A “deep dive” into Illinois’ cannabis market.

“Needs context…. Only non-U.S. citizens who are allowed to work in the U.S. under federal law and individuals who entered the country without valid documents as children but who were allowed to stay without fears of deportation under the DACA program will be able to apply to become part of Illinois law enforcement.”

A taxpayer-funded fair housing nonprofit in Illinois, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), is demanding a federal crackdown on landlords who don’t rent to tenants with eviction records.

Union chiefs and the politicians they support sit on both sides of the bargaining table. That was demonstrated again last week when Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a whopping new contract with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (Afscme). Unions are running the table in Illinois because Mr. Pritzker and state Democrats essentially work for the unions that provide the cash for re-election campaigns.

“Getting what companies need in place helps generate jobs and prosperity. So maybe Illinois is onto something important by investing heavily in transportation.It’s much of the rest of government spending that ought to raise taxpayer eyebrows. Money flows in so many directions few can keep track of it.”

“According to Chief Executive the three worst states to do business are Illinois, New York, and California. Isn’t that great. Three of the states with the highest paid legislators are three of the worst states to do business. And they all are run by Democrats. Can anyone spot the correlation?”

“I do remember how upset and panicky the Chicago Tribune newsroom became when I worked there and wrote columns in support of Miranda Devine and The New York Post’s reporting on Hunter Biden, his self-incriminating laptop and the national establishment’s effort to silence reporting about it.”

From 2013 to 2022, the public access counselor received an average of about 3,500 requests annually from citizens and media outlets whose efforts to get information were denied by various government agencies throughout the state. The office was also asked to look into an average of more than 360 accusations of Open Meetings Act violations each year. Last year, the office reviewed 3,024 requests for public information that were denied and 342 Open Meetings Act violation complaints.

Signed into law Friday, HB 2531 requires the Illinois Department of Transportation to start the prequalification process for entering public-private agreements established in the South Suburban Airport Act. If private sector proposals come through and the project moves forward, the cargo airport will be built at Bult Field between Monee and Beecher.

“Legislators, according to news reports, reportedly will be making some proposals to consider during the brief fall veto session. That wouldn’t provide much time to examine what would have to be complicated proposals. Indeed, it might open the door to another rush to judgment that leaves too little time and too few people with a full understanding of what’s on the table.”

With $14 billion in new federal funding, the infrastructure law was supposed to jolt efforts to protect the U.S. highway network from a changing climate and curb carbon emissions that are warming the planet. New records show the effort is off to an unsteady start as hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent elsewhere. Illinois spent $39 million elsewhere.

Illinois households eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will receive a maximum payment of $2,113 in three days.

As part of the settlement won by Alliance Defending Freedom, three professors at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) will take mandatory training related to free speech on college campuses. The settlement also stipulates that SIUE officials must revise their student handbook and policies to “ensure students with varying political, religious and ideological views are welcome in the art therapy program.”

Several organizations opposing abortion quickly filed a lawsuit Thursday against Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and Attorney General Kwame Raoul for a new law targeting crisis pregnancy centers.

“I asked for more specifics of how the “cushion” was built. ‘Increased appropriation authority was added to various lines,’ was all (Carol Knowles, deputy director for communications at the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget) replied…I assume the budget office refused to reveal much because it would provide keys to legislators and others to figure out how they do the voodoo they do. But this is beyond opaque.”

Gov. JB Pritzker blames his predecessor for neglecting IDES. “If you had to draw a lesson from it, you draw this: Do not ignore even these seemingly smaller agencies of state government, like IDES, like the Department of Public Health,” Pritzker said.

Also effective immediately, the Illinois State Board of Education is required to adopt a literacy plan.

“Where is this all going? We need to make sure that people are appointed to the Supreme Court who are going to do the right thing,” Gov. JB Pritzker said. “And this is one way for us to demand and ask people to do the right thing and keep them safe in their own homes.”

Among other changes, the new law provides that urine tests can only be ordered if there is reasonable suspicion of illicit drug use and the basis of that suspicion is documented in the Department of Corrections’ case management system, and it provides for remote check-ins with parole officers.

In an opinion filed July 26, U.S. District Judge John Kness first said the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue, by failing to sufficiently allege legal harm, and then explained the Eleventh Amendment would’ve barred the litigation even with the standing bar cleared.

“Bribery is a premeditated crime — those tempted to sell out the public have plenty of time to weigh the risks and rewards before doing so,” the nine-page ruling by the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals stated. “The district judge did not err by reasonably presuming that public officials consider the criminal sentences of other politicians, and that a longer sentence for Arroyo was necessary to deter corruption at the margins.”

The bill adds electronic smoking devices to the 2008 Smoke-Free Illinois Act, which banned smoking in most public spaces in the state. The act was amended to ban electronic smoking devices in any place where smoking is already prohibited.

The new residential campus will serve vulnerable youth between the ages of 9 and 18 who are both developmentally delayed or have experienced trauma. The project, at a cost of $16 million, will allow for the creation of seven brand new homes, increasing residential capacity from 36 to 42 youth.

Lawmakers also passed a similar expansion targeted at gun manufacturers and retailers in their spring session. Attorney General Kwame Raoul pushed for both expansions of the state’s consumer fraud law, which allows anyone – including the attorney general’s office – to file suit against CPCs. Raoul declined to discuss whether his staff is currently considering lawsuits against any CPCs whose tactics have already been reported to his office.

Perhaps most strikingly, IDES sent tens of millions of dollars to jailed and dead people through both regular unemployment insurance and the PUA program. Overall, auditors found that 3,448 people who were incarcerated received 92,811 payments totaling $40.5 million while 10,527 payments totaling $6 million were given to 481 deceased individuals.

Senate Bill 1909 allows the Illinois Attorney General to shut down pregnancy resource centers in Illinois when the AG finds the center has engaged in, is engaging in, or is about to engage in any practice declared unlawful. They can impose a fee of up to $50,000 on the company.

With the help of an estimated $17.7 million in state tax credits, the Prysmian Group manufacturing plant in Du Quoin will expand by 100,000 square feet and add 80 new jobs, bringing the workforce to approximately 300.

Cook County “always had this reputation to be extremely lenient, and to not really support law and order to the extent that the rest of the state does,” retired Riverside Police Chief Tom Weitzel said. “The city of Chicago probably gets enough personnel to comply with whatever the courts put in. But you’re going see a lot of dissatisfaction in the job, and you’re going to see police officers say, ‘why even bother.’”

Gov. JB Pritzker has said he is “creating an economy that works for everyone,” but the state’s job growth ranked in the bottom half of the nation during Pritzker’s first term. As of June 2023, Illinois remains one of just 13 states with fewer jobs than in January 2020, before the pandemic. Just 10 of those states have been slower to recover jobs than Illinois.

Saying the Illinois Supreme Court has offered little more than “bluster,” another panel of Illinois state appellate judges has called for action to rein in repeat abuses by Illinois state lawmakers, who regularly appear to outright ignore the state constitution’s rules requiring them to give time for fellow lawmakers and the people to learn the content of new laws before they are enacted.

“Working with 23 of my fellow attorneys general, we took action to support the Biden administration’s proposed rule changes to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule. If implemented, the administration’s amendments would make it illegal to share a patient’s medical information if it is being sought for criminal or civil investigations in connection with the patient seeking a legal abortion or other reproductive care.”

Among the missteps by the Illinois Department of Employment Security were millions of dollars sent to people who were either in prison or dead, according to the report, which is the auditor general’s fullest accounting yet of massive fraud and overpayments that occurred as the state was flooded with jobless claims. The report noted that $2.8 billion is classified as identity theft, money that is not considered recoverable since it can’t be collected from the identity theft victim.

“But, in ecological and legal terms, the Lake Michigan supply is not limitless. The U.S. Supreme Court mandates the Illinois diversion from the lake at a 40-year average of 2.1 billion gallons a day, or 3,200 cubic feet per second. If Joliet and members of its consortium hit the upper end of the limit promised in the Chicago deal, then the Illinois diversion limit will be met and other communities could be left high and dry.”

The auditor said the Illinois Department of Employment Security delayed implementing fraud prevention tools the U.S. Department of Labor suggested, “because other IT-related projects were deemed to be of greater urgency during the pandemic.” Wednesday’s report shows the state made $5.2 billion in overpayments and made

“The Democrats in Springfield are allowing the successful Invest in Kids scholarship program to expire. The program has helped thousands of students from low-income families enroll in good schools.”

Last year, 38,649 vehicles were reported stolen in the Land of Lincoln. Police say about half of these vehicle thefts occur due to driver error, which includes forgetting to lock doors and leaving keys in the ignition or on seats.

Last year, Gov. JB Pritzker gave $1 million each to two then-Supreme Court Justice candidates, Elizabeth Rochford and Mary O’Brien. They won their seats on the high court and later refused to recuse themselves in a challenge of Illinois’ gun ban, legislation Pritzker signed. In March, Kenneth Mayle, an electrical engineer living in Chicago, filed a complaint with the Judicial Inquiry Board.

House Bill 2831 codifies an executive order the governor signed in 2021 that centralizes programs across 17 state departments and agencies to develop and implement a comprehensive plan to combat homelessness. Christine Haley, the state’s current chief homelessness officer and chair of the interagency task force, said Black people and other people of color are disproportionately affected by homelessness.

In another shift that starts Sept. 1, many driver’s services facilities will also change their days of operation from Tuesday through Saturday to Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Sixteen facilities statewide will be open from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturdays.

This statement from Vermilion County State’s Attorney Jacqueline Lacy says, in part, “I firmly believe that this decision will be a detriment to the criminal justice system and the People of Vermilion County…(T)he legislature has now been given the power to change the Illinois Constitution without putting forth a referendum to the voters of the State of Illinois.”

In Illinois, GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan said, drivers are subjected to the ninth-worst gas pump prices in the country. “If you do head into Wisconsin, the statewide average is about $0.70 lower in Wisconsin than it stands in Chicago,” he said. “…(H)eading downstate into Indiana you’ll still find [the] price is $0.25 – $0.30 lower than Chicago.”

Jim Dey: “People can be imprisoned, corporations can not. Despite that, the news sparked public conversations about whether ComEd got off with a hand slap. The utility doesn’t have a hand to slap. But those who acted on the utility’s behalf are getting hammered.”

Gov. JB Pritzker and the state’s largest public employee union have agreed on a new contract that will provide a nearly 18 percent pay raise over four years, including a 4 percent raise this year; the contract also expands parental leave to 12 weeks. The contract is projected to cost an additional $204 million in the first year and $625 million over four years.

J. Pharoah Doss: “At some point in time, it must be asked: when does the statute of limitations expire on historical burdens when temporary policies were put in place to address the lingering effects of slavery, segregation, and discrimination?”

“You know what I think the number one reason that people leave Illinois is? I think it’s the way we structure our estate tax,” said Koehler. “I talked with somebody who is a retired teacher who said their accountant tells them if they really want to pass on their family wealth they really need to move to another state. That’s driving a lot of decisions. We really need to address that.”

“We know that changing the gender marker is more complicated than just flipping a switch, and it will have significant impacts on law enforcement, medical professionals and the court systems across the state,” Illinois Secretary of State spokesman Henry Haupt said. It’s unclear how such a change would affect the federal crime database as well.

While there are some parts of the bill he and other GOP lawmakers agree with, such as officers wearing cameras and new training mandates, Caulkins said there’s a reason why so many in law enforcement stand opposed to it on the whole. “It’s only going to result in criminals who should be held in jail being right back on the street where they can continue a life of crime and even go after witnesses that might stand up to them,”

“From central Illinois south, we’ve got… what looks to be a major drought occurring. This is a way for farmers to help themselves. They are folks who oppose crop insurance. We just have to negotiate through all the fine points,” U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth said. Farmers pay for crop insurance, though a bulk of payouts come from the federal government.

“The purpose of our education system is to educate children,” state Rep. Blaine Wilhour said. “We need to embrace and support programs that actually work. The teachers’ unions hate the Invest in Kids program because they are embarrassed. The Invest in Kids program highlights the failures of the Chicago Public Schools, which is why they are so adamantly opposed to it.”

Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski told The Center Square, “I think the issue is Pritzker and many leaders aligned with him count on the support of the unions and this is what that group gets in exchange for that support, big pensions, big benefits and an unreformed system. Democrats don’t want to upset their biggest supporters, they’d rather continue to tax, cut services and look for federal bailouts.”

The city has long been a haven for housing affordability, typifying the less expensive Midwestern housing markets. Over the past year, the metro experienced a roughly 20% increase in foreclosure filings.

While the National Voter Registration Act mandates that states make “all records” related to programs used to ensure accurate voter rolls be made “available for public inspection,” Illinois purportedly stonewalled the Illinois Conservative Union and three voters’ efforts to access such information by making them view the database “one record at a time, on a single computer screen, during ‘normal business hours.’” Plaintiffs were also allegedly required to travel to Springfield in order to view the records.

Franklin County Sheriff Kyle Bacon relays the risks associated with ending cash bail in The Prairie State, especially as it relates to drug offenses.

The most common offense is theft, comprising nearly 48% of 1,468 offenses over six years. Assaults are the second-most frequent crime at 26.4%, followed by batteries at 13%. The department recorded two homicides and eight rapes over the six-year period.

“It is amazing to me that, on the one hand, our state leaders are spending money we don’t have to educate kids whose parents are not legally supposed to be here, but they won’t extend the Invest in Kids program, which has helped so many kids escape failing schools and get the kind of education they deserve,” state Rep. Brad Halbrook said. “We are denying education opportunities for Illinois citizens while using taxpayers to make a political statement on immigration policy. It is time for our leaders to lead and put the needs of Illinois citizens first.”

“The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency had more than enough time to address the situation and engage fully with commenters and their alternative proposals,” the resolution from the the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules said. “By waiting to comply with the federal requirements until 2022 the agency created a situation that could only be remedied in time to meet the federal sanctions deadline by using the fast tracked process and prevented the consideration of less costly alternative proposals.”

While the state-commissioned report focused on infrastructure issues, it also highlighted other problems that make the situation even more urgent — an elderly prison population and extreme short staffing, with around a quarter of positions vacant.

“Historically, Illinois has over-relied on local property taxes to fund K-12 education, effectively tying educational quality to local property wealth…This has created a highly segregated public school system that for generations has put many Black children at a disadvantage compared to their white peers. Black kids simply have had less opportunity to develop the numeracy/literacy skills needed to do well on standardized tests and thus punch a ticket into an elite university.”

The Underground Railroad had four significant routes through Illinois. Senate Bill 1623 convenes a 10-member, statewide Underground Railroad Task Force to develop ideas about how to make this Illinois history better known.

Cities like New York and Chicago have dismissed concerns from border states in recent years, but now they are raising the alarm that they cannot handle the flood of migrants. “What people are feeling is that the people who have been in these neighborhoods for generations, they have been treated inhumanely by the same government that is making efforts to provide good care to the asylum seekers,” state Rep. La Shawn Ford said.

Opponents could be forced to allow pipelines to run under their properties if Navigator’s application for eminent domain is approved by the Illinois Commerce Commission. Under eminent domain, private property can be taken for public use against the owner’s wishes but with proper compensation.

SB 90 also codifies a district’s failure to take remedial or disciplinary action against someone who is known to have committed harassment as a civil rights violation.

Rebekah Paxton, director of research at the nonprofit Employment Policies Institute, said one-flat-wage states see lower tips and some workers will most likely lose their jobs.

Jim Dey: “Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart recently asked the legislature to repeal the law it passed allowing those serving home confinement sentences free time away from home…Too many of them, he said, used their free times to commit new crimes. That’s going to happen under bond abolition, and it will create a new problem.”

The sales tax holiday, which brought the tax rate down from 6.25% to 1.25%, was only approved for 2022 and won’t be coming back this year, according to a spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Revenue. Families with children in elementary through high school will spend an average of $890.07 – approximately $25 more than last year’s record of $864.35 and a new high, according to the National Retail Federation.

Gov. JB Pritzker suspended it from July 1, 2022, until July 1, 2023. It just resumed, so Illinois is again one of 13 states with a grocery tax and the only one among the 10 most populous states. Inflation was Pritzker’s primary reason for the temporary relief, but food prices are still on the rise.

