With some lawmakers in Springfield now again pushing to eliminate the state’s flat income tax system in favor of a progressive tax structure, state Rep. Martin McLaughlin worried about what could come next for already stressed-out taxpayers. “It’s going to put a greater and greater burden on those that remain,” he said. “We’re at a tipping point and I think it’s evident that even the governor and Democrats are panicked, they are panicked that we don’t have the revenue to sustain their spending and they’re starting to talk about it.”

At least three organizations are pushing for some reconfiguration of Illinois counties to separate from Chicago and its closest suburbs. “With this polarization,” said G.H. Merritt, chair of the pro-breakaway group New Illinois. “I don’t know, man, it might just reach a tipping point.”

Regarding pensions, as of 2024, the city’s pension liabilities stand at over $105 million; All the property tax revenue collected by the city, $8 million, goes just towards pensions. City Manager Bill Nicklas in his budget report acknowledged it’s a hefty and growing obligation. He stated, “One truly feels that the City’s annual contribution is like paying only interest on a growing credit card debt.”

Washington council members questioned if taxes would need to be raised to make up for the money used to help feed Washington’s police pension fund that must be paid by 2040. East Peoria will institute a 1 percent grocery tax to cover the expected $2 million shortfall, while Pekin instituted a similar tax to make up for a estimated $1.5 million loss. Peoria is working on a plan to cover the possible $4 million it will lose.

“Noting he wouldn’t ‘invoke the specter of Nazis lightly,’ (Gov. JB) Pritzker bared his concern that the Trump Administration is following the same ‘authoritarian playbook’ of pointing ‘to a group of people who don’t look like you’ to blame them for societal problems, that Nazis used when they subverted the Weimar Republic. Given his lifelong dedication to building a Holocaust museum to ensure the world never forgets the horrors Nazi Germany inflicted on millions of innocent Jews, this had to be difficult for Pritzker.”

“In 2000, in-state tuition at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for an in-state student was $4,526. Today, tuition is about four times as much, ranging from $18,046 to $23,426 depending on what degree program a student pursues. When you factor in housing and food costs, plus books, supplies and other expenses, the total cost is over $40,000 a year. For an in-state student.”

“We’ve had a decrease in fentanyl deaths, but considering where we were to where we need to be, we’re nowhere near being able to take a victory lap,” said state Sen. Sue Rezin.

On the House floor, Halbrook delivered a message on state agencies, drawing concern over reckless spending: “A recent example: the Illinois Environment Protection Agency’s new headquarters. The state spent $80 million renovating the old Sears store at White Oaks Mall – a project that ran 18 months behind schedule and cost more than double the average price per square foot for commercial construction in Springfield. … Is this why there’s a bill in this chamber raising the filing fees at IEPA from $75 to $250?”

The Indiana House has passed two bills in recent weeks, one targeting downstate counties and another targeting Chicago sports teams. But these measures may be designed more for political posturing than reality. The majority Republican state seems to be emboldened, aiming for Gov. JB Pritzker and the majority Democratic state of Illinois.

Jim Dey: “Democrats acknowledge they designed boundary lines to obliterate the GOP’s presence in the House and Senate. They were candid because partisan motives — as opposed to racially biased motives — are legally permissible.”