In their letter, Kwame Raoul and the coalition of 38 attorneys general of U.S. states and territories said legislation introduced in the 118th Congress would expand upon and synchronize state and federal efforts through the creation of a retail crime coordination center inside the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. But the bill was never signed into law.

Municipalities are now asking the state to give them more taxing authority, including for all municipalities’ elected officials to be able to enact a local sales tax on motor fuel to fund road and infrastructure improvements. Already, the Illinois Fuel & Retail Association, which represents gas stations, is in opposition.

The impact could be more than $2.2 billion in federal tax funds not coming to Illinois.

State Rep. Dave Severin, who is the ranking member on the House Energy and Environment Committee, said all the alternative energy proposals seem to rely on subsidies. “And that’s the thing, all of these different things that are these initiatives that are being pushed, it’s with subsidies,” he said. “The subsidies go away, then where are we at?”

Matteson Village President and Illinois Municipal League First Vice President Sheila Chalmers-Currin called for municipalities to have expanded authority to impose fuel taxes. “This is not about increasing taxes arbitrarily. It’s about giving local governments the tools they need to improve their communities without solely relying on property taxes or state funding,” she said.

Rep. Ryan Spain warned that the governor’s rhetoric may put Illinois squarely in the Trump administration’s crosshairs. “He is not going to be running against Donald Trump in 2028 and he needs to understand that as soon as possible, because there’s a lot at risk for the state of Illinois by continuing to play the part of antagonizer to the president of the United States,” he said.

Today, Illinois remains one of 17 states without discretionary parole. Only two groups can seek it: those sentenced before parole was abolished in 1978 and youthful offenders sentenced after 2019. Sen. Rachel Ventura introduced a bill in the previous legislative session that would have made the ban on life without parole retroactive, but it failed.

The bill would ensure that “the rate of growth of appropriations from the state general funds over the preceding fiscal year appropriations from the state general funds shall not exceed the rate of growth of the Illinois economy.” The rate of growth would be measured in ten-year compound averages of state GDP growth.

While it’s encouraging he isn’t relying on new taxes, this record-high spending plan loaded with short-term revenue adjustments and revised estimates will keep Illinois’ finances on shaky ground.

More than a week before Mayor Brandon Johnson is expected testify on Capitol Hill before the House Oversight Committee on the city’s so-called sanctuary laws, Johnson told reporters that he is prepared to defend the city’s “values.”

He said the proposed Medicare cuts to non-citizens are tough but “prudent.”

Recently, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Court granted a partial preliminary injunction sought by banking associations against the Illinois Attorney General over the Illinois Interchange Fee Prohibition Act (IFPA) which will limit the amount financial institutions can charge in interchange fees and regulate the use of consumer data.

“We don’t want to see our neighbors to the west languish. Ultimately, their success or failure affects our own success or failure. But it’s up to them to change their course,” Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston said before the House government committee on Monday. “In the meantime, to Illinois counties and residents feeling unheard and underrepresented, we hear you. We’d like to invite you to come back home again to Indiana.”

The sign, which reads “All People Are Welcome,” has stood at the I-90 entrance since 2018, but the debate over its message became a center topic when Ald. Chad Tuneberg raised concerns during a previous meeting. “People automatically think that the sign is talking about immigration. It’s not,” he said.

Woodstock Institute released new polling data that shows overwhelming consumer support for the 36 percent rate cap implemented by the Predatory Loan Prevention Act (PLPA) of 2021. Lawmakers initially intended the law to include pawn shops, but they weren’t specifically mentioned in the act. The Illinois Pawnbrokers Association then won an injunction in Sangamon County Court in Springfield to prevent the law from applying to them.

In his proposed budget for the fiscal year of 2026, Gov. JB Pritzker proposed $8 million to go toward the Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship Program. But the scholarship program is the subject of a federal lawsuit which names Pritzker and the Illinois Student Assistance Commission as defendants and seeks to declare the race-based portion of the scholarship program unconstitutional and prohibit the state from enforcing it.

State Rep. Adam Niemerg suggested the federal Department of Government Efficiency come to the state of Illinois to see how tax dollars are really being spent. “The governor is going to do the Springfield two-step. He’s going to do this parlor trick today to say, ‘hey, I came up with some revenues to try to balance his budget,’ but we have … COVID monies [that] are gone, he spent over $3-6 billion on illegal immigration, has a $3.2 billion deficit, and I guarantee you, at 3 a.m. the last night of session, they’re going to be raising your taxes,” said

“The thing to note in Chicago, the state of Illinois, and really the whole Midwest, is we’re significantly more manufacturing-intensive than the rest of the national economy,” said Austan Goolsbee, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. “So, tariffs will affect Illinois much more than the average economy.”