The caucus said, in part, in a prepared statement, “The stated purpose of the ALA is to ‘promote library service and librarianship,’ but increasingly the organization has become more focused on advancing a woke agenda.”

Fashion designer Christian Dior, which achieved a rare legal feat in beating back a class action lawsuit under Illinois’ biometrics privacy law, is asking a federal court to order the plaintiffs to pay some of its legal bills. BIPA lawsuits, brought by the thousands in the past eight years, now crown courtrooms in Chicago and elsewhere because lawyers are seeking big paydays, using the threat of damages that the Illinois Supreme Court itself has described as “annihilative” to businesses, Dior’s attorneys wrote.

IFT spent a total of $49,719,191 in 2022, according to the document the union filed with the U.S. Department of Labor. Yet just $12,972,199 was on “representational activities,” which the Department explains are activities “associated with preparation for, and participation in, the negotiation of collective bargaining agreements and the administration and enforcement of the agreements.” The rest was spent on politics, administration and other union leadership priorities.

“But the release of the Supreme Court’s Commission on Pretrial Practices report in April of 2020 that recommended abolishing cash bail; the massive George Floyd protests in the summer of that year, along with insistence from activists that the Legislature needed to take action; then-House Speaker Michael Madigan’s desperation to remain in power by locking in support from a long-frustrated Black Caucus; a billionaire governor sympathetic to their cause during what was essentially a closed-off, round-the-clock winter session held in the midst of a deadly worldwide pandemic; and a dysfunctional and unfeared minority party, all combined to pass this highly

Officials from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services said they continue to work on the issue with stakeholders. State Rep. Steve Reick said they’ve heard that before. “I don’t think you folks belong in this business,” Reick said. “This is not part of your portfolio. Your portfolio is to protect the safety of children. Not to license day care centers.”

Getting paid not to work also seems to be a popular policy in blue states this year. For example, Illinois joined two other blue states — Nevada, whose legislature is controlled by Democrats, and Maine — in passing a law earlier this year that requires employers to provide paid time off to their employees, regardless of the reason. As if high crime and taxes aren’t enough, employers in Chicago and the rest of Illinois now have lots of new regulations to deal with. In addition to the mandated time off they have to provide (mentioned above), they now face new

“Those are staggering numbers and the very reason why we need the openness and transparency in an effort to clean up these voter rolls, again, just another step to try and restore faith in the system, in the election system, for the voters of Illinois,” state Rep. Brad Halbrook said.

Gov. JB Pritzker said the state’s clean energy initiatives, and CEJA in particular, have become big selling points when marketing Illinois to an international audience. “(I)n the U.K. and across Europe, the idea that we are focused on (being) fossil fuel-free by 2050 … is quite important to them,” he said. “When they think about states – Mississippi or, you know, I could name lots of states that don’t have climate policy – they know that their customers expect them to be producing products using clean energy, and that can’t be done, or at least not enough of it, in

Several board members said they don’t like the fact that a new state law, effective in January, made project approval all but inevitable by removing most county-level zoning authority over commercial wind and solar projects. “They’ve taken away our options,” board member Annette Fulgenzi said.

In a blow to Illinois businesses, the Court denied White Castle’s petition for rehearing and upheld the standard that BIPA claims accrue upon each scan or transmission. The Court copied its previous analysis in rejecting White Castle’s practical argument concerning the potential for massive damages awards of BIPA, again stating that “where statutory language is clear, it must be given effect, ‘even though the consequences may be harsh, unjust, absurd or unwise.’”

Illinois ranked as the worst state because its financial report received a disclaimer opinion, in essence flunking its audit. The state’s auditors found Illinois did not maintain adequate accounting records and documents for its Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund and did not provide safeguards for the fund’s assets. (Downloadable PDF)

“She brought accountability and transparency to municipal finance in a way that is so critically important in this moment,” said Jennie Huang-Bennett, Chicago’s chief financial officer under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot. “And between the passing of Laurence Msall and Yvette, it’s an enormous hole that we have to fill.”

Sheriff Jeff Bullard of Jefferson County said law enforcement and attorneys will be the ones who bear the brunt of these changes. “We did our job. We arrested them, incarcerated them,” Bullard said, “and then the state’s attorney makes the argument that they should be remanded for trial, and the judge, based on the SAFE-T Act guidelines, says, ‘Now I’m forced to let them go.’ That’s going to increase crime victim frustration … and we share that frustration with them.”

A proposal gaining bipartisan support could require the Comptroller and Treasurer to transfer $500 million from the general revenue fund to the pension unfunded liability reduction fund annually. House Bill 4098 would also make changes to the Tier 2 pension plan for people hired after 2011.

“A recent letter addressed to Fortune 100 CEOs, sent under the signature of 13 Republican state attorneys general, purported to remind corporate leaders of their obligations under federal and state law to refrain from discriminating on the basis of race….The letter’s suggestion that a private employer’s diversity and inclusion program may constitute discrimination is, in a word, ludicrous.”

Former GOP House member Mark Batnick: “Illinois’ economic racial equity ranks worst in the nation, according to a recent WalletHub study.Despite a rich history of minority representation and executive leadership at the highest levels of federal, state and local government, Illinois minority families are materially worse off here than in any other state. How could that be? Unintended consequences.

National experts say schools should have one psychologist for every 500 students. However, Illinois schools have an average of one psychologist per 1,290 students. And the Illinois Association of School Nurses told a House education committee Thursday that there is currently no accurate data to show who is caring for children in schools.

It was expected the Illinois General Assembly would address the law during the recently concluded spring session, but that didn’t happen.

Responding to perceived conflicts of interest from the governor’s $1 million donation to each of two Supreme Court justices from when they were running for the job in 2022, state Rep. Steve McClure argued ending cash bail would lose if put up to the voters. “I’m sorry, but those two justices should not be ruling on any case involving any major piece of legislation involving Gov. Pritzker. Period,” McClure said.

Illinois has dealt with welfare fraud issues. The Chicago Public School District faced “persistent and widespread fraud” by highly-paid employees taking advantage of food stamp and state-subsidized health care benefits by underreporting their income, according to a 2022 annual report from the district’s Office of Inspector General.

The program has at least 60% support from each main political ideology, with independents most in favor at 67%. Invest in Kids allows more than 9,600 low-income Illinois students to attend a school that best fits their needs, with thousands more on a wait list.

The Enlist Act would aid recruitment efforts by expanding the Department of Defense’s authority to enlist individuals who have lived in the U.S. for at least five years and meet all of the services’ qualifications for military service. This bill would allow enlistment of DACA recipients; people who have Temporary Protected Status (TPS); and people who have an approved petition for an immigrant visa.

She joined the Bond Buyer in 1997, where she led Midwest coverage and over a nearly 26-year career steadfastly built an exemplary body of work that reflected her ethics of hard work and fair, thoughtful treatment of sources and subjects. Her prolific output and scores of sources left an influential mark on the public finance industry in the Midwest and across the country.

Teacher Dan Stone’s data science class at Lane Tech High School this past spring was looking for a final project when they came across fentanyl. Students teamed up with the Chicago Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration. Some of those students now support a bill passed by the Illinois legislature that would mandate fentanyl education in high school health courses starting in 2024.

Under the three-year pilot program, resident tuition will be offered to students in St. Charles and St. Louis counties in Missouri, including much of the St. Louis metropolitan area, and Scott County in Iowa, which includes the Davenport area. It is part of UIS’ efforts to attract more out-of-state students to grow its enrollment and better compete in areas that border Illinois.

The source of the opposition is no surprise when middle- and lower-income families give up a greater share of their household budgets to gas.

Scott Grams, of the Illinois Landscape Contractors Association: “Allowing Illinois and other states to opt into a lawful, orderly and efficient temporary program to meet workforce needs in critical industries would be a huge boon for employers, immigrant workers and American consumers alike.”

Jim Sey: “State Sen. Robert Peters called the court’s ruling (on the SAFE-T Act) ‘a historic civil-rights victory.’ He castigated the critics of bond abolition as ‘right-wingers who don’t care about people’s safety and play dirty politics with people’s lives.’ His only-terrible-people-disagree-with-me rhetoric reflects the direction of Illinois’ political wind. The uber-progressives are in charge, and they have nothing but contempt for those who don’t share their views.”

“But the court’s decision was a valid one. The legislature passed a stupid, iniquitous, and outright civically dangerous law — but a constitutional one. It is not the place of the state supreme court to overturn it merely because subsequent sobriety makes many in the world of electoral politics (Democratic electoral politics, mind you) quietly wish they would wave a magic wand and disappear a disastrous bender of competitively escalatory virtue-signaling with a single opinion, sparing them the consequences of their intoxicated reverie.”

The letter was in response to a previous letter sent by 13 Republican Attorneys General who warned that Fortune 100 companies could face legal action for using race as a factor in hiring or employment. “They should not be sending letters trying to intimidate employers into abandoning efforts to embrace diversifying the workplace,” Attorney General Kwame Raoul said.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin has been calling for the Supreme Court to adopt an enforceable code of conduct for more than a decade. “Every other federal judge, federal employee, member of Congress, member of the administration, all of us are bound by the code of ethics and by disclosure requirements, but the Supreme Court said it doesn’t count,” Durbin said.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal triggered an uproar when she said in Chicago last Saturday that Israel is a “racist nation.” She issued a retraction Sunday; She was trying, Jayapal was trying, she said, to “defuse a tense situation” where “fellow members of Congress were being protested,” though it was only Rep. Jan Schakowsky who was targeted by the pro-Palestinian protesters.

“You don’t snap your fingers and these things happen. … We need to do more,” Pritzker said of his efforts to court businesses in the U.K. and elsewhere. “Illinois needs to do more on the international scene. So this is another step in that direction.” Pritzker said he foresees more overseas trips, including possibly to Mexico and South America. He said he’s been invited to visit Israel and that

Guns Save Life Founder John Boch filed a lawsuit against the state in 2019 because he feels it is unconstitutional for Illinois to require people to have a license and pay a fee before they can buy guns. There are multiple lawsuits before circuit and state courts regarding the FOID card and assault weapons ban.

State Rep. Steven Reick said that this is the first time since he’s been in office that a plan for addressing pensions has been formed. “We’re starting, and that is something that hasn’t been done since I’ve been in the General Assembly,” Reick said. “We’ve actually taken the bull by the horns and have started to actually make plans for how we are going to fix this thing.”

During a virtual press conference Wednesday from London, Gov. JB Pritzker talked about the intent to pursue a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the UK to advance trade and economic development goals: “It really covers a big, broad swath of industries. We have over 850 UK companies that are already doing business in Illinois with 90,000 Illinoisans who are employed by UK-owned companies.”

Sen. Cristina Castro, an Elgin Democrat and member of the Illinois Legislative Latino Caucus, said that the Department of Healthcare and Family Services failed to consult stakeholders in the immigrant advocacy community when developing the rules. On the Republican side, Rep. Steven Reick said that the rules represented an “abdication” of the General Assembly’s responsibility and that they should have been considered in legislation, not in administrative policy.

Gov. JB Pritzker and others are touting Illinois’ financial improvements, but a new report by Equable Institute shows just how little improvement has been made on Illinois’ biggest financial problem – pension debt. Not only are Illinois’ pension systems most likely to default, the state has the lowest capacity to pay the debt compared to other states.

Our Wirepoints column republished.

The social media giant, which has already paid $400 each to Illinois Facebook users, has agreed to pay $68.5 million to settle claims regarding its Instagram platform, according to court records filed in DuPage County Circuit Court.

Between August 2021 and March 2022, the two men being charged worked together to steal catalytic converters from vehicles in Cook, DuPage, Kane, Will, DeKalb, Lake, McHenry, and Winnebago counties, according to Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office. They are accused of stealing more than 35 catalytic converters.

The new law will mean major changes in court operations. For example, state’s attorneys will have to present more information and evidence to hold someone in jail. They will also have to notify victims of detention hearings. And many predict that without the cudgel of pre-trial detention, fewer defendants will strike plea deals, meaning more criminal trials. All that will take more resources.

The change repeals existing language that allowed factories, refineries, power plants and other facilities to exceed their emission limits during shutdowns, startups, and malfunctions. The previous rules also gave the owners of those facilities a certain level of immunity from civil lawsuits.

DeWitt County Sheriff Mike Walker echoed other law enforcement officials, saying, “I think (the decision) was expected just simply because of the political climate in Illinois.” But his chief concern is that the new system will hurt counties financially — not because defendants won’t have to post cash to leave jail, he said, but because it could strain county offices after hours and on the weekends. He said the change is going to cause staffing issues and require guards to be posted at the courthouses on the weekends.

“The Illinois Constitution of 1970 does not mandate that monetary bail is the only means to ensure criminal defendants appear for trials or the only means to protect the public,” Justice Mary Jane Theis wrote in the ruling Tuesday. “Our constitution creates a balance between the individual rights of defendants and the individual rights of crime victims. The Act’s pretrial release provisions set forth procedures commensurate with that balance.”

Jim Dey: “(Champaign County State’s Attorney Julia Rietz) said the abolition of bond will make it much harder to collect fines and court costs from defendants convicted of crimes. Under the current system, the judiciary can take fines and court costs out of a defendant’s bond, if there is one. That will no longer be the case, creating a collection issue that Rietz said will be difficult. ‘The county board and the legislature are going to have to address these issues,’ she said.”

“The responsibility of this goes a lot higher than you folks,” state Rep. Steven Reick told IDHS officials. “This is another instance of a governor who thinks he can run this state on his own. First, he did it with his forty-something disaster declarations, and now he is doing it with emergency rule.”

Illinois Sheriffs’ Association President Jim Kaitschuk said the end of cash bail will require more resources for law enforcement on the streets. “We’re gonna have people that instead of issuing warrants in a lot of cases, a summons to appear will be the case and the process for us being able to deliver them, it’s going to be a lot more workload put on the sheriffs’ office moving forward.”

The state said its Illinois Shines program can’t be called a rebate, but it certainly sounds like one: install solar panels using an Illinois Shines-approved vendor and get a chunk of money back; Incentives are supposed to flow through the vendor. “They never should have set up a program like this so that a third party like the contractor could get all that money, and then they’re responsible for paying us,” said one customer, waiting on a $15,000 incentive.

Other states, red and blue, have tried limited versions of what Illinois is about to do. That has made it difficult to know exactly what to expect. Risk assessments have become one of the most popular pretrial reforms nationally, the Harvard researchers found, and they play an important role when cash bail is no longer required. “Everyone wants to be safe,” said Insha Rahman with the Vera Institute of Justice. “It’s a kitchen table issue.”

The court’s full opinion is linked here.

This compilation of responses from Gov. JB Pritzker, Rep. Mary Miller, Senate President Don Harmon and others includes a statement from Attorney General Kwame Raoul which reads, in part, “With the court’s decision today, the elimination of cash bail will soon take effect. Other parts of the act, not challenged by the plaintiffs, also remain in effect and will have a positive impact within the state. This includes my office’s authority to conduct pattern-and-practice investigations of civil rights violations by law enforcement and improvements to the police officer certification process that create uniformity for departments across the state, promote professionalism

State Rep. David Friess argued recent case law on the issue is suspect. “If radical case law pertaining to sex and gender identity prevails, the inescapable result will be the eradication of all sex-segregated private spaces for everyone.”

Mark Hanna , Jack Lavin, Mike Murphy and Keith Staats: “The cumulative effect of perimeter rule flips dramatically increased traffic to far-west destinations intent on expanding their tourism and conference industries at the expense of traditional conference destinations, such as Chicago’s McCormick Place. More than 3,000 associations are based in Washington, D.C., and many hold an annual conference.” The perimeter rule regulates certain prized air traffic routes.

A group of Wall Street banks are set to avoid a long-awaited trial in Illinois over charges of inflating interest rates on the state’s variable-rate debt after a Cook County judge Monday granted the banks’ motion to vacate the trial in light of a proposed settlement with the state.

