Illinois has one of the most detailed tracking websites, showing the date, vendor, purpose, quantity and price of each purchase. “Transparency, to me, is like a pathway to rebuilding trust in government,” Comptroller Susana Mendoza said.

In Illinois, 75% of nursing homes that are at least 25% black or Latino have had at least one coronavirus case, according to the Times analysis, while only 24% of nursing homes that are less than 5% black or Latino have had a case.

“One of the attributes of legislative action in Illinois is that House and Senate leaders like to wait until the last minute and then pass everything at once. It makes oversight, debate and achieving a good understanding of what is in pending legislation very difficult. That, of course, is the idea.”

“Illinois has made a commitment to working men and women that they will be paid the prevailing wage at worksites being paid for with state money or state investment dollars. This action will prevent bad players from ignoring that law,” Mendoza said.

From Wirepoints’ Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner: “Such a strategy might sound absurd, but it’s precisely the approach Gov. J.B. Pritzker is pushing in Illinois.”

The federal act suggested sharing funds with private schools based on their proportion of low-income students, but U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos later instructed districts to base private schools allocations on their total enrollment — thus a much larger sum, which will come at the expense of public schools.

“I was hopeful and expectant that they would deliver to me a bill” that detailed what enforcement action would be allowed, Pritzker said. “They didn’t get it done, so we’re going to have to look at other mechanisms. The fact is that the legislature failed in this regard.”

“I will continue to advocate for a national program to support state and local governments to make up the difference in the revenues that fund the supports our families need during this difficult time, fund our children’s schools and public hospitals, and pay for the salaries of our teachers and first responders.”