a challenging time for Illinois, but we can’t set a precedent of circumventing the mechanisms that are in place to protect the citizens of our state.”

The only area of the economy that did not experience payroll declines was the government sector, which added 1,000 jobs. Two hundred of those jobs came at the federal level, while state and local government each added 400 positions during the month.

The second FedEx flight with supplies from China arrived early on April 20 and will be checked at the state’s warehouse. The quality of the masks on the shipment is unknown.

The spread of coronavirus through employees at some of the nation’s largest meat plants could slow the flow of food, depending on how long plant closures last. “When one section of the supply chain has a slowdown or complete shutdown, it bottlenecks the rest of the system,” Illinois Farm Bureau President Richard Guebert, Jr. said. “With highly perishable products like milk or vegetables, the bottleneck is slowing down the process longer than the items have in shelf life.”

Stateville Correctional Center, a state-run prison that has been among the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, had asked for officers from other prisons to fill in at Stateville. Fulton County Board Chairman Pat O’Brian said officers from Illinois River Correctional Center were told they would be tested after their rotation at Stateville and placed on 14-day paid quarantine, but that hasn’t happened.

Citing Wirepoints.

“We will be making some changes to the stay-at-home order as it is, but it is true that it is working,” Pritzker said. “And so to pull it off – the stay-at-home order – it seems to me to remove it as I see some other governors may want to do – to remove it entirely is simply to open everything back up to infection.”

The relief includes at least 90 days of forbearance, waiving late payment fees, halting debt collection lawsuits for 90 days and ensuring no borrower is subjected to negative credit reporting.

The state could see an upgrade by enacting “recurring financial measures that support sustainable budget balance,” taking “decisive action to improve funding of the state’s main pension plans” and making “progress in lowering the bill backlog that does not rely on either long-term borrowing or on a significant decrease in non-operating fund liquidity,” according to Moody’s.

Illinoisans shoulder among the highest tax burdens of any state, and that should come with robust services. But soaring debt and pension costs have left too little room for the things residents need most from government.