The Governor and President of the University of Illinois system, Dr. Timothy Killeen, met with Sir Gerry McCormac, of the University of Stirling, and Sir Peter Mathieson, of the University to Edinburgh. Gov. JB Pritzker talked about opportunities to strengthen the transatlantic connection between post-secondary institutions in the United Kingdom and Illinois.

Under the new law, developers who apply to the Illinois Solar for All program are required to pay the prevailing wage on solar projects that receive renewable energy credits. The law provides exemptions for residential buildings and small projects on houses of worship.

Paul Arena, of the Illinois Rental Property Owners Association, said Illinois is not landlord-friendly, so fewer are remaining in the industry. “The state legislates us like they’re angry at us, like we’re a constant problem and a nuisance, so there is little regard given in the state legislature for the point of view of the small housing provider.”

State Rep. Ryan Spain said the $200 million fine the utility paid doesn’t offset the $2 billion the company got for their shareholders, and he doesn’t hold out much hope substantive ethics reforms will be championed at the Statehouse. “And maybe they will never take it seriously, because how much worse does it have to get.”

Monday’s dismissal comes three years after federal prosecutors first announced a deferred prosecution agreement with the utility, in which ComEd admitted to arranging jobs, contracts and payoffs to Madigan associates, some of whom did little or no work for the company, from 2011 to 2019 in order to win influence and curry favor with Madigan. ComEd previously agreed to pay a $200 million fine as part of that agreement.

Bill Broderick, of America First Group: “Whether by means of incompetence, corruption or bad decision making, the political class has created a financial disaster.”

So far in 2023, casinos brought in nearly $96 million in tax revenue for the state and nearly $35 million for local governments, according to the Illinois Gaming Board. For comparison, the state’s 45,000 video gaming terminals at bars and restaurants brought in $353 million for the state and nearly $61 million for local governments.

Illinois, the sixth most populous U.S. state with 12.5 million residents, was one of six states that had undercounts of its population, according to the Census Bureau. Among the omissions were residents in nursing homes, dorms, homeless shelters, residential treatment facilities and jails, the governor said in one of two letters submitted to the Census Bureau. “Because of an inaccurate census count, the state of Illinois received inadequate federal funding for Medicare, affordable housing, homeland security and a number of other essential programs,” said Alex Gough, a spokesperson for the governor’s office.

He says, of the U.S. Supreme Court, “…the highest court in the land, the lowest standard of ethics.”

The Semrad Law Firm, which advertises as DebtStoppers, got millions in taxpayer-backed PPP loans while cutting U.S. staff and employing a Bulgarian company in which the law firm’s leaders have an ownership stake.

Jim Dey: “Pritzker said he wants to let ‘the world know Illinois is the best place to live, work and do business.’ That might be a tough sell for a state with a multitude of problems, including a reputation as unfriendly to business investment and expansion.”

“Illinois operates seven centers that are home to about 1,600 residents and run from the bottom to the top of the state. They have been the subject of roughly 200 criminal investigations into employee misconduct since 2012…But it’s a sad state of affairs when cameras are required to protect residents of these facilities from those who are supposed to be looking out for their welfare. Under the category of ‘particularly surprising’ comes the news that chieftains have retained the top three managers at Choate after promising, among other things, new leadership.”

“’The politics of it, we are weak right now. We are weak to the world. I hate to say it, but this administration is.’ (McCarthy said.)…We talked of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx who does not like prosecuting criminals and putting repeat violent offenders in prison lest they attack others. We talked of the difference of the Sen. Joe Biden who was once tough on crime

In a new filing with the Illinois Supreme Court, former Commonwealth Edison CEO Anne Pramaggiore contends she engaged in no wrongdoing despite a jury’s unanimous verdict against her in a nine-count criminal indictment: “the jury verdicts can be equally understood as findings that [she] engaged in entirely legal conduct.”

Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed several bills last month aimed at reducing plastic and polystyrene use. Two other bills environmental advocates say are important steps to improving reusable systems and minimizing waste are still awaiting his signature.

“Now, a June 2023 audit reveals officials at the Illinois Department of Employment Security ignored their own long-standing rules in sending checks to virtually anyone who asked…This report is just the latest in a series of embarrassing revelations showing state administrators failing to do their jobs correctly. Whether it’s the departments of Employment Security, Veterans’ Affairs, Human Services or Children and Family Services, administrative failures are intolerably routine.”

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2,247,000 people in Illinois aged 12 and up have reportedly used marijuana in the last year – or 21.0% of the 12 and older population, the 16th highest usage rate among states.

Sheila Weinberg of Truth in Accounting said that the state has too many outstanding bills to have a true budget surplus. “The state continuously does not pay its pension payments,” Weinberg said. “I would say that, is the state really running a budget surplus of more than $700 million if they are not contributing the proper amount into their pension?”

Illinois State Rep. Dan Ugaste said this is a red flag for businesses in the state. “It tells businesses they probably don’t want to locate here because if they go to another state it won’t be as burdensome and won’t be as costly,” he said. Illinois is consistently near the top in American Tort Reform Association’s “Judicial Hellhole” list.

Illinois faces a deadline next month to either change the way it enforces air pollution emission limits on heavy industries or face federal sanctions that could eventually result in restricted access to billions of dollars in federal highway funding.

The conditional winners announced this week must prove their eligibility under criteria that include coming from an economically disadvantaged area or having a prior low-level cannabis conviction, either personally or in their immediate family; Victims of gun violence are also eligible. But many social equity license holders haven’t been able to raise enough money to open. While the state awarded 192 new licenses in 2022, only 27 social equity-owned stores have opened.

She said of the spring legislative session, “I was happy that we were able to come to the table and have some discussions …but as for the specific things we asked for, we didn’t get.”

Though 988 is a national initiative connecting those in distress with assistance, each state is charged with finding its own path to implementation. In Illinois the suicide-related death rate was 11% in 2021 when 1,454 persons took their own lives, the CDC website said.

Rick Heidner and Alisa Heidner, who run one of the biggest state-licensed video gambling enterprises in Illinois, have been slapped with a $5 million lien by the IRS, which says they have failed to pay that much in past-due federal income taxes.

Retired Riverside Police Chief Thomas Weitzel: “An ivory-tower chief is no longer acceptable. The police chief or police executive needs to be hands-on, attend roll calls, and mentor their officers. They need to demonstrate day-to-day how the department should respond to situations compassionately.”

The law was part of several pieces of legislation Pritzker signed last month, including another law aimed at giving undocumented immigrants access to state drivers licenses.

The state of Illinois has reached a tentative $68 million settlement with a group of Wall Street banks accused of fixing interest rates on the state’s variable-rate demand bonds, but the plaintiff that filed the lawsuit called it a “fake settlement” designed to stall a looming trial date.

As officials talk business overseas, Chris Davis of the National Federation of Independent Businesses said that small businesses are still dealing with issues at home. “Those messages need to be sold. However, it would be nice to see some attention to the workforce issues here in Illinois and the cost of doing business here in Illinois.”

Since 2010, teachers unions have funneled more than $45 million to current lawmakers in the Illinois General Assembly, with the Chicago Teachers Union alone spending nearly $3 million.

“Pritzker’s current tone signals all but a death knell for the program. It’s likely the state legislature, which is heavily financed by teachers union leaders who vehemently oppose Invest in Kids, will give Pritzker a phased-out program giving him cover to minimize the anger from the thousands of families who will be hurt if Invest in Kids gets killed.”

The banks have offered to pay the state $68 million, according to an attorne representing the plaintiff side. The proposal comes as Bank of America, Barclays Capital Inc., BMO Financial Corp., William Blair & Co. LLC, Citigroup Inc., Fifth Third Bancorp, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley were expected to go to trial in Illinois next month to face allegations they inflated the interest rates on certain types of municipal bonds to discourage investors from returning them for cash and colluded in setting the rates.

As he did during a trip to the U.K. in 2021 and to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, earlier this year, Pritzker — Illinois’ self-appointed “chief marketing officer” — is expected to tout the state’s ambitious plans for electric vehicle and clean energy development, along with the economic benefits of its central location in the U.S. and its logistics infrastructure. The governor’s office was unable to give specific examples of businesses that chose to relocate to Illinois or expand in the state as a result of those earlier trips.

A little bit of the pain was spared the past two years during these shopping trips thanks to a sales tax holiday in Illinois. For 10 days in august, the state lowered the sales tax on back to school supplies from 6.25 percent to just 1.25 percent. But this year, that didn’t happen. “We were hopeful that they would extend those tax breaks for gas and groceries. Especially during this time our kids are getting ready to go back to school,” state Sen. Sally Turner said.

COVID filled state government coffers; now, fiscal deficits abound. What should state and local officials do? Guest David Schleicher is a Yale law prof and an expert on government insolvency.

Developers say the job – a $400 million, 775,000-square-foot distribution facility – is projected to be done by 2025, bringing more than 150 jobs to the region.

Jim Dey: “Federal appeals courts have reached different conclusions as to what constitutes bribery under federal law. In the 7th Circuit, prosecutors can either show a quid pro quo — ‘I’ll do this if you’ll do that’ — or ‘corrupt intent’ — ‘I’ll do this in the expectation that he’ll do that.’ The dispute among federal circuits ultimately will have to be resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court, and the ComEd conspiracy could be the vehicle to get it there.”

“(Gov. JB Pritzker) took it even further this year when (Florida Gov. Ron) DeSantis challenged an Advanced Placement African American studies course for including ‘Black Queer Studies’ in its curriculum. Pritzker wrote the College Board, the organization that administers the SAT test and AP courses, urging it to reject DeSantis’ demands. DeSantis has fought back, condemning Michigan’s Covid shutdowns and slamming Pritzker for Illinois losing residents to the Sunshine State.”

Saying no state court has ever seen a case like this, the director of the Illinois State Police Merit Board is asking a state appeals court in Springfield to ignore what she says is an attempt by Illinois’ Attorney General Kwame Raoul to kill off a politically embarrassing lawsuit against a former Merit Board employee, who is accused of using her connections to Raoul’s political ally, Gov. JB Pritzker, to further her alleged schemes to defraud the state of more than $500,000 of public money.

The Act limits employers’ ability to consider criminal convictions in hiring and employment decisions, requires them to obtain a registration certificate to show compliance with federal and state equal pay laws and imposes new requirements for reporting workforce demographics to the Illinois Secretary of State.

Auditor General Frank Mautino’s office found IDES didn’t create an audit trail to properly document claims according to federal standards, and that IDES lacked internal controls over financial accounting and reporting. “In our normal state unemployment system, if you had 15 applications from one house, our computers would have said no there’s something wrong. Flag this,” Mautino said. “If you’re self-certifying, that didn’t happen.”

“We need new leadership and directors. When you have a facility that has everything going on like Choate, and the director is still there, I think that’s a problem,” said state Rep. Charlie Meier. “We have gone on record asking for a new director, and we believe this should happen. We have to speed up the reevaluation of the Inspector General coming in and inspecting.”

“By federal recognition, much of the land making up Shabbona Lake is legally owed to the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation,” said state Rep. Mark Walker. “However, the land was taken and sold illegally nearly 200 years ago. Because the state now owns much of the Nation’s ancestral lands and the surrounding area, I believe it’s high time we correct this injustice and return the lands to their rightful owners.”

Prosecutors allege Michael Madigan and Michael McClain “arranged for a flood of corrupt payments and perks to be doled out to Madigan and his associates in exchange and as a reward for Madigan’s abuse of his official powers. Major corporations handed out more than one million dollars in bribes to Madigan’s cronies to secure Madigan’s assistance and favor with respect to the passage of legislation worth hundreds of millions to the companies.”

“…(L)ess than 16% of the Chicago Public School’s 300,000 minority students can read at grade level – including only 11% of Black students and 17% of Latino children. Yet in 2021, 100% of CPS teachers were ‘evaluated as excellent or proficient by an administrator.’ If our public education system is graduating students who cannot read and our internal assessments are validating teachers as excellent or proficient, we need to do better.”

The new law changes an existing statute to shift the burden from the prosecutor, to show that a child witness would be traumatized by testifying in court, to the defendant, to show a child wouldn’t be traumatized. It does come with a resource issue, however, requiring a closed-circuit television system Champaign County doesn’t currently have, according to county State’s Attorney Julia Rietz.

“Meanwhile, Democratic leadership in Chicago has pleaded with Abbott to halt the bussing of migrants from the southern border to their city because resources are limited to help them.”

“Here in Illinois, we recognize that gender transition is a personal journey that doesn’t always follow a prescriptive medical path, but still deserves to be honored legally,” Gov. JB Pritzker said in a statement announcing the bill being signed. Previous law required Illinois residents to provide certification from a health care professional that the individual had undergone gender reassignment surgery or other clinical treatment.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2024, protections go into place in the Illinois Human Rights Act for housing regarding immigration status and discriminatory advertising. The law will add immigration status as a protected class.

Jim Dey: “Volatility is again at issue because the (Illinois Commission on Government Forecasting & Accountability) reported that in June, ‘General Funds base receipts fell $110 million’ compared with the same month in 2022. Federal aid, which is dwindling in the aftermath of the pandemic, again came to the rescue.”

Said Chris Smith, operations director for Corn Belt Ports, “The passage of Rock Island Regional Port District legislation…sends a clear message of the importance of this area to regional and national supply chains…This was the only stretch of inland water in Illinois that has an interstate crossing but not a state recognized port.”

“Now that travel is easier post-COVID, the governor’s office is looking forward to planning more international trips, including to Asia, potentially Canada, and also Mexico,” spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh said. The United Kingdom is Illinois’ 9th largest export market, with Illinois exports to the nation totaling $1.94 billion in 2022.

The 65-page filing Tuesday comes as prosecutors are seeking to play many of the recordings at trial next month on charges that Tim Mapes, the indicted former chief of staff to ex-House Speaker Michael Madigan, lied to a federal grand jury investigating Madigan and his relationship with longtime confidant Michael McClain.

Gov. JB Pritzker said he’ll listen to both sides. “People who say, ‘well, actually it’s not costing taxpayers anything,’ Actually, it’s costing taxpayers 75% of the total amount that gets raised,” Pritzker said. “And so that’s something that I think some people who are budget conscious are paying attention to as well.”

All three administrators were previously indicted on felony charges in connection with their handling of an abuse allegation at the facility. In explaining her rationale for keeping the administrators, IDHS Secretary Grace Hou said in March: “We’ve weighed a lot of different perspectives, but I think we need a leader who knows Choate inside and out, who has relationships with the residents and the parents and the staff to lead us through this challenging transition.” Pritzker publicly backed Hou’s decision at the time.

People with developmental disabilities living in Illinois’ publicly run institutions have been punched, slapped, hosed down, thrown about and dragged across rooms; in other cases, staff failures contributed to patient harm and death, state police and internal investigative records show. The Illinois State Police division that looks into alleged criminal wrongdoing by state employees investigates more allegations against workers at these seven residential centers than it does at any other department’s workplaces, including state prisons, which house

Earnings nationwide rose 5.4% on average between the first quarters of 2022 and 2023, but much less in New York (2.6%), Indiana (2.6%), California (2.9%), Connecticut (3.4%), Rhode Island (3.6%), Maryland (4%), New Jersey (4.3%), Oregon (4.5%) and Illinois (4.6%). Meanwhile, earnings in the same period surged in North Dakota (9.7%), New Mexico (9.6%), Nevada (9.1%), Florida (9.1%), Nebraska (8.6%), Hawaii (8%), South Carolina (8%), Alaska (7.9%) and Texas (7.7%).

Starting next March 31, or 90 days after employment begins, workers can begin using their earned time off for any reason without having to provide documentation to their employer under the Paid Leave for Workers Act.

Illinois State Representative and former University of Illinois football player Kam Bucker has turned focus on gender equity, guaranteed education benefits and more to protect student-athletes moving forward. He hopes to get his bill passed during Springfield’s November veto session.

“I think we have to be really careful with all the money that is being spent,” said Ted Dabrowski of Wirepoints. “The state, the city, has spent a lot of money on programs, and they are very difficult to measure. They are difficult to find out what the right metrics are. Are they working or are they not working? Are these groups professional, and can these groups succeed?”

