Just last week, when the Illinois General Assembly passed a record-setting $55.2 billion budget for 2026, the legislation was so rushed that even bill sponsors seemed unclear on the exact amount taxpayers would be asked to pay. They rubber-stamped another year of spending that follows a familiar fiscal playbook: spend more and hand Illinois residents and businesses the bill.

In the closing hours of the Illinois General Assembly’s spring session, Senate President Don Harmon tried to pass legislation that would have wiped clean a potential multimillion-dollar fine against his political campaign committee for violating election finance laws he championed years ago. Harmon’s move came against the backdrop of the former Illinois House speaker’s upcoming sentencing for corruption and abuse of power and almost instantly created a bipartisan legislative controversy that resulted in the bill never getting called for a vote.

Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) said it was “deeply disturbing” that a Sikh delivered a prayer in the House chamber on Friday — after apparently mistaking him for a Muslim man.

Rauner: “State Superintendent of Education Tony Sanders recently proposed that Illinois lower its state assessment standards to ‘provide us with more accurate data.’
Lowering the standards doesn’t make the scores more accurate. It sends the wrong signal to students and creates misinformation for parents and educators that results in more students falling through the cracks. “

Illinois ranked 40th in overall score, 41st in economic activity, 26th on innovation potential and dead last on economic health. Wallethub used three economic categories including economic activity, economic health and innovation potential, then applied 28 relevant metrics, running everything from GDP growth, start-up activity and share of jobs in high-tech industries.

Illinois has 63.8% fewer homes listed for sale than it had in the last pre-Covid year, 2019. One Connecticut was worse, losing 72.9% of its inventory.