“There are several bills out there that are going to do it (enhance Tier 2), the chair of the Pension Committee is wanting to do that right now. The governor spoke about it in his budget address. Bottom line is: there are simple fixes to this and we don’t have to enhance benefits across the whole system,” said state Rep. Blaine Wilhour.

In 2012, Cook County approved a $25 per gun and 1 to 5 cent per cartridge of ammunition tax. Initial challenges went to the Illinois Supreme Court, which in 2021 ruled against the county. The county then modified the ordinance. Gun rights advocate Todd Vandermyde sued again on a Second Amendment challenge. After a district court dismissed the case, earlier this week an appeals court reinstated the challenge.

“They’re paying the cost of tax collection and remittance on behalf of the state for every transaction that occurs, particularly electronic transactions which now account for more than 80% of all transactions, so it’s not fair to shift more of that cost onto the backs of retailers regardless of their size,” said Rob Karr, president of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association.

“Some elements of the governor’s proposed spending plan, like using $10 million in state funds to eliminate $1 billion worth of Illinoisans’ medical debt, are hardline progressive ideas. Others, including a goal to achieve ‘universal preschool’ by 2027, fit in with a more traditional liberal platform. But Pritzker has also defined his success in traditional economic terms, putting particular stock into how New York City-based credit ratings agencies view Illinois’ finances, while also positioning Illinois as a hub for emerging technologies like electric vehicles and quantum computing.”

Last week, Gov. JB Pritzker and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle announced they were partnering to provide $250 million to help migrants receive shelter, wraparound services, and health care. But a spokesperson for the governor said the funding is not for schools. Last year’s “New Arrivals Grant” bill last year that would have allocated $35 million to schools, but it did not move past committee. State lawmakers have not yet filed a bill this session to help schools support migrant students with additional funding.

A year and a half since the 1% grocery tax was reinstated, Gov. JB Pritzker wants to eliminate that tax permanently. But doing away with the tax won’t ding the state’s bank account. The tax goes to cities, which otherwise depend mostly on property taxes. Said Illinois Municipal League CEO Brad Cole, “It’s yet another cut for local revenues at the same time municipalities are given more and more unfunded mandates and less and less cooperation. At some point we are going to have to tell every mayor to leave the keys to City Hall on their desk and let

House Bill 4709 would amend the current state statute that says if a county board chooses a school to be a polling place, then the school district must make the school available for use as a polling place. Right now, the law says the school is encouraged to close school for Election Day, which is in November, but makes no mention of closing schools for primaries or consolidated elections.

Jim Dey: “Since the law took effect Sept. 18, Illinois’ five appellate courts have been overwhelmed with nearly 1,700 appeals requiring prompt review. As a consequence, the Illinois Supreme Court in January charged a special five-member committee with studying the problem and devising solutions…In the interim, however, three appellate justices from the state’s Second District have devised a partial solution to reduce the flow. They’ve told defense lawyers representing detained defendants to stop filing frivolous appeals.”

Gov. JB Pritzker’s “Healthcare Consumer Access and Protection Act” will include a package of proposals aimed at controlling strategies that insurers use to reduce the amount of health care patients receive. It also includes new requirements for insurers to offer enough in-network doctors to meet consumers’ needs, as well as state regulatory control over rate increases in the large group insurance plans similar to regulations lawmakers approved last year for small group policies.

Raoul, joining a united front of 39 state attorneys general, sounded the alarm on what they see as an imbalance in control exerted by pharmacy benefit managers.

In his fiscal year 2025 budget proposal, Gov. JB Pritzker said adding three additional years to the funding payment plan will get the state “on a path to 100% funded like peer states.” He calls for an increase in the state’s annual pension contributions when legacy debts are paid off, and proposes dedicating half the revenue being used to pay off those bonds to make additional pension contributions when those debts are paid.

No GOP lawmakers voted for the budget last year, including state Sen. Steve McClure, of Springfield. High taxes, he said, have already placed a burden on local businesses — pointing to the recent temporary closure of Loukinens’ on 4th and the permanent closure of Alexander’s Steakhouse. “Why isn’t the governor prioritizing people like them?,” McClure said following the speech. “Instead, he is prioritizing people of other countries and also encouraging them to keep on coming.”

In his sixth budget proposal, Pritzker also laid out a long-term plan to manage the state’s massive pension debt by increasing the funding target to 100% from 90% and extending the payment deadline

The unanimous bipartisan vote by the State Board of Elections followed a request by All for Justice, an independent expenditure PAC, after it was fined $108,500 by the board last year for failing to timely file detailed expenditure reports in spending $7.3 million to help elect Elizabeth Rochford and Mary Kay O’Brien to the state’s highest court in 2022. The fines were among the largest ever levied by the election board.

“Budgets are about priorities, and unfortunately, Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Illinois leaders are not being completely honest with Illinoisans….The Taxpayer Pension Alliance — a group made up of Ted Dabrowski from Wirepoints, Josh Bandoch from the Illinois Policy Institute, Dennis LaComb of the Technology & Manufacturing Association and Ed Bachrach, who founded the Center for Pension Integrity — recently sent a letter to Mayor Brandon Johnson sounding the alarm on the city of Chicago’s unfunded pension liability, which is more than $52 billion.”

The so-called “closing fund,” first created last year, provides incentives are for businesses to relocate, expand or remain in the state. States including Texas and Michigan having deeper pockets than Illinois, but Gov. JB Pritzker last year still used the fund to help bring a $2 billion gigafactory by Chinese battery maker Gotion High-tech Co.

Granite City Mayor Mike Parkinson said of the $86 million sale of the Granite City Wastewater Treatment Plant, “The driving force behind it was (that) the city has $100 million in pension liabilities that have to be covered and we’re at a crossroads…the significant amount of money that we could sell the plant for—that we’ll be able to position ourselves to pay that debt off without raising taxes on our citizens.”