The swimmer “posted signs in protest in the women’s locker room reading, ‘Women’s Rights,’ ‘Biological Women Only,’ and ‘Safe Sport.’ Because of her signs, she was kicked off the swim team.” The Illinois Freedom Caucus called it an “outrageous decision of the Springfield YMCA to put young girls in danger by allowing biological men access to their changing rooms.”

Bill Redpath, of the Libertarian Party of Illinois: “If a third party wanted to run candidates for all U.S. House and Illinois House and Senate districts in 2024, it would take about 450,000 valid signatures — probably at least 675,000 total signatures — to be gathered in 90 days to get those candidates on the ballot. Include a statewide petition to put a presidential ticket on the ballot, and that number will increase to more than 700,000 total signatures, compared with about 130,000 total for Republicans and Democrats to qualify for the ballot in all districts and place their presidential

Tom Weitzel, former Riverside’s chief of police: “I had personal experience with the process as police chief in Riverside. We trained and designated one individual to oversee expungements. We complied with all court orders and notified the FBI — but the FBI often did not expunge the charge.”

Requests by parents to ask trans individuals to use the private bathrooms and send out an email informing the swim team of the policy were denied by the YMCA according to the young swimmer’s father. In a statement, the Illinois Freedom Caucus said they were proud of the high school student’s courage to share her experience with the public.

FY19 held the previous record for hotel revenues with $296 billion. FY23 holds a new record of $308 billion in hotel revenue. Gov. JB Pritzker said Illinois welcomed 111 million visitors who spent $44 billion in 2022.

The change will only apply to any new public buildings with an occupancy of over 100 people and properties that are 5,000 square feet or larger.

The hotel tax revenue number is still below pre-pandemic levels when factoring in inflation, but remains an important financial boost for a state that has leaned more heavily in recent years on taxes tied to tourism and the convention industry.

The delay was not unexpected — the Illinois secretary of state’s office said at the time the measure took effect that it would need until 2024 to accommodate the additional gender marker on IDs. But while the office now says it’s “ready to launch,” other entities affected by the change – including crime and healthcare databases – have expressed the need for more time.

“The researchers found that states with the more stringent pandemic restrictions had worse declines in economic output and higher rates of unemployment, and that children in those states lost more days of in-person schooling. These disruptions contributed to a substantial increase in domestic migration, the Paragon researchers found, as people escaped from the more restrictive states and moved to states with less stringent policies.”

The law also requires teachers, staff, and admin at schools with the kits to go through mental health training, which officials say will help them recognize warning signs, suicidal tendencies, signs of violence, and more. The trauma kit comes with a tourniquet, compression bandage, scissors, and more in case of a severe emergency.

The bill that has been on the governor’s desk since June 16 has its critics to include the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police. The FOP addressed the issue in a statement, writing that the main function of police officers is to enforce the law.

“The move comes as other states have rescinded similar bans and policymakers are taking a fresh look at nuclear as another alternative to generate energy without increasing carbon output. And while the legislation lifting the ban in Illinois moved relatively quietly through the General Assembly earlier this year, the effort has led labor unions and environmentalists — two groups that typically align with the Democrats who dominate Springfield — to be on opposite sides of the

In just two short years, Kane County has reduced by half the backlog of people languishing in jail for more than a year. Only one defendant has been detained for more than three years without trial. Meanwhile, in Cook, delays have only worsened; Some cases are now taking a decade or more to resolve.

Gov. JB Pritzker has signed SB 1817 into law, which will add “immigration status” as a protected class under the Illinois Human Rights Act. The law ensures that landlords across Illinois will be banned from refusing to rent or sell property to illegal aliens.

Jim Dey: “‘My style of public service has been driven by service to my constituents, and that has become lost in today’s political rhetoric, where politics by political destruction has become the norm,’ (former Bloomington area state Rep. Dan Brady) said in a statement announcing his non-candidacies.”

State Rep. Randy Frese started the petition drive to show Democrat leadership in the General Assembly there is grassroots support for the state-backed scholarship program for children who attend non-public schools and technical academies. He pointed out that neighboring states, including Indiana and Iowa, have enacted permanent scholarship tax credit laws. “We should be expanding education options for our children, not taking them away.”

The Illinois Manufacturing Excellence Center, based at Bradley University in Peoria, is dedicated to providing assistance and resources to small and mid-sized manufacturers throughout the state. President David Boulay explained that some manufacturers are seeking a source for a very specific material they need to create their product; “We’ve had other companies say, effectively, ‘I want to take my whole supply chain and I want to get it within a three hour radius of my facility. Currently, I am global.’ And so that’s a very different set of questions.”

In recent years, the state has dedicated surpluses to paying down long- and short-term debt, making pension payments beyond the amounts required in law and providing one-time temporary tax relief. Gov. JB Pritzker indicated he’d continue to be cautious when considering spending priorities for one-time revenues, echoing his budget office, which noted that revenues have fluctuated wildly from month to month in recent years.

García weighed in on Gov. JB Pritzker’s decision to pause health care coverage enrollment for immigrants: “We are in dialogue with the governor, with legislative leaders as well, trying to get at whether or not the analysis that was done may have been overestimated or inflated and whether there is a lower true cost associated that would enable us to reach a better place in this.”

As chairman of the House Appropriations-General Services Committee, state Rep. Fred Crespo said several years ago, there were repeated audit findings at the Illinois Department of Revenue. “I recommended and we did cut their budget by 15% that year. As you can imagine, it’s amazing how all of a sudden they did pay attention to the findings…So there have to be some teeth to these audit reports.”

“We are no longer training students for $10 an hour jobs where you sweat all day. We have students who start in the mid-50s, $50,000 a year or more, with a 2-year college degree,” said agronomy professor Bill Harmon. “We have not produced enough graduates from the community college and the university level to meet the number of jobs that are available in all areas of agriculture.”

Some argue outmigration is driven by retirees seeking better weather or college students living out-of-state, but 64% of residents who left were between ages 26 and 54, the prime working years. Polling showed the No. 1 reason residents consider leaving Illinois is high taxes.

Pension costs have more than tripled in that time: A 2009 budget summary shows just 14 cents of each higher education dollar went to pay for faculty pensions instead of supporting instructors and students in the classroom, but beginning July 1, those pension payments to the SURS will consume 43 cents of every higher education dollar spent by the state.

Matt Paprocki, of Illinois Policy Institute: “The reason Springfield killed Invest in Kids is simple: political expediency, corruption and pressure from radical teachers union leadership. Springfield is more interested in bowing to the Chicago Teachers Union than working on behalf of the vulnerable constituents who need them.”

“The state of education for poor minority students in the United States is a disgrace…In Illinois, data showed 53 schools — most of them in Chicago — where not a single student could do math at grade level, and 30 where not a single student can read at grade level…There is simply no excuse for keeping kids trapped in schools like these.”

H.B. 3760 – which was signed into law Friday and takes effect Jan. 1 – guarantees university admission to all applicants who have enrolled at an Illinois community college after graduating from an Illinois high school who’ve met various educational standards and criteria.

Illinois has limited the use of criminal convictions in hiring, mandated the release of employers’ demographic information and allowed employees to request EEO salary data from their employer. The state has also created new criteria for restrictive covenants, clarified issues related to damages under the Biometric Information Privacy Act, required the availability of paid leave for all employees and expanded the use of unpaid bereavement leave.

A bill signed into law Friday states that the app must help drivers stay informed about accidents, construction zones, lane closures, and weather conditions.

Two bills on the governor’s desk deal with opioids and schools. One bill awaiting his signature requires schools to have a supply of an opioid antagonist on hand to treat overdoses. Another seeks to combat this risk by specifically requiring all high school students enrolled in a state-required health course to learn about the dangers of fentanyl and fentanyl contamination.

Wirepoints founder Mark Glennon said the lack of a workable benefits program in a time of an emergency should be seen as a national security failure. “They poured money into unemployment programs with no accounting or regulations in place and that’s why up to half of it … was lost to fraud,” Glennon said. “It’s really unbelievable that they weren’t prepared for this and to my knowledge they haven’t done anything to rectify it either.”

“So what can be expected from a $133 million investment? Government unions in Illinois have tremendous power, more than in any other state. The Illinois Constitution, amended in 2022, allows government unions to demand virtually anything in negotiations and provides a permanent right to go on strike to get those demands met.”

The act “prohibits a testing facility from conducting a canine or feline toxicological experiment in the State, except for certain specified purposes.”

Decatur, Springfield and Champaign city councils have all voted to lease Flock cameras, or Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs), for their police departments; Springfield and Champaign Police also have contracts for gunshot detection equipment. “We might not see that as a total crime decrease, but we are making arrests off of Flock,” Lt. Scott Rosenbury, of the Decatur Police Department, explained.

Republican-run states are cutting income taxes to make themselves more economically competitive, but Wisconsin’s Democratic Gov. Tony Evers doesn’t want to play. On Wednesday he used his line-item veto to strike $3.325 billion in tax cuts for residents and small businesses from the state budget.

Comment: This column does not use Illinois as an example though it clearly is one.

The update to the state’s Vital Records Act that took effect on July 1 at the conclusion of Pride Month was enacted under HB0009, which allows people to change the gender on their birth certificate by signing a statement affirming their gender identity or intersex condition.

Matt Hart, executive director of the Illinois Trucking Association, said trucking companies have been settling numerous frivolous lawsuits after they put safety technology in trucks. “The trucking industry invests $9.5 billion each year to keep truck drivers safe and the motoring public safe. In Illinois, BIPA deters trucking companies from investing in new safety technology that could make our roads even safer.”

“We’ve banned assault weapons. We’ve banned high capacity magazines. We’ve banned switches that turn regular guns into automatic weapons and here in Illinois those are things that will keep people safe and alive, but we need a national ban,” Gov. JB Pritzker said.

The drugstore giant’s announcement comes six weeks after it rolled out plans to cut 504 corporate jobs in Chicago and Deerfield, or about 10% of its corporate workforce.

The tax burden per household in Illinois, according to the MoneyGeek.com study, is $14,778 in annual taxes, or 16.9% of household income, the highest in the nation.

“Consider the Old Town neighborhood of Chicago as an example of the effect of these school attendance zones. Here, two public elementary schools a mere mile apart and in the same school district have drastically different education performance levels. According to the Illinois Report Card put out by the Illinois State Board of Education, 27.6% of students are not proficient in language arts at Lincoln Elementary School, while 96.9% of students at Manierre Elementary School are not. Due to geographic boundary lines, families are restricted from sending their children to a local elementary school with far better student learning outcomes.

The verdict against the railroad operator, which had been issued Oct. 12, 2022, marked the first of its kind in any of the thousands of class action lawsuits filed in Illinois courts under the law known as the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act.

The union-backed legislation would grant Illinois’ second-largest electric utility a temporary monopoly over the construction of new transmission lines across nearly three-quarters of the state. Gov. JB Pritzker promised to veto it.

In 2020, in Chicago’s predominantly Hispanic precincts, Trump improved his raw vote by 45 percent over 2016. Beneath this discontent is an emerging gulf between the cultural outlook of many Hispanics and the increasingly left-wing values of the Democratic Party.

There are twice as many children ages 0-6 with all parents in the workforce as there are licensed child care slots, a 2022 report by the Illinois Child Care for All Coalition found. “The lowest income families will never be able to compete in a market like that,” said Danette Connors, of the YWCA in Chicago.

Jim Dey: “There’s a disconnect between the rage expressed by protesters and what actually took place that can not be bridged. The unwillingness of the former to acknowledge the facts of the latter shows a dangerous unwillingness to understand, let alone embrace, even the slightest modicum of personal responsibility.”

In addition to advocates with organizations such as Mujeres Latinas en Acción, the protest also drew faith and political leaders, including state Reps. Lilian Jimenez and Norma Hernandez and state Sen. Karina Villa. “I’m the daughter of an undocumented mother,” Jimenez said. “I saw the impact that the program had on those who had never had health insurance.”

House Bill 3116 provides for training of all school personnel at least once every two years on the definition of homelessness as set forth in federal law, the signs of homelessness and housing insecurity, the rights of students experiencing homelessness, and steps to take when a homeless or housing insecure student is identified.

The local gas price is higher than all neighboring states.

That averages out to about one mass shooting a week in the state.

Launching his bid for Congress in Illinois’ 12th District, Bailey says he can beat five-term Republican incumbent Mike Bost through a “grassroots movement” he built during his 2022 gubernatorial bid, which he lost to JB Pritzker.

During an annual march to honor the lives lost in the 1917 massacre Saturday, the organizers announced the creation of the East St. Louis Reparations Committee, which will focus on the effects the 1917 East St. Louis Race massacre, as well as “the effects of systemic racism in our region, and programs of reparations from direct payment to housing and how the state and federal government can live up to their promise given to us.”

Under the new law, students in grades 9-12 will be required to learn how to recognize if someone’s having an allergic reaction, how to limit someone’s exposure to allergens and how to administer epinephrine.

John Tillman: “It is hard to watch the march of liberty elsewhere when it seems we remain bottled up in trench warfare here. But despair not. The seeds of victory in Illinois are being sown today. They are growing and gaining strength. We can not always see the progress, but there are clear hints all around us.”

Head researcher Chuck Casto said 42% of Illinois small businesses could not make their rent payments in June, with lingering inflation and a lack of revenues also taking a toll on businesses nationwide. “Fifty-three percent told me that they’re only making half or less of what

State Sen. Tom Bennett’s legislation waives the required video clips of lesson plans – and it’s $300 fee – for two years. It would require a Teacher Performance Assessment Task Force to come up with a new evaluation system to replace the current performance evaluation.

State Sen. Jason Plummer said the issue goes further than the impacts on hospitals and taxpayers that will have to cover the costs one way or another. “It’s to what message we’re sending to various populations and the message Illinois has consistently sent is ‘come to Illinois, we’ll pay for everything,’” Plummer said.

“I guess it doesn’t make anybody in the governor’s administration to actually do anything but if you want to do something, we’re giving you more tools,” state Rep. Dan Caulkins said. Not clawing back the fraud will cost employers higher unemployment taxes, he continued. “The General Assembly recognizes this and is trying to give the governor some power to go back and to reclaim this money if they can find the perpetrators,” he said.

Existing law prevents hotel managers from removing customers who verbally abuse staff. Sponsors of the bill said the measure gives hotel managers the authority to deal with troubling behavior and maintain a safe working environment.

They allege that the EPA’s current standards aren’t good enough and that even if they were, the agency’s testing and certification program is so ineffective that it has failed to ensure those standards.

Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy: “Shame on Mayor Brandon Johnson, Barack and Michelle Obama, Governor Pritzker, Speaker Welch, and every other Illinois Democrat who tolerates the appalling failure of Chicago’s schools while also decrying the Supreme Court’s decision to end affirmative action at elite colleges. You are all hypocrites.”

Legislation introduced during the now-concluded Illinois General Assembly spring session could address some of those concerns. The Carbon Dioxide Transport and Storage Protections Act, listed under Senate Bill 2421 and House Bill 3119, did not advance out of their respective chambers but could be moved during veto session in late October. Bill sponsor Rep. Ann Williams said work is ongoing to strike the right balance between a burgeoning industry and needed environmental safeguards.

“For the first time, insurance companies will have to provide specific information about how they set their rates and the DOI will have the authority to approve, modify or disapprove health insurance rates that it determines to be unreasonable or inadequate in the individual and small group market.”

Sponsored by state Sen. Paul Faraci, the new law, “will ensure that families know that the safety plan for their child is well-documented during their annual IEP meetings, and they will know the expectation during drills so they can better prepare the child…”

HB 1561 amends the School Safety Drill Act to allow schools to maintain an on-site trauma kit, and requires trauma response training for school employees. HB 3559 amends the School Safety Drill Act to establish a plan to allow law enforcement to rapidly enter school buildings in case of emergencies.

Said U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin in a prepared statement. “Unfortunately, as Justice Kagan noted in her dissent, ‘[i]n every respect, the Court today exceed[ed] its proper, limited role in our Nation’s governance’ by striking down this program. I’m sorely disappointed that this Supreme Court coldly severed this lifeline that the Biden Administration rightfully and lawfully had offered hard-working Americans.”

