Despite Illinois having more teachers and fewer students, education groups and teacher unions continue to raise concerns about what they say are shortages in the state. And politicians continue to pass legislation to address those perceived concerns.

A wealthy heir to the Hyatt hotel empire, Pritzker has already cut $250,000 checks this election cycle to boost Democratic gubernatorial campaigns and parties across the Midwest, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan. He also gave $2 million to the Democratic Governors Association last month, according to a person familiar with his campaign.

U.S Illinois Senate Republican Candidate Kathy Salvi says during a recession, the government should not be overtaxing the American people.

According to IDOT Secretary Omer Osman, construction prices have increased significantly over the past year due to record high inflation. “The inflation has caused at least a 10% increase in the prices,” Osman said. “Sometimes it depends on the project itself.”

Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski has been a vocal critic of Pritzker’s continued proclamations while most other states have dropped theirs. “We’ve already seen the disaster that’s been created by the federal spending and we’re one of the states that’s perpetuating the problem,” Dabrowski said. Dabrowski said the governor can’t say he’s done a good job managing COVID-19 while continuing to “have his hands out” for more federal funding.

Friday, Sangamon County Judge Raylene Grischow said “Plaintiffs did not sustain their burden” pertaining to most of the defendants. “Here, no relief can be granted as the school districts do not have any policies that mandate masks or exclusion from school due to being a close contact,” she wrote. “The new joint guidance … that supersedes all prior COVID-19 guidance, is exactly that – guidance.”

“Working groups are hard at work in the House of Representatives, working on various aspects of legislation, working with advocates, listening to them,” Gov. JB Pritzker said. “So we’re cautiously optimistic that they’ll be able to come up with ideas for us to be able to bring forward in a special session, or in veto session, or some of it may even be in the new year.”

The highway portion of the multi-year plan accounts for $24.6 billion of the planned spending. Of that, $13.3 billion, or 54%, is federally funded, just over $6 billion is state funding, $4.1 billion comes from bond proceeds, and $1.2 billion comes from local reimbursements. Another near-$10 billion in combined state, federal, local and private spending was laid out for transit, marine transportation, railways and airports. Of that, 59% was state spending and 31% federal.

These five awardees join the 177 conditional licenses issued by the Administration in July, bringing the total number of issued licenses to 182 (of 185 available licenses). All businesses qualify as Social Equity Applicants under the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act.

The six-year plan would be the largest capital project in the state, according to the release, and comes after the passage of the Congressional infrastructure deal in November 2021. That deal is expected to bring $16 billion in funding for all modes of transportation.

Steve Cortes: “But the blame for the meltdown of Illinois’ largest city cannot fall solely upon Lightfoot. As governor and Chicago resident, J.B. Pritzker has miserably neglected to guard the safety and prosperity of the citizens in the state’s largest city.”

Illinois political leaders have twice recently presented voters with vague changes to the state constitution that obscure the fact they would hike taxes, but it would be better if Illinois were straight with voters and let them vote on all tax increases like other states do. The current hidden tax increase is Amendment 1, which is on the Nov. 8 ballot.

Politicians had the opportunity to help by adding Illinois to the Nurse Licensure Compact, an agreement among 39 states to accept nursing licenses. But state Rep. Sarah Feigenholtz’s bill to join the compact died after it was opposed by the Illinois AFL-CIO, the same group advocating for Amendment 1.

“It seems as though [Democrats] may be overplaying their hand on social issues like abortion,” a former suburban Republican lawmaker said. “People are going to be more worried about their family’s safety than they are about these social issues. That crime and safety question could easily rise above the other issues. Most Democrats are failing to appreciate that.”