“Most rural communities in downstate Illinois — we’re shrinking, not growing,” Havana schools superintendent Mathew Plater said. “Getting something [unrelated to the power plant] that can offset some of that loss is unlikely. When you lose the power plant — for something small like our library board, it makes up 50% of their budget. It’s the same way for the park board. It’s catastrophic.”

The bureau is currently processing applications and renewals within the legally-mandated 72-hour waiting period, according to state police.

Ben Gitis, associate director with the Bipartisan Policy Center, said if state leaders don’t replenish the unemployment fund, they may go another route. “They can cut back on their unemployment benefits, either reduce the duration or limit how much benefits go out as a way of helping rebuild those trust funds.”

Supermajority Democrats at the statehouse relaunched their online platforms that were used to manage input for legislative maps the governor enacted despite legal challenges. State Rep. Tim Butler said it’s just “another attempt by Democrats to act like this is a free and fair process, but the facts have proven otherwise.”

The bill requires public universities to designate an employee to serve as an Undocumented Student Resource Liaison to help students without documentation get access to aid.

Jim Dey: “It will, of course, take judicial review to determine how or whether this law can be used as a shield against Pritzker’s mandate. But it muddies water the governor previously suggested is clear, particularly since the law provides ‘civil relief’ for those who contend their statutory rights were violated. That means those who are sanctioned…can file a lawsuit to recover damages. That’s enough right there to curl the hair of public and private employers statewide.”

Illinois Department of Innovation and Technology Chief information and security officer Adam Ford said this is a huge leap from where IDES was before the pandemic. “…I think that it is a new growth for all of government to start interacting with identity risk across the board as we are doing more and more interactions online.”

Truth In Accounting Research Director Bill Bergman said, “That’s significant for a few reasons, including the beginning of that period was in the middle of the worst economic and financial crisis since the Great Depression and Illinois has only deteriorated since then despite the massive recovery in financial markets since 2009. That’s scary.”

The twelfth annual Financial State of the States report, a nationwide analysis of the most recent state government financial information, found that despite receiving federal assistance from the CARES Act and other COVID-19 related grants, the majority of states’ finances worsened.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth: “There’s no doubt in my mind that my buddies and I wouldn’t have been able to complete our missions — and might not have made it home — were it not for the interpreters who helped U.S. forces…Now it’s on us to ensure that the words in the Soldier’s Creed — ‘never leave a fallen comrade’ behind — hold true even in this moment after we’ve left the warzone.”

Adam Schuster, of the Illinois Policy Institute: “During the past two decades, Illinois has steadily spent less on higher education funding each year. Take Harper College in Palatine as an example: The school received $8.1 million from the state in 2002, and just $7.5 million in fiscal year 2019.”

“For employers who already offer a 401(k) or similar plan, nothing would change; this is targeted at small employers who do not now offer any such plan. In some respects, this would be similar to the autoenrollment plans now in operation or under implementation in Oregon, California, Illinois, and elsewhere.”