A spokesman said the company projects $94 million in local tax revenue and landowner income over the life of the project, which is expected to be 20-25 years. A majority of the power Alta generates (125 megawatts) will go to the DeKalb Data Center. The rest was sold to the Indiana Municipal Power Agency.

Convention business in Springfield, and hotel occupancy rates, have returned to levels seen before the COVID-19 pandemic, Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau director Scott Dahl said. And even amid talk of a recession later this year, he said, “I can’t imagine that the convention market is going to dry up.”

“It’s at the point where we need to see Illinois get 3 or 4 inches of rain, a good soaker, in order for everybody to simmer down and think that the crop is saved and we are back to having, not record, but a pretty darned good crop.

While many are puzzled over the root of the problem in such a diverse state, systemic racism may be a factor, said Larry Ivory, president and CEO of the Illinois State Black Chamber of Commerce. Ivory brings not only a national but a global perspective to the issue as he is also chairman of the National Black Chamber of Commerce and a U.S. Chamber of Commerce member.

“Considering where Illinois was just a few years ago, circumstances have vastly improved. But Illinois remains in the beginning stage of a long and costly effort to regain solid financial footing, and there’s always the potential of serious trouble ahead. That’s why it’s important to note that a recent report by S&P Global Ratings that rising public pension costs pose a growing threat to the state’s fiscal year. Emphasis should be placed on the word ;growing,’ because the current threat to state finances already is serious.”

A new state fiscal year began July 1, ushering in the reinstatement of a 1 percent tax on groceries and a second increase to the state’s motor fuel tax in 2023.

Amon other things, the new law requires that laborers assigned to a client for more than 90 calendar days receive “equal pay for equal work,” including benefits, as compared to direct employees of the client. Requires staffing agencies to make inquiries about safety at the client worksite, advise the client of any existing job hazards, provide training to its laborers placed on assignment, and provide information about the training to its client.

In 2021, Gov. Pritzker established the Office of Equity, led by the Chief Equity Officer, to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion across state government. Dr. Coleman’s work “uses a comprehensive range of mixed-methods approaches to examine contemporary and historical discriminatory practices that impede institutional equity.”

The Illinois Freedom Caucus issued a statement on the gas tax hike and reinstatement of the grocery tax taking effect July 1 which reads, in part, “Illinois needs real tax reform – not election year gimmicks. Illinois families deserve to be more than props in Gov. Pritzker’s re-election passion play. If suspending the grocery tax was a benefit to working families, then why not make it permanent? Why not permanently end the annual CPI gas tax increases?”

The Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools says there are more than 5,300 unfilled positions in schools across the state. Illinois lawmakers hope a new law providing $4,000 retention bonuses for two consecutive years if the teacher is National Board Certified and works in a hard-to-staff school can help address the issue.

A new law will allow those convicted of certain felonies to change their name for reasons of sexual identity, religion, and more. The felony still stays on their record.

Gov. JB Pritzker Friday signed House Bill 3882, which will phase out the “Temporary Visitor Driver’s License,” or TVDL, which noncitizens currently use to drive legally in Illinois. “This legislation is a significant step in eliminating the barriers to opportunity that many undocumented immigrants face,” Pritzker said in a statement. “We’re ensuring every eligible individual can obtain a driver’s license, making our roads safer, decreasing stigma, and creating more equitable systems for all.”

The only Illinois metro areas to beat the national rate (3.4%) were the St. Louis and Cape Girardeau areas, which are each primarily located in Missouri rather than Illinois. While Illinois had the 4th-worst unemployment rate in the nation at 4.1% in May, Missouri enjoyed one of the best rates in the nation at 2.5%.

Among them, House Bill 3882 allows undocumented immigrants to obtain a standardized Illinois driver’s license, and House Bill 3304 extends the statute of limitations for the prosecution of any fraudulent activity connected to COVID-19 programs, “to include the Paycheck Protection Program, COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program,

Friday, data was live that reported in Illinois a 48.7% increase in homicides, from 628 in 2021 to 934 in 2022. Also reported, human trafficking was up 233% from nine in 2021 to 30 in 2022. Motor vehicle thefts were up 155.5%, from 12,656 to 32,332. Other crimes up triple digits included gambling, embezzlement, extortion, animal cruelty and counterfeiting.

The law, known as the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), mandates companies that collect or obtain an Illinois resident’s biometric identifier — including fingerprints, faceprints, or iris scans — to alert that individual beforehand and get their consent in writing. Passed by the state legislature in 2008, the law has had an astonishing reach in part because it allows private citizens to individually sue companies for privacy violations.

The move comes in response to a late May attack by a global ransomware gang called CL0P that is thought to have exploited a vulnerability in the state’s MOVEit Transfer file-sharing software. The state estimates data for 390,000 people was affected.

A bipartisan group of Ohio lawmakers is blaming Illinois’ landmark 2021 clean-energy law for jeopardizing reliability in their state and potentially raising costs for their ratepayers. And they’re threatening to take legal action against Illinois in response. The Ohio legislators cited PJM’s estimate that about $2 billion in new high-voltage lines would be needed to transport power between states to make up for the plants that are closing or are required to close.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said, in part, “This decision will only further divide communities and strain existing inequities in higher education, but through those inequities will come opportunities for organizing and excellence in the face of struggle.” Full statements from Gov. JB Pritzker, the Illinois Board of Higher Education, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, and Cook County Commissioner Scott Britton follow.

It’s a case that is being closely watched throughout the country – and one many believe is almost certain to end up before the U.S. Supreme Court. Both sides’ reliance on a weapon’s “common use” was questioned by judges during oral arguments. “It’s very troublesome to have a popularity contest determine a constitutional principle,” Judge Diane Wood said.

“You can’t say, ‘Welcome, come to my state,’ but then turn around and blame a governor saying, ‘Stop sending these folks,'” House GOP Leader Tony McCombie stressed. “I thought we were a welcoming Illinois. You don’t get it both ways.”

According to the 2023 American Farm Bureau Federation market basket survey, families in Illinois will pay $66.92 to host an Independence Day cookout for 10 people. That is significantly more than two years ago, but slightly lower from record highs in 2022 when inflation was running rampant.

Investment managers working with public pensions in Illinois would have to disclose how they integrate factors such as greenhouse gas emissions and labor practices into their decisions and analyses under a measure (HB 2782) awaiting action by the governor.

“The impact of this legislation is far reaching: the cost savings to employers using longer term temporary labor will be reduced if the temporary staffing agencies pass on the new required wage rates and benefit costs to their clients. The consequences of non-compliance are serious and can potentially be financially disastrous.”

Top Illinois officials agreed last year that police shouldn’t ticket students for minor misbehavior at school and pledged to make sure it didn’t happen anywhere in the state. But a bill to end the widespread practice fizzled this spring because of disagreement over whether it would accomplish its goal and confusion about whether police would still be able to respond to crime on campus.

Ongoing dedicated revenues to the Budget Stabilization Fund and estimated FY2024 amounts include: 10% of state cannabis tax revenues ($25 million), monthly transfers of $3.75 million from the General Revenue Fund ($45 million), repayment over 10-years from the loan of $450 million to the State’s UI Trust Fund ($45 million), and interest earnings on the fund’s balance ($23 million).

The Illinois Tollway expects 9.2 million vehicles to pass through the 294-mile system between Friday and Tuesday. In Illinois, gas prices have fallen by about 7 cents over the past two weeks. Last Independence Day weekend, gas prices in Chicago averaged about $5.99 per gallon, according to AAA. On Monday, gas prices within the city averaged $4.57 a gallon, nearly $1.50 less compared to last

Keeping these record reserve levels in context is key to understanding just how far behind the state is in terms of sound fiscal management and how much work is still left to be done. It took unprecedented revenues and billions in one-time federal aid to get the state rainy day fund beyond the level of a joke.

Illinois lawmaker salaries were already among the highest in the nation. The latest pay bump pushes their annual salary to nearly $90,000. Only California, New York, and Pennsylvania pay their legislators more than Illinois.

Jim Dey: “WBEZ public radio in Chicago recently found ‘nearly $2 million in state retirement checks’ are going out to a ‘mix of federal charged, convicted and self-admitted felons who once served’ in the General Assembly. The pension puzzle demonstrates once again the political establishment’s conflicted relationship between honest government and personal financial gain.”

Around 1 out of every 5 dollars the state takes in in taxes goes to the state’s pensions, or a total of nearly $10 billion for the coming fiscal year. Illinois’ plan is to increase spending on pensions in the years ahead to get to 90% funded. Todd Kanaster with S&P said that’s not fully funded. “They’re funding the 90% so they don’t have a plan to fund fully. That tends to be one of the factors for shorting the contributions for the year.”

It is part of President Joe Biden’s $42 billion “Internet for All” spending plan. Nineteen states will receive at least $1 billion, with Texas getting the largest amount at $3.3 billion.

“There’s a guy that helped me more than – I can say this without equivocation – helped me more than anybody in America get elected last time. A single person: your governor,” Biden said during a speech in Chicago’s Old Post Office, the first stop before a pair of private fundraisers, including one hosted by Pritzker and his wife MK, where the minimum donation was $3,300.

Illinois lawmakers from both parties sponsored a measure expanding novelty fireworks laws to include ground sparklers for Illinoisans ages 18 and older. It failed. “I think it’s just ridiculous that every state around us is making money off of Illinois citizens and here we are once again giving up money that could better be earned and spent here in Illinois,” state Sen. Chapin Rose said in 2022.

The recent Illinois amendments could be challenged in litigation testing whether they are preempted by the National Labor Relations Act. Points of attack could include HB 2907’s limitation on an employer’s recoverable damages and HB 3396’s imposition of fines on persons who defend against picketing by placing an object in the public way with the intent of interfering with, obstructing, or impeding a picket or other demonstration or protest.

“Today in America, we take our most promising students educate and train them for more than 10 years, and licensed them on one condition that they accept a debt load of more than $200,000,” Durbin said. He wants to offer incentives to those who choose to work in under-represented areas, including scholarships for new medical students or loan payments for those with existing student debt and working in rural areas.

Among the 10 most populous states, Illinois is the only one with a grocery tax. Earlier this year, state Sen. Donald DeWitte introduced legislation repealing the grocery tax, but the bill died in committee.

Reaching consensus after a close election or lively floor debate “is not guaranteed anymore,” Rep. Mike Quigley, a Democrat who represents much of Chicago’s North and Northwest sides and adjacent suburbs, said in an extraordinarily candid presentation to the City Club. “It’s no longer a certainty that we’ll recover, that we’ll get past” the disputes of the day, be they over abortion, election rules, Ukraine policy or Donald Trump. As a result, America’s foreign allies have begun to ask “whether America is back — or back for how long?” Quigley said. And uncertainty is growing over whether Congress will

Pension funding-related threats to Chicago and Illinois’ fiscal health are on the rise, reports published this week warn.

Jim Dey: “One thing Pritzker certainly hasn’t done is show any sign of backing off. That’s one aspect of Pritzker’s political personality that is striking and, to many, appealing. He’s a belligerent pol who never pulls a punch. Usually, he bashes defenseless Republicans. But he’ll go after anyone who crosses him.”

“I think it’s certainly becoming clear that Illinois is not growing, that businesses are not expanding and locating in Illinois,” Chris Davis, Illinois state director of the National Federation of Independent Business, said. “I think the census data is proving that Illinois is losing workers and losing residents and losing taxpayers.”

Sen. Dick Durbin said the U.S. is monitoring the situation to see where it goes from here. “We’re watching it very carefully,” said Durbin. “We want to maintain stability in the situation as best we can from afar, but this is being sponsored and authorized by Russians and not by others.”

The measures establish a state-based exchange for policies sold under the Affordable Care Act and give the Illinois Department of Insurance the authority to modify or reject proposed rate increases. Gov. JB Pritzker said it will protect Illinois consumers from any potential changes in federal policy.

Republican Gretchen Fritz filed the lawsuit Dec. 28, claiming she believes “mistakes and fraud have been committed in the casting and counting of ballots” in the race because her opponent, Democratic Will County Clerk Lauren Staley Ferry, received more votes than Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker. In his order, Judge John Anderson wrote that Rule 137 “serves as a barricade against truly frivolous litigation; it is not as a penalty against unsuccessful litigants.”

Said Raoul, “I hold an incredible office where on a weekly basis you can do good with nobody else messin’ with you to dictate how you’re gonna do it! The only office I would consider other than running for AG would be Governor, for similar reasons. You can get things done. I don’t want to be in office just to appear on MSNBC or CNN.”

“With these graduation rates, we’re sending the message to parents that the system is doing well, but if you really look at the results, you see we’re dramatically behind in terms of what these students can really do,” Wirepoints President

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of Illinois state worker Mark Janus in 2018 gave government workers the ability to stop funding government union politics. Chastened unions could have reformed. Instead, they got extreme: Unions are broadening their demands beyond compensation and working conditions to advance their political and social agendas.

Author Joan McCarthy is a member of the Central Committee of the Illinois Republican Party.

Several public acts approved by Illinois lawmakers and signed into law by Gov. JB Pritzker will take effect including the city of Chicago’s Fair workweek ordinance, the end of Illinois’ grocery tax suspension, changes to school holidays, and increases in the minimum wage in both the City of Chicago and Cook County, and updated fees from coroner and medical examiner offices.

With interest rates high and the Illinois treasury for a change relatively cash flush, the state in May earned nearly $200 million on its $43 billion investment portfolio — a record figure both in the raw amount and in the rate of return, according to Illinois Treasurer Mike Frerichs.

“We need to make sure that we’re living within our fiscal limits within the state of Illinois,” Pritzker said Monday. “That’s something that wasn’t done for a number of years in Illinois.”

S&P Global Ratings published its “Pension Spotlight: Illinois” report Monday. In announcing the report, the agency said it “expects costs will keep rising because contributions are significantly short of meaningful funding progress, plans are poorly funded, and the Illinois Pension Code allows plans to use assumptions and methodologies that defer costs.”

The higher speed will cut about 15 minutes of travel time.

July 1 means Illinoisans start paying an extra 3.1 cents in motor fuel taxes per gallon – the second hike this year – to a new total of 45.4 cents per gallon. The tax was 19 cents before Gov. J.B. Pritzker and state lawmakers doubled it and built in automatic increases in 2019.

“We are seeing month over month a high level of growth with enrollments,” Pritzker spokesperson Jordan Abudayyeh said. “We sat down with the General Assembly and said we are

Ramirez will likely use her background in serving working families and in community organizing to shift legislation in a more progressive direction.

Bryce Hill, of the Illinois Policy Institute, believes it’s easy to say that Illinois’ numbers are low due to a gap in a report. He adds that correcting those numbers won’t change the fact that people are fleeing the state at an extreme rate. “Illinois population story is like a leaky bucket you know there’s more water in the bucket than we previously thought and that’s a good thing but there’s still a hole and they’re still we’re still losing water.”

State Sen. Win Stoller said placing a mandate on insurance companies could drive up prices. The law allows insurance companies to cancel a policy if the individual dog is deemed dangerous or vicious under the state’s Animal Control Act.

“Some of Pritzker’s involvement has been in his official capacity as governor. Democratic control of the Illinois Legislature since 2019 has allowed him to sign major new laws, including passing a preemptive ban on book bans, a minimum wage increase, marijuana legalization and more. But he is also going out of his way to support

The plan says “universal screening for literacy skills is essential” because it can help teachers figure out where gaps are in a student’s reading skills. However, universal screening is not currently required by the state. A bill in the spring that would have required screening to test for reading difficulties and disabilities such as dyslexia for children in kindergarten to second grade did not pass.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee will be focusing its efforts in battlegrounds like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas, as well as Illinois and Virginia, where several school boards seats will see vacancies, a spokesperson said.

“This is obviously an unusual position for the governor to be in. He’s been a darling, even a hero, of the progressive wing of his party since Day One. But, at least for now, he’s taking some real heat.”

“The $5.6 billion needed represents 4% of the $137.9 billion already earmarked for those pension systems through 2045, according to the study.”

