In 2017, the Illinois General Assembly passed a statewide bail reform law that provided for a presumption that most people charged with nonviolent crimes could be released without posting cash bonds. DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin has testified that since that law went into effect, his county saw an overall increase of 53% in defendants failing to appear for their court dates.

“Your top marginal all-in state and federal rates can reach 44.3 percent,” Tax Foundation’s Jared Walczak said of the way it is now on a federal and state level with no changes. “Pretty high, but that’s where we are right now.”

The Illinois Policy Institute’s Adam Schuster said the unemployment tax rate is likely to increase again for businesses just months after the rates had fallen. “Increasing unemployment insurance taxes can slow your recovery because it deters businesses from hiring right after a recession when you really want them to.”

“Kids don’t want to turn on their screens because of things that may be happening in the home, or not happening in the home,” said Mark Klaisner, president of the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools. “Or kids are choosing not to engage for a number of reasons based on the situation in which they live.”

“In fact, including some retirement income in the income tax base will help Illinois provide significant tax relief to those who truly need it,” said Ralph Martire, executive director at the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability and a former member of Pritzker’s transition team. In 2019, the CTBA said Illinois loses $2 billion in revenue without a retirement tax and proposed taxing retirement income over $50,000.

“As proposed, the amendment represents a disappointing repeat of Illinois fiscal history. The enacted rate structure is far from best economic practice, the significant shift in the state’s tax code is not part of a comprehensive plan and the proceeds will provide very little assistance, if any, to struggling local governments and pension funds.”

“But the reality is this—Pritzker ignores his own citizens. He doesn’t acknowledge peaceful rallies that have gone on statewide all late summer and fall. When student- athletes make reasonable requests to meet face-to-face, as three did last week, and ask their governor to address concerns about inequities with the state’s current sports guidelines, those athletes are ignored. But when Trump says something critical at a rally? He can’t get on national television fast enough.”

Proponents say a pension obligation bond, or POB, would ease fiscal pressure as the city confronts a $1.2 billion budget gap, $31 billion in unfunded pension liabilities and a projected $756 million increase in required annual pension contributions over the next six years. Critics warn that POBs have worsened fiscal problems for other cities and raise the specter of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s ill-fated POB, which failed to solve the state’s pension problems.

“Not only has Pritzker done just an awful job in terms of bringing that state back, but now they are talking about a massive tax increase that’s on the ballot sponsored by the governor which would, in my opinion, be the last nail in the coffin for the great Land of Lincoln,” said Economic policy expert and co-author of the report Stephen Moore.

“State lawmakers did not estimate the cost to municipalities or taxpayers for adding a day off for public workers, continuing a long tradition of avoiding price tags when they place demands on local schools and government units but fail to provide money for those mandates.”

“When the pandemic started we had roughly 100 people in place that were responsible for answering up to 1.8 million calls a week; it was very chaotic to the agency, it was a very chaotic for claimants.” said Richards. “I want to say please stay with us. We’re in a one to two week turnaround time right now for calls.”