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Illinois Democrats introduced what a leading budgeteer described as a $55 billion budget Friday evening ahead of a Saturday deadline to pass the fiscal year 2026 spending plan. The 3,363-page spending proposal was unveiled after 6 p.m. At the time the Senate’s lead budget negotiator, Sen. Elgie Sims, D-Chicago, briefed reporters on the plan; an exact proposal for raising about $1 billion in revenue to pay for it had not been made publicly available.
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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Gotta get dat pay raise sucka!
great
A 3000 page bill with one day to review it. This is corruption of the highest order. What is our recourse?. Pretty much nothing. Maybe if newspapers really cared about things like this, they would run editorials over and over riling up the people. Normal people are pretty much too involved in their own lives to even try to do anything about things like this.
Democrat politicians enjoy raising taxes and fees while boosting their own salary and benefits…good job if you can get it.
For a guy opposing tariffs as taxes on working families, Pritzker sure knows how to break the backs of working families. Thank you democrats, may I have another.
The legislature could have summer jobs as Evelyn Wood speed reading tutors. Very impressive indeed they can get through all the last-minute changes in a 3363 page bill before passing it. It only raises $1 Billion on taxpayers – it should be fine.
Looks like future shell bills for transportation cliff, tier 2 “fix”, etc……I predict til after DT’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” w giant +$40gs SALT cap increase as political cover to go for graduated income/ millionaires tax and more tax on services to pay for it all.
This is going to be another fiasco budget leaving the taxpayers on the hook for increased taxes.