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="article-image article-image-ux-impr aligncenter" tabindex="0" title="Mike Krause picks up some of the empty jugs he and his wife Kacy buy for drinking water, June 22, 2023, in Rockton. The Krauses, who live near the site of the 2021 Chemtool factory fire, now drink only bottled water after testing of their well water found toxic chemicals." src="https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AA1d0a9X.img?w=768&h=514&m=6&x=208&y=313&s=73&d=73" alt="Mike Krause picks up some of the empty jugs he and his wife Kacy buy for drinking water, June 22, 2023, in Rockton. The Krauses, who live near the site of the 2021 Chemtool factory fire, now drink only bottled water after

The end of a grocery tax suspension, the increase of the state’s tax on gas, the doubling of certain fees; there are multiple aspects of life in Illinois set to become more expensive on July 1.

Plans for a speech in Chicago on “Bidenomics,” which have not previously been reported and were seen in a White House advisory by Reuters, come as Biden is ramping up political events and travel two months after launching his re-election campaign.

Aside from concerns about government funding political activist groups, critics say that the BLM Lake County doesn’t appear to be an active organization anymore; Breakthrough Ideas found little social media activity from them, and no physical presence in the community. Additionally, the head of the group, Clyde McLemore, has faced charges from law enforcement.

“It is no small punishment that he’s going to spend five years of his life in the federal penitentiary for his corruption. But it’s an additional indignity that when he gets out, what would’ve been a quite generous … retirement security, that’s gone. He has nothing from his service in the General Assembly,” said state Sen. Robert Martwick, chairman of the legislative pension system board.

“You don’t necessarily think about what you’re doing and sometimes you get into things that you sort of start to realize were a bad idea and I think that is reflected in the governor’s decision to change the policy up a little bit,” state Sen, Steve McClure said.

The bill was supported by labor unions and the Illinois Gaming Board. A union job with benefits gives formerly incarcerated people a way to turn their lives around, state Sen. Robert Peters said. “Allowing workers to perform jobs in the casinos that do not involve gaming decreases the likelihood that they will backslide and wind up back in prison.”

Gov. JB Pritzker signed Senate Bill 1963 that gives gas stations a 10% sales tax exemption to sell gasoline with a higher blend of ethanol. The new rule provides a 10% sales tax exemption for the E15 blend that most vehicles can use. There is a 20% sales tax exemption for fuel with a 20% to 50% blend of ethanol, and a 100% tax exemption for vehicles that can run on fuel with an 85% blend of ethanol.

At the end of session, the General Assembly passed a $50.599B budget, BIMP, revenue omnibus, Medicaid omnibus, procurement omnibus, energy omnibus, elections omnibus, property tax omnibus, TIF extension omnibus, and sunset extension omnibus; issued $700M in new capital development bonds; created a state health benefits exchange’ and allowed the Department of Insurance to reject private health insurance rates deemed unreasonable.

“(Youth summer program Creating Entrepreneurial Opportunities) was paid for by local businesspeople in Effingham who realized the benefits of having business savvy youth in the community, and there is an intentional shunning of CEO being inserted in public school curriculum. As (creator Jeanne Dau) said, ‘People in Effingham wanted it independent of public schools.’ This says a great deal about the public’s distrust of the Illinois State Board of Education.”

Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed a lawsuit against Monsanto and Solutia in 2022, alleging the companies for decades made and sold polychlorinated biphenyls that ended up contaminating creeks, rivers, lakes and beaches in Illinois and harming wildlife and other natural resources.

The average full-time worker in Illinois will have to make nearly $25 an hour in order to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment.

“I’d like to say I’m surprised by that,” said the jury forewoman in the ComEd trial, Sarah Goldenberg, when told how little the trial appears to have impacted the “magic” lobbyists. “But knowing we’re in the state of Illinois, I’m not as surprised by that just because our state has always been riddled with corruption.”

House Bill 1496 requires the departments of Corrections and Juvenile Justice to record each inmate’s last-known street address and demographic data for the U.S. Census Bureau, which can direct resources to communities based on accurate population data. “That goes to help reduce recidivism because most of the people that are currently imprisoned in our prisons are going to come home,” said Avalon Betts-Gaston, of Illinois Alliance for Reentry & Justice. “The message of belonging is very, very, very important for our incarcerated neighbors.”

Four gas utilities and the state’s two largest electric utilities are currently requesting authority from the Illinois Commerce Commission to increase rates. All told, electric utilities have asked to raise rates by a combined $2.8 billion over four years, while gas utilities have requested $890 million in increases next year. Customers of the four gas utilities could pay between $60 and $140 more for gas per year on average if the ICC approves their requested rates.

Our Wirepoints column republished.

Investigators at every level were told by the Justice Department to stand down to protect bid, says LaHood about new evidence.

“It may be emotionally satisfying for those who engage in rhetorical support of this nation’s quasi-open-borders policy. But there are real costs associated with inviting everyone from everywhere outside this country to drop in and stay a while. Some elected officials, including the governor, have purposefully closed their eyes to the burden they are imposing or have tried to impose on Illinoisans.”

“By giving undue influence to just two of the state’s 102 counties, residents of the other 100 counties are denied equal access to challenge laws they believe are unconstitutional, except potentially at a great inconvenience and expense to themselves. For those who don’t live anywhere near the state’s power centers, that can be a considerable barrier to seeking justice. Yet, residents of Cook and Sangamon counties — and public unions — need not overcome those same hurdles.”

A statement from the Illinois Freedom Caucus regarding Illinois having the nation’s fourth highest unemployment rate reads, in part, “Illinois’ central location combined with our vast natural resources should make our state a destination for jobs…We need to lower taxes, enact spending reforms, repeal extreme environmental policies such as the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act and make our streets safe again.”

Rep. Dave Vella believes because the food truck industry in Illinois sprouted so quickly, most communities simply transferred to food trucks nearly the same regulations for restaurants. For example, one community in Illinois requires a sprinkler system over food truck cooktops. “Each county has their own health department with their own rules, and each city has their own rules. So if you’re in, for instance, Winnebago County, there’s one rule. If you’re in the city of Rockford, another rule, and so on and so forth all over the state.”

Almost 40% of fourth graders in Illinois read below their grade level, according to the Illinois Early Literacy Coalition. Lawmakers and advocates hope the 54-page plan can get students back on track. Teachers and advocates are glad to see ISBE is also emphasizing the importance of high-quality, diverse, and culturally inclusive materials.

Originally introduced to help struggling businesses amid the pandemic, the measure allows restaurants and bars to provide carryout, curbside pickup, and the delivery of mixed drinks and single servings of wine for off-premises consumption.

The state-run All Kids Health Insurance program has been providing insurance to those over the eligible age of 18. State Rep. Charlie Meier said it’s inexcusable. “If Facebook can send you an alert every time one of your friends has a birthday, if Facebook can do that, don’t you think the state of Illinois, who is mailing these people money, ought to be able to do that.”

Safety is a main concern, but Kathleen Campbell said so are property rights. “After almost a year of trying to get easements, only 13.6% voluntary easements signed,” Campbell said. “How could we possibly give eminent domain to the other 80-some percent?”

In the latest report from Illinois Realtors, sales decreased over 22% in May compared to May 2022, and there were over 6,000 fewer homes for sale in Illinois last month compared to last year at this time.

Several pieces of legislation were introduced in the General Assembly during the spring session that dealt with fentanyl overdoses, including easier access to fentanyl test strips.

“In 2021, just 33% of 11th grade students could read at grade level. Only 29% could perform math proficiently. One school year later in 2022, 87.3% of that cohort of students graduated. Illinois also celebrated its highest graduation rate in a decade. Something is wrong with this picture.”

H.R. 461 seeks to deny federal funds to public schools that are used “to shelter, house or otherwise serve as a sanctuary for aliens not admitted to the United States.” In Chicago, authorities are pushing to use a shuttered south side high school as a housing center. And New York City Mayor Eric Adams expressed an openness to use as many as 20 public school gymnasiums for the same purpose.

State Rep. Mike Coffey plans to introduce legislation to limit final legislative votes on bills to between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. He said big pieces of legislation, such as the state budget, should not be approved after midnight when most people are asleep.

Jim Dey: “The question raised is whether prosecutors have the authority to compel criminal suspects to provide the code to unlock their cellphones…The case of People vs. Sneed attracted considerable out-of-state attention because of its precedent-setting potential. Fifteen states — including Florida, Indiana, Minnesota and New Jersey — submitted friend-of-the-court briefs in support of the state’s position.”

“By killing this program, Illinois Democrats are forcing thousands of low-income students into government schools that are failing them,” Corey DeAngelis, senior fellow at the American Federation for Children (AFC), a group working toward more school choice. “So much for all that ‘equity’ Democrats are always preaching about.”

“The phrase ‘Federal Limits Apply’ will be printed along the top of the standard driver’s license or ID per the [federal] REAL ID Act, but the wording ‘Not Valid for Identification,’ which is deep and personal and powerful and dangerous, will be removed,” Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias said.

“For several years, the undocumented community has lived without health care and maybe that is why the whole process of the health care is so expensive now – because we could’ve done this years ago and prevented any additional sickness,” state Rep. Barbara Hernandez said. “But because we have neglected them for so long, now they have illnesses that they have to be in constant observation, or medication, and of course it’s going to be costly for the state, unfortunately.”

A recent ruling from the Illinois Commerce Commission states that Nicor Gas improperly charged customers for $31 million in infrastructure spending in 2019. The move from the ICC comes months after Nicor filed a request for a $321 million rate hike to take effect in 2024, citing the need “to meet the current and future demands of our 2.3 million customers for clean, safe, reliable and affordable natural gas service.”

Gov. JB Pritzker had previously defended and celebrated the programs when he signed them into law, agreeing with advocates that it is cheaper to provide preventative care to noncitizens rather than making them rely on emergency room visits. But the Department of Healthcare and Family Services billed the changes Friday as a necessary move to ensure “programs do not exceed the funds available and appropriated by the General Assembly” – an amount pegged at about $550 million.

The money will go to 170 school districts with the highest count of unfilled teaching positions. 60% are in rural areas, 40% in urban. Once the districts have the money, an ISBE spokesperson said it’s up to each district to decide how they’ll use it.

In 2021, the Federal Government passed a bill that allowed some undocumented immigrants to become healthcare workers and military members. The bill’s sponsor called the introduction of this new bill a “natural progression” in Illinois.

Illinois’ unemployment rate is now tied for fourth worst in the country and the state only added in the neighborhood of 2,500 jobs in May; The construction (2,400) and manufacturing (1,700) sectors suffered the greatest losses, while government added the most jobs at 2,600. “It goes to show you how private businesses in this state are struggling, while Pritzker and Democrats work to put even more burden on taxpayers,” said state Sen. Steve McClure.

In Illinois, Guns Save Life founder John Boch brought a case challenging Illinois’ FOID law in 2019. He said recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent requires courts to evaluate the text, history and tradition of the Second Amendment in such challenges.

Overstating its budget, failure to properly audit license requirements and other reporting issues are all listed in an Illinois Auditor General report of the Illinois State Board of Education.

“We can see that COVID-19 accounted for approximately 70% of excess deaths in 2020-2021, but nearly all leading causes of death had increases during that time period as well,” Illinois Department of Public Health officials said in a prepared statement.

A look at the notable changes Chicago-area and Illinois residents can expect come the start of July.

Investments in this area have not always worked out elsewhere. Despite devoting billions of tax dollars to fight homelessness over the past four fiscal years, California Gov. Gavin Newsom admits the state is losing the battle with the number of homeless people only growing.

They said removing pride merchandise sends the wrong message to both groups, making the LGBTQ+ community feel unsupported and telling the activists that bullying works. The full letter is here.

Illinois is very proud of it’s many “equity” policies to help its minority citizens. Yet the state is an incredible, crushing failure in achieving its own goals.

“Governor Pritzker and the Democrats and the General Assembly have insulted the legal process in Illinois and at some point, the Illinois Supreme Court is going to have to stand up for itself,” said state Rep. Dan Caulkins.

Also stalled was House Bill 351, would have barred anyone convicted of a felony, bribery, perjury or misuse of public funds while serving as a public official from ever being elected to a state or local office again, and House Bill 2515, a bill requiring automatic deposits in the “rainy day” and pension stabilization funds when certain conditions are met.

“The amendment is an example of the ritualistic enactment of symbolic legislation, a phenomenon that sacrifices informed intellect to shallow emotion on an altar of tribal politics. Thus a simple traffic statute objectively and validly addressing public highway safety somehow came to present an Illinois social problem.”

Wang Stoneback is suing state Rep. Kevin Olickal, Friends of Kevin Olickal, and the Gun Violence Prevention PAC – which backed him – on the grounds that they were “knowingly publishing false statements.” She highlighted pertinent flyers that portrayed Wang Stoneback as being soft on gun violence preventionin her 49-page complaint.

Jim Dey: “Taking care of individuals in need — whether at the departments of Human Services or Children and Family Services — is tremendously difficult and requires sound management at all levels. Unfortunately, these shortcomings are common in state government, no matter whether they involve children and family services or employment services.”

Joshua D. Hale, of the Big Shoulders Fund: “But a one-size-fits-all approach may not address the needs of all families, particularly those in under-resourced communities. This program is not intended to and does not undermine public education…Parents are not sacrificing quality by choosing to send their children to a values-based school.”

“This is happening even though Illinois has ponied up millions of dollars for economic development programs in the past and in the 2024 budget signed the other day by Gov. JB Pritzker. The budget adopted by the legislature includes $400 million to close major economic development deals, and attract businesses and jobs to the state. Money is also set aside for expanded workforce development programs to build industries of the future: Data centers, electric vehicles and clean energy.”

“America is the only country that continually votes to raise its debt ceiling. This exercise is unnecessary at best and, as we just experienced, dangerous at worst. As we look forward, there is clear agreement across the ideological spectrum: Congress must vote to do away with our nation’s debt limit.”

“We Republicans talk about consolidation in a way that won’t force our citizens to suffer,” state Rep. Dan Caulkins said. “We think there should be an easy way to support consolidations of things like townships and road districts. We think there should be an easy way to consolidate school district administrations. All of that would free up money that could be spent in the classroom, allowing property taxes to be reduced.”

During debate of the bill, state Sen. Steve McClure said forcing someone to have a contract written up to get their lawn mowed or face a $5,000 fine is absurd. “This doesn’t make any sense, and we talk all the time about laws that cause people to move out of the state. This is the exact type of law that causes people to move out of this state.”

While the Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults program will be suspended starting July 1, the Health Benefits for Immigrant Seniors will remain open but will pause if the number of individuals exceeds 16,500. State Sen. Jason Plummer said suspension or not, taxpayers will pay.

Current federal law prohibits a non-U.S. citizen from becoming a police officer throughout the country. Illinois House Bill 3751 states that any immigrant who the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have deferred under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals process is allowed to apply for the position of a police officer, deputy sheriff or special policeman.

“People are pretty frustrated with all the incompetence,” state Rep. Chris Miller said. “All the reasons people are giving for leaving are self-inflicted. We’re pushing this woke agenda and people have found they have options and they’re exercising their vote with their feet.”

The personal finance website WalletHub placed Illinois near the bottom in several categories, including the difference between white and Black residents in median annual income. Illinois ranked 40th in the poverty rate, 46th in the homeless rate, and 49th in the share of unsheltered homeless.

Kenny Winslow, executive director of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police, supported the measure and is already planning to offer training on the new law to police departments. But he added that the protections contained in the bill – including requirements that police post notices if they are surveilling an event and keep a record of flight paths – were an important part of the final product.

“The heart of Labor continues to beat strong in Illinois,” Illinois AFL-CIO President Tim Drea wrote.

The school district has asserted Illinois state law goes “beyond constitutional guarantees by expressly recognizing a zone of personal privacy” and empowering school staff to ignore the wishes of parents who “are unsupportive of their children’s mental health and gender identity.”

“In 2009, Congress appropriated $8 billion for high-speed rail, and the Obama administration gave Illinois more than $1 billion of that to speed up trains between Chicago and St. Louis. The state of Illinois provided its own funds, bringing total spending up to $2 billion. Now, fourteen years later, Amtrak is proud to announce the results: the top speed of trains in the corridor will increase from 90 to 110 miles per hour.”

