Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner, of Wirepoints: ” The biggest group left out of the deal-making? Ordinary Illinoisans. They’re the ones on the hook for the inevitable rate hikes and future tax increases to pay for all the giveaways — and the potential risks inherent in fully transforming Illinois energy to renewables.”

Jim Dey: “While county jails — some more than others — have population issues related to the corrections department’s coronavirus policies, the department’s population is falling. Because of a variety of early-release programs — some due to the pandemic, some not — the department’s population stood at 27,413 Wednesday, down from 28,529 in December 2019.”

Multiple inmates have served their entire sentence at Lake County Adult Corrections Facility without actually making it to the IDOC facility they were sentenced to. The county jail has to send at least two staff members to drive the inmates to Statesville Correctional Center — a roughly two-hour drive south of Waukegan — so they can be processed in and out of IDOC on that same final day.

A recently released study from the Heartland Alliance indicates that for the more than 3.3 million people with criminal records in Illinois, punishment continues well beyond time served; Hundreds of laws and restrictions make it prohibitively difficult for people with criminal records to rebuild their lives after incarceration.

State Rep. Amy Elik: “There is no way that members of either party can truly read and review a 3,000-plus page document in that short amount of time, and I voted no. This is a $42.3 billion budget which includes an undeserved pay raise for legislators and unnecessarily doubles our office budgets. While some social service agencies may receive increases, some will not.”

“Taxes remain the No. 1 complaint. Illinois was ranked the worst state to be a taxpayer in a separate WalletHub study, with the typical household paying almost 40% more in state and local taxes than the national average.”

One indication of the scope of the problem is recent census data showing that 100,578 Illinois residents were concerned that they could be evicted within the next two months.

See our own column on this linked here.

DeWanda Crochrell, executive director of the Joe Roberts Youth Club in Venice, said, “Some of the details they were looking for, an average not-for-profit with primarily volunteers would not have been able to complete it….By making it so stringent, a lot of smaller organizations, such as ours, are considering pulling out of the process completely.”

The brand-new, voluntary program allows Illinois businesses to reduce a worker’s hours by 20 percent to 60 percent, but keep them on staff. That worker can then receive a corresponding percentage of unemployment benefits for a temporary period.