How big of a price is Gov. J.B. Pritzker going to pay for a political deal that got his fiscal 2024 budget through the state legislature — but is now provoking unprecedented criticism from the state’s Latino community? Some answers may come this week after a weekend in which Latino leaders absolutely whacked the Democratic governor over his administration’s Friday announcement that it will make big cuts in the state’s health insurance for undocumented immigrants.

“In Illinois this March, nearly 150 students are taking matters into their own hands over a school policy that allows biological men to enter women’s locker rooms and bathrooms. Students were told to use a single-stall bathroom if they were uncomfortable, so the high schoolers lined up down the hallway to use the restroom in protest. The protest didn’t come without consequences, as the superintendent of Waterloo High School marked the children tardy, while those who continued to protest were disciplined.”

Daniel Montgomery, president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, and William McNary, co-executive director of Citizen Action/Illinois: “An EBF model for public higher education could provide a permanent solution to our underfunding crisis by ensuring equitable funding and improving access and affordability, starting with the colleges and universities that serve those with the greatest need.”

“Now is not the time to put corporate profits ahead of the lives of our constituents who may want to board a commercial flight in the future,” said Sen. Tammy Duckworth, adding that supporters of the FAA reauthorization bill would have “blood on your hands.”

“Revenue estimates are showing that we’re not gonna be able to afford these appropriations amounts, and there’s already conversations about what kind of tax increases we’re looking at down the road,” state Rep. Adam Niemerg said. “They’re talking about a corporate income tax increase, and they’re talking about a personal income tax surcharge.”

“While Illinois accounts for just 4% of the American economy, our workers have been responsible for more than 7% of all labor productivity growth in the United States since 2019. Illinois businesses have reaped the rewards, with the profits of Illinois’ corporations more than doubling and the profits of Illinois’ small business quadrupling in just three years.”

Nearly 10,000 scholarship recipients and their families face uncertainty after Illinois lawmakers failed to extend the Invest in Kids program.

The Illinois Supreme Court has released some opinions in recent weeks but high-profile cases are still pending.

Illinois child care is among the most expensive in the nation when compared against incomes, costing the average single mother more than a third of her pay, per a new report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

“(T)he Illinois Department of Human Services…inspector general last week released a report recommending a series of major changes to end the physical abuse and neglect of patients at the Choate Mental Health and Development Center in downstate Anna…The inspector general cited more than 1,500 incidents of abuse and neglect reported over the past decade. They ranged from physical abuse to outright neglect of those in need.”

St. Louis police homicide clearance rates have jumped to 80%. Police say increased presence of cameras could be part of why. But the high clearance rates may not persist through violent summer.

The Illinois Federation of Teachers called on their followers to “keep the pressure on lawmakers to sunset” the Invest in Kids program. CTU, the largest affiliate of IFT, also called on lawmakers to kill the program and has advocated for years against educational options for kids. Those unions put over $1 million into Welch’s campaign coffers and did the same for Harmon – both of whom sent their own children to private schools.

The General Assembly passed a $50 billion budget, during which Buckner said he “carried the transportation omnibus, which does a lot of things, but hopefully will improve service, and improve the way that RTA is governed…It makes Chicago the first large city in the country to have a legislated edict on electrification of buses — that’s such a big deal…”

The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services said, “At this time, enrollment in the Health Benefits for Immigrant Seniors program will remain open. However, HBIS enrollment will be temporarily paused for FY24 if the number of individuals enrolled in the program reaches 16,500.” Several other changes are being made to keep the taxpayer cost down, the department said, including co-pays of up to $250 “when they are not eligible for federal match.”

Because of the bipartisan infrastructure bill and other federal initiatives, Illinois is set to receive $1 billion over the next 15 years to restore and reclaim land that has been polluted by abandoned coal mines. IDNR estimates that there are 5,500 abandoned mines in the state.

Illinois job growth slowed in May with the state adding just 2,500 jobs. That was enough to keep inching the state’s unemployment rate lower to 4.1%, down one-tenth of a percent from April. This news comes on the heels of the national unemployment rate increasing by 0.3% in May to 3.7% despite the economy adding 339,000 jobs for the month.

The audits found several unallowable expenditures and salaries on a school nutrition spending account, including laptops and Wi-Fi for the schools, a cargo van and landscaping for a composite deck. ISBE officials estimate the district misused $1,689,609 of nutrition grants. Federal agents raided Paris superintendent Jeremy Larson’s home Tuesday.

Instead of men receiving prostate exams and women receiving Pap smears, it would be “individuals” receiving the exams. Another measure replaces in state statute the word “biological” with “birth,” replaces the word “mother” with “person who gave birth,” and replaces references to “boys and girls” with “children.”

House Bill 2392 grants “any teacher who is a member of a statewide association representing teachers and who is elected by the association’s membership to represent the association in federal advocacy work may spend up to 10 days during a school term representing the association in federal advocacy work.”

Raoul and 23 other attorneys generals are asking for policies that prioritize transparency, testing requirements, and government oversight and enforcement when needed. They’re suggesting that the standards should require companies to perform impact assessments of their AI systems where they could impact consumers’ safety or finances.

The numbers show the unemployment rate fell by 0.1% points to 4.1% and 2,500 jobs were added in Illinois in May.

HB2907 prevents striking workers from being sued for unintentional property damage as a result of a strike, while HB3396 provides that any person with the intent of obstructing or interfering with a picket line commits a Class A misdemeanor and a minimum fine of $500.

While he didn’t have much detail about the event, state Sen. Andrew Chesney was alarmed. “These types of reactions require counseling and require love and need the family to figure out what’s going on in this young child’s mind that makes them feel this way,” Chesney said. “The idea that the government is going to step in and normalize that and then provide a conduit for life altering procedures is not only dangerous, but I would argue is child abuse.”

In September 2018, James Weiss founded a sweepstakes machine company called Collage LLC and promptly set to work on changing state laws to fully legalize the devices, which operate in a legal gray area in Illinois. Part of that campaign included bringing on then-state Rep. Luis Arroyo to “consult” with him for $2,500 per month. While the defense said it was a legitimate business arrangement, the government called it a bribe – and the jury agreed.

Your retirement is likely to look very different. The typical American saved just $164,000 for their own retirement by retirement age and only collecting $21,310 a year in Social Security benefits.

Tight regulations on independent pot growers and truckers are causing bottlenecks for dispensary owners who depend on local product. Entrepreneurs with pot-related criminal histories still face legal barriers. And high interest rates and restrictions on fundraising are putting extra burdens on operators who were frozen in financial limbo for two years while larger, established dispensaries gobbled up market share. Advocates say the problem is exacerbated by more than a dozen state departments that each own a corner of the regulatory regime, creating headaches for newer operators without political connections.

See our own column on this study here.

Illinois took in over $14 million in sports betting taxes in April, surpassing Pennsylvania at $13 million. Sports books in Illinois were taxed at an effective rate of 17.7% in April, compared to nearly 26% in Pennsylvania.

Gov. JB Pritzker’s budget dedicates $360 million to the anti-homeless initiative, including $118 million to support unhoused populations seeking shelter and services, including $40.7 million in the Emergency and Transitional Housing Program. The Home Illinois plan is led by Illinois’ first-ever Chief Homelessness Officer, Christine Haley.

“While elected officials are supposed to work for us, it is clear they listen to the most influential special interest group in Illinois — labor unions…The influence of unions on elected officials has been used to drive policy and kill legislation that could have benefited communities.”

Jim Dey: “The pension shortfall has created terrible pressure on state budgets. Officials set aside roughly 20-plus percent of the new budget that takes effect July 1 for pension contributions, but that still is not enough to meet actuarial requirements. ‘The potential need to boost Tier 2 benefits would add another burden to the state’s $139 billion of unfunded pension liabilities, for which the state already pays $11 billion a year to less than fully fund,’ (The Bond Buyer’s Yvette) Shields wrote.”

Gov. JB Pritzker gave final approval to the legislation—which also contains language directing funding to a cannabis development fund and extends a deadline for conditional licensees to find storefronts—last week.

Polling shows that most Illinois residents, especially parents, support school choice, which is confirmed by the demand for the program. In the past year, there were 31,000 applications for just 9,000 scholarships.

Nasdaq is dropping Rivian because it shrunk too much. The electric carmaker will lose its spot on the Nasdaq-100, which comprises 100 of the largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange, on June 20, Nasdaq confirmed.

The weeklong trial has been filled with political intrigue, both in the lineup of current and former elected officials who have testified as well as the backdrop of ongoing federal investigations swirling around James Weiss’ associates, including the Cook County assessor’s office that Joe Berrios once helmed.

In the refrigerator case at your local liquor or convenience store, you’ll likely find Jack Daniel’s mixed with Coca-Cola. While the product has the Jack Daniel’s whiskey logo on it, it also has the familiar script Coca-Cola logo – and some worry it could be confused with the plain old non-alcoholic soft drink. That why the state’s emergency rule is now in place.

Ted Dabrowski of Wirepoints analyzed the data. He said crime and corruption are major factors in people leaving. “This new Census data confirms what we’ve seen from U-Haul, from United Van lines and from IRS data, and that’s that Illinoisans are leaving the state,” Dabrowski said. “They are

“Pulling someone over for merely having an air freshener attached to the rearview mirror is not only archaic, it’s ridiculous,” Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias said.

“This measure encroaches on parents’ rights,”state Rep. Adam Niemerg said. “In my mind, it’s parents that have an obligation to raise their children, not the public education system, not the government.”

The new law extends to workers at state-run institutions as well as those at privately operated community agencies that function under the supervision of OIG officials and the Illinois Department of Human Services.

Attorney Amanda Hamilton represents the local pension funds suing the state. “We take issue with the fact that this legislation significantly diminishes, if not eliminates, the effect of each participant’s vote, that is to say their right to decide who controls these funds, who manages these funds,” she said. “We also take an issue with the fact that it forces the individual funds to bear the transfer and transition costs. We don’t think that’s appropriate either.”

While Republican opposition centered around criticism of the process in which McCuskey was originally nominated, they have overwhelmingly approved his performance in the 15 months since he was appointed. “If we truly need to stand before the Illinois resident and say, ‘We are conducting ourselves in an ethical way,’ we need to allow ourselves to be under scrutiny by a person of high caliber and honor,” Rep. Jeff Keicher said. “That person is Judge McCuskey.”

Of the residents who left, 51% made more than $100,000 per year, 25% made less than $50,000 and 24% made $50,000 to $100,000.

Comment: Illinois’ industrial policy, “Reinventing Electric Vehicles,” was based on attracting plants like this to Illinois. It’s a complete failure.

The bipartisan bill aims to identify the standards required to meet the definition of sustainable aviation fuel at the Federal Aviation Administration, and would require the federal government to adopt the most up-to-date lifecycle emissions models. It also clarifies that the U.S. government does not encourage the banning of agricultural feedstocks from being utilized as a viable source of SAF.

“Since June 2022, Democratic state lawmakers have passed a slew of bills ramping up protections for out-of-state patients and expanding overall access. But a small coalition of GOP legislators has been working to undo many of the abortion-rights bills introduced by their colleagues across the aisle — without much luck.”

“Book bans are about censorship, marginalizing people and marginalizing ideas,” Democrat Gov. Pritzker said at Chicago’s Harold Washington Public Library. The shelf behind him included books that feature explicit illustrations of or detailed instructions for various sex acts.

“Imagine, sometime in the next decade, that the governor of Illinois and the mayor of Chicago hold a joint press conference to declare that the state and city can’t pay their bills. Schools close, crime spikes, garbage goes uncollected, and public employees protest proposed job and pension cuts. It’s a mess. What, if anything, should the federal government do?”

Some Republicans in the Illinois House said the bill is another attempt to fix the broken Climate and Equitable Jobs Act.

According to the OIG, more than 1,500 incidents of abuse and neglect were reported over the past decade. Allegations include physical harm and lack of attention to the patients’ well being at the Choate Mental Health and Development Center in Anna. The report also shows a cover-up culture in which employees would collude with each other and provide false information to investigators about incidents at the facility.

“…The program shed a glaring light on the magnitude of parents seeking to free their children from the failing union-controlled Illinois public schools. According to test data released by the Illinois State Board of Education, a startling 70% of Illinois public school students fail to read at grade level, and 75% fail to meet proficiency in math.”

Once home to as many as 5,000 production employees, Stellantis idled the plant in February after sales of the Jeep Cherokee faltered and as the company works to transition much of its fleet to electric vehicles. Its remaining 1,219 production workers, some of whom were offered jobs at other plants, were laid off indefinitely.

Jim Dey: “During the ‘last fiscal year,’ the state awarded 1,631 grants totaling $62 million, according to the Illinois Secretary of State’s office. That averages $38,000 per grant. Roughly 97 percent of them went to public and school libraries. That’s not chump change. But the state grants are minimal share of budgets for libraries that are overwhelmingly funded by property taxes.”

State Rep. Anne Stava-Murray sponsored the legislation after a school board in her district was subject to pressure to ban certain content from school libraries. “While it’s true that kids need guidance, and that some ideas can be objectionable, trying to weaponize local government to force one-size-fits-all standards onto the entire community for reasons of bigotry, or as a substitute for active and involved parenting, is wrong,” she said.

State Rep. Dan Caulkins said the issue is a real breach of taxpayer trust. “It was extremely problematic and we still to this day don’t know how badly Illinois got ripped off in our unemployment fraud,” Caulkins said. “We also had the [Paycheck Protection Program] fraud people were claiming.”

State Rep. Robyn Gabel said the cost would be under $1,000 for the setup in these homes. However, state Rep. Dan Swanson said other costs are not accounted for. “It requires a 200 amp service,” Swanson said. “That will require additional costs because most houses do not have a 200 amp service.”

Voters in both states will likely be bombarded with false messages from unions trying to trick them into thinking the amendment will protect workers. But as in Illinois, collective bargaining in both California and Pennsylvania already is protected by federal and state laws. The amendments are not necessary. But they do have great potential to push up taxes.

The amount of patients seeking both medication and procedure abortions rose 54% in the last year, Planned Parenthood reported Monday. Patients needing financial and travel help also more than doubled in that period. Their numbers also show that more patients are seeking abortions later in their pregnancies than before the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision.

The rebates launched in July 2022, offering $4,000 to Illinoisans who bought a new or used EV from an Illinois licensed dealer. The number of applications well exceeded the available funds by early January 2023; In all, 4,832 rebates were awarded, from $19.3 million in funding. The program was “wildly successful,” so it’s concerning that it’s now seeing a 38% funding cut, said Brian Urbaszewski, director of environmental health programs at the Chicago-based Respiratory Health Association.

The Illinois General Assembly tried to address the issue by passing a hotel workforce development program in the state budget. Lawmakers also passed a bill that ties Illinois’ travel per diem for state employees to the federal rate in an effort to boost hotels.

Jim Dey: “Illinois rules of evidence written before the Miranda ruling state ‘evidence of silence is not relevant to the question of guilt’ and is off limits as evidence except under narrow circumstances. Those rules make it necessary for judges and prosecutors to tip-toe carefully around this legal third rail…Perhaps the Illinois Supreme Court wanted to send a message to prosecutors and judges in all 102 counties to avoid foolish mistakes.”

“The problem with this massive proliferation of local governments throughout the state is that it was very easy to create these once-upon- time,” said Austin Berg, of the Illinois Policy Institute. “I think what most people in Illinois agree on is that we pay really, really high property taxes – the first or second-highest in the nation depending on how you calculate it – but we’re not getting the first or second highest quality in government services.”

“Many downstaters no longer travel to Chicago, for fear of its crime. So, it is ironic that cities such as Peoria, Rockford and Champaign have higher rates of gun violence and homicides than Chicago…Downstate was a political powerhouse for most of our state’s history, yet has become the weak sister to Chicago-Cook and the collar-county region.”

Currently, many of recently arrived migrants are being sheltered at police stations across the state. House Bill 2822 would have required the Illinois State Board of Education to create a new grant program for public schools. This bill didn’t make it past committee.

In reviewing the matter of prejudgment interest, the panel noted the state has allowed such awards in several types of legal matters for more than a century, so the 2021 law allowing for such interest in personal injury and wrongful death suits was a logical expansion. The justices said the law could be justified on the basis that it encourages settlement, rather than trial.

A number of secret recordings made by Link were played Monday in the trial of James Weiss, a politically connected businessman accused of agreeing to pay bribes to Link and state Rep. Luis Arroyo in order to advance legislation that would help Weiss’ sweepstakes gaming business.

“I have been imploring the White House and the federal government to do two things. One is we need comprehensive immigration reform,” Gov. JB Pritzker said. “In the meantime, we ought to be allowing at least the asylum seekers that came here in the latter half of last year to now get work permits. We have jobs available for them.”

Libraries that adhere to the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights, which states that books should not be removed because of partisan or personal disapproval, will continue to get state funding.

“In too many communities, the parents do not have an adequate school and they should be empowered to choose a school that fits their child,” former Gov. Bruce Rauner said. “I believe that very passionately and I’ve devoted a lot of my life to that.”

The legislation was introduced following an investigation into rampant abuses and cover-ups at Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center, a state-run institution in southern Illinois that houses people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and mental illnesses.

One law makes it a crime to interfere with picketing workers, another limits judges from awarding money for damage to a businesses’ property, while the other awards disability benefits to any police officer, firefighter or paramedic who became ill following the declaration of the COVID-19 public health emergency. Villivalam worked as a lobbyist in Springfield for the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, before his 2018 election.

Illinois’ 5th District congressman recently reintroduced what’s called the TRACE Act, which would require background check information to be retained longer by gun dealers. Among other things, it would also make it easier for authorities to obtain background check information and would require new firearms to have a second, hidden serial number.

Prices in Illinois are 6.8 cents per gallon higher than a month ago and stand 166.5 cents per gallon lower than a year ago.

Rauner’s portrait depicts him in front of an empty blue background with his ubiquitous Illinois-shaped lapel pin as the only non-clothing item depicted. “I don’t think any portrait summarizes anybody’s legacy very well,” Rauner said when asked of the background choice.

HB 1591 amends the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act, which had previously prohibited out of state couples from obtaining and Illinois marriage license. HB 1596 amends the Children and Family Services Act by removing gender specific pronouns.

A knowledgeable source says the next tranche of refugee aid to be announced early in the week will include $19.3 million for Illinois, with just over half of the aid — $10.5 million — allocated for Chicago. Both surely wanted more; the Chicago City Council just appropriated more than $50 million to pay for food, shelter and other expenses through June. But it’s a lot better than the $8.5 million they had to split in the last award in May.

Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr. believes the gaming venue will be a significant boon for the city’s ailing public pension system; He said at a November 2022 city council meeting that police and firefighter pension funding resided at 32.24% and 23.05%, respectively. “We are going to be putting 90%, this year, of the money that we receive from the casino, directly toward extra pension payments. We anticipate that to be about $5 million. We believe, that within the next 12 to 15 years, that we could actually be fully funded.”

“In essence, court watchers note, the Illinois Supreme Court has two choices. Justices can decide on the case, making an affirmative statement on the state law, sending a clear message to the U.S. Supreme Court. Otherwise, the Illinois high court could wait for the U.S. Supreme Court to issue a decision, allowing the assault weapons ban to continue to be in effect in the meantime.”

The Rochester Police Department does not have body cameras. But by January 1, 2025, they will have to. That’s because it’s a requirement for all law enforcement agencies laid out in the SAFE-T Act. The state originally left it up to law enforcement to pay for the cameras, but after plenty of feedback from departments, the state created the grant program.

Legislative advocacy by racing stakeholders in Illinois has resulted in lawmakers approving the transfer of $5.1 million in budget surplus funds to the Horse Racing Fund for Standardbred and Thoroughbred purse support.

Jim Dey: “Predictions about the future are just that, as COGFA’s multiple scenarios confirm. Events and the circumstances they create determine what matter…But the current speculation about ‘tax reform,’ ‘revenue enhancements’ and budget shortfalls should put Illinoisans on alert.”

The task force will identify where historical sites are located, connections they may have to one another, and will paint a picture to recognize the history of the Underground Railroad in Illinois.

“‘… Taxpayers deserve accountability. If you cannot justify your existence to those who fund you, you should turn off the lights, turn in your keys and save the taxpayers their money,’ said Democratic state Sen. Julie Morrison. Of all the naive or intellectually dishonest quotes ever uttered by feckless politicians, that one has to rank near the top.”

Socially disadvantaged farmers were promised another million dollars in grant money in the most recent budget, but they still are waiting on the $2.5 million in ARPA funds they were promised in past years.

The African Descent-Citizens Reparations Commission is tasked with reporting to the General Assembly on reparations for African-American descendants of slavery; educating the public; recommending how to preserve African American neighborhoods; and ensuring proportional representation in all state contracts. As for funding sources for reparations, said state Rep. Sonya Harper, “We’re going to find money to fund reparations the same way that we do to fund everything else.”

HB 3479 would create the Uniform Money Transmission Modernization Act and Digital Assets Regulation Act, where the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation Secretary would issue annual licenses and overall regulate digital asset business activity in the state.

“I voted ‘no’ on the bill because of the impact the spending cuts would have on my constituents…(T)he most sustainable solution is the elimination of the debt ceiling altogether. For the century the debt limit has existed, it has been used as a weapon of political brinkmanship while doing nothing to address mounting debt.”

The yearlong suspension of the state’s 1% tax on groceries ends July 1.

Gov. JB Pritzker has deferred to legislators on whether they want to keep the program — in part as a negotiating chip with Republicans in an effort to get GOP votes on a budget. But he has said the program should be modified to allow a federal as well as state income tax deduction for donations, which is currently not allowed. That would share its costs between federal and state taxpayers.

And metropolitan areas with a population greater than 1 million with the worst foreclosure rates in May 2023, included Cleveland, OH, were: Jacksonville, FL (one in every 1,699 housing units); Baltimore, MD (one in every 1,908 housing units); Chicago, IL (one in every 1,991 housing units); and Orlando, FL (one in every 2,049 housing units).

The order resolves a 2021 lawsuit brought by the state alleging that Dynegy’s disposal of coal ash led to groundwater pollution surrounding the power plant and created a public nuisance. Vermilion County State’s Attorney Jacqueline Lacy said the order not only penalizes Dynegy but should ensure the future safety of the Middle Fork.

A new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that small businesses also left town. New York led in net business out-migration (487), followed by California (456), Illinois (208), Maryland (50) and Pennsylvania (33). One result is turmoil in commercial real estate in New York City, San Francisco and Chicago. Another is persistent higher unemployment in California (4.5%), Illinois (4.2%) and New York (4%), compared to a national average of 3.7% and 2.6% in Florida.

Chicago hotels have 1,600 open positions, “yet, our federal government is telling [migrants], ‘you have to wait six months until we allow you to work,'” Illinois Hotel & Lodging Association CEO Michael Jacobson said upon returning from D.C., where he advocated for expedited work visas.

“The committee surprised almost everyone by proposing a temporary, 10-year personal and corporate income tax “surcharge” to raise $2.9 billion per year, or, as an alternative, a tax on retirement income. The committee also proposed expanding the sales tax to services, which it said could bring in an additional $1.2 billion a year if the state adopted Iowa’s model. Much of the money would be used to pay off state pension debt. In exchange, the committee proposed repealing the corporate franchise tax and the estate tax.”

The state Department of Innovation and Technology’s “current efforts are focused on determining an accurate population of impacted individuals for appropriate notifications,” a spokesperson said. The department “believes a large number of individuals could be impacted.”

The bill would give state prosecutors an extension of 10 years beyond the existing statute of limitations to bring cases against individuals suspected of defrauding pandemic-era programs like the Paycheck Protection Program, the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan program and unemployment benefit programs. Said FBI Special Agent David Nanz, who is in charge of the bureau’s Springfield office, “This is the largest theft of money in the history of the world.”

To entice these companies, the governor is offering substantial incentives, including hundreds of millions of dollars in incentives and potential tax breaks.

Attorney Thomas Maag said the law is “blatantly unconstitutional.” Maag said he already has a legal filing in Madison County challenging Illinois’ Firearm Owner ID card law. “And in Count II of the case, put in a direct challenge to this statute and dutifully filed it in the plaintiffs home county, which is not Cook County and not Sangamon County, and we dare the attorney general to transfer the case.”

Among the 43 House bills signed, one prohibits insurance companies from increasing premiums if someone owns a certain breed of dog. Another makes Constitution Day a commemorative holiday. Music venues over certain sizes must have opioid antagonists starting June 1, 2024 with one measure.

The Secretary of State reports that the number of EVs registered in Illinois ticking up: from 29,323 in May 2021 to 70,193 in May 2023. In addition to the charging stations, Parkland College is EV certification for service technicians, and state Sen. Paul Faraci said the state has $10 million dollars in the new budget for high school-level EV education.

According to Raoul’s office, Illinois will receive approximately $518 million over 15 years. National investigations and litigation against the pharmaceutical industry over the opioid crisis have led to more than $50 billion in settlements with Illinois’ share at more than $1.3 billion.

“This is not to say private schools generally, or schools with a religious curriculum specifically, are bad places to send a child. But what it does say is that, if Illinois wants to get the best student achievement bang for its taxpayer buck, it should stop subsidizing the choice to send children to a private school, and instead invest public dollars where they will have the greatest positive impact on enhancing student achievement: public schools.”

Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski said that multiple factors have contributed to Illinois population and job decline. “We will never have the most jobs as long as we have the highest property taxes in the country. We will never have more jobs as long as we have the second-highest gas taxes in the country. We will never have more jobs if we have the biggest pension debt in the country, and we will never have more jobs if our home values continue shrinking relative to the rest of the country.”

U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood said the Modernizing Manufacturing and Agricultural Bonds Act updates the federal rules for manufacturing and agricultural bonds. These bonds are exempt from federal tax and are tools used by state and local agencies to support small manufacturers and farmers and spur economic development.

State Rep. Charlie Meier said many expenses not fully covered in the budget would leave the state needing more funding. “We will see on a bill promoting the progressive income tax again in the future,” Meier said. “It will be because they have reasons – because they need the extra funds, whether that’s from the AFSCME contract or more money for the illegal immigrants’ Medicaid.”

The report shows that Illinois hotels generated nearly $622 million in tax revenue, the eighth highest amount in the country.

“Make no mistake, ALPRs are an important tool for law enforcement, especially when apprehending suspects in violent crimes or recovering stolen vehicles in car jackings,” Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias said. “We need to regulate these cameras so they are not being used for surveillance and tracking the data of innocent people.”

Attorney Thomas Maag filed the first challenge in state court shortly after it was enacted. That was transferred to federal court and consolidated with three other cases. “These people at the legislature have no idea what they’re writing about and there’s no objective way to determine what is banned,” Maag said. “If it’s unconstitutionally vague as alleged, the whole ban should fall.”

The First-in-the-Nation measure forbids that information from being used to track down someone seeking an abortion or to prosecute a person’s immigration status.

Progressives are on the march in Illinois, and they want to make sure their new policies can’t be overturned in state court. Solution: Pass a law that requires any constitutional challenge to a state law, rule or executive order to be filed in only two counties.

Under the proposed bill, Illinois employers with 15 or more employees are required to provide employees with information about their wages, benefits, and other compensation-related details in any specific job posting.

Jim Dey: “Illinois’ legislative salaries are the nation’s fourth highest, trailing only No. 1 California, No. 2 New York and No. 3 Pennsylvania. Legislators in those states earn annual base pay ranging from $95,432 to $119,702. Compared to neighboring states, Illinois legislators do even better…All told, it’s not Pritzkerian wealth, but it ain’t bad. It’s well above Illinois’ median household income of $72,205.”

“Gov. J.B. Pritzker and state lawmakers have recently been trumpeting the great financial shape of Illinois. Balderdash. And they know it. There will almost certainly be state tax increases by 2025…. The state legislature’s own budget forecasting agency predicted in March that by one reasonable scenario, the state’s operating funds in calendar 2025 will run at a deficit of more than $3 billion annually, with a whopping $18 billion in unpaid bills (from a total budget of around $100 billion). And this doesn’t include the political pressures to spend.”

The methodology of the study was conducted by comparing the gap between White and Black Americans with a bachelor’s degree and high school diploma, and the disparity in standardized test results. Massachusets, New Jersey, South Carolina, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, New York, Connecticut, Minnesota and Wisconsin (in descending order) ranked as the lowest 10 states.

Republicans have spoken out against implementing any pay increase for lawmakers. “While Illinois families struggle, Gov. Pritzker decreased the politician pay [by] a paltry 0.5%. While this change may make it constitutional, it does not make it right,” said House Minority Leader Tony McCombie. “House Republicans will continue to hold the majority party accountable to not only our constitutional rights but also to Illinois taxpayers.”

SEIU HCII takes anywhere from $264 to $1,260 a year from its members’ paychecks, according to its report with the U.S. Department of Labor; the workers SEIU HCII represents may earn $17.25 an hour as personal assistants or $33.91 for a whole day as child care providers. Yet just 22% of the union’s spending is on representing workers, according to the same report.

The grocery store initiative would assist independent grocers to open or expand grocery stores in underserved neighborhoods. The measure also contains a dollar-store deterrent, where those who are eligible for grant money must carry a substantial variety of perishable foods.

The Illinois Constitution gives lawmakers a Cost-of-Living Adjustment to their salaries each year. With inflation sky rocketing, both Senate and House members were going to see a five thousand dollar increase to their salaries, from $85 thousand to $90 thousand per year. That increase turned out to actually violate the Constitution, which limits the cost-of-living adjustment to a maximum of a five percent raise.

Opponents say the measure denies citizens access to court and it’s possible the law could be challenged in federal court. State Sen. Terry Bryant said during debate, “We have circuit courts in this state for a specific reason and that is so that people are able to go to their courts and have their grievances heard. Not so that we can make it more convenient for the person that was mentioned previously which is the attorney general.”

Gov. JB Pritzker could soon modify a diversion program for first-time nonviolent firearms offenses that would give younger defendants probation rather than prison.

A report by Wirepoints looks at Illinois’ overall economic performance since Gov. JB Pritzker took office in 2019. The report shows 70,000 fewer jobs in that time frame and that Illinois’ real GDP growth was 3.2% from 2019 to 2022, which ranked 10th worst in the country over that time frame.

Former state Rep. Jeanne Ives, of Breakthrough Ideas, said Gov. JB Pritzker gave the money to Black Lives Matter Lake County, even though its leader has pleaded guilty to felony battery of a police officer multiple times. In addition, Ives said an investigation shows that there is no physical presence of BLM in Waukegan even though the group was required to open an office.

The Sangamon County State’s Attorney said they won’t be adopting policies like the one in Cook County. Macon County won’t either. “To say it’s going to end the cycle, it’s not going to end it,” said Macon County State’s Attorney Scott Rueter. “What’s going to end the cycle is people don’t commit crimes.”

If the contract doesn’t specify when a freelance worker will get paid for their work, contractors would have to get paid no later than 30 days after finishing the job. Contracting employers would also not be allowed to offer less compensation in exchange for a quicker payment.

Jim Dey: “Of course, Republican lawmakers want the pay hikes as much as the Democrats. But in prior years — when party legislative control could shift because of a few lost House or Senate seats — both parties tried to avoid setting off a pay-raise controversy. Between the change in the law and Illinois’ shifting political makeup, that reluctance has disappeared.”

Students are required to take a teacher performance assessment test to get their license, including video clips of them teaching and lesson plans that they have created. “What we started to find is that people said, ‘I’m not putting myself through that. It’s too much work, it’s too much too many hoops to jump through,’” said Mark Klaisner, president of The Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of School.

Democrats who supported the legislation said it was necessary to prevent people with a grievance against the state from selecting the county in which to file a lawsuit based on where they think they can get a favorable ruling. Supporters also said the measure will conserve resources for the attorney general’s office, which represents the state in court.

“First We Get the Money” proposes adding a new citywide income tax on household income above $100,000. That would bring in an estimated $2.1 billion a year in new revenue, of which they claim “$1.6 billion would be from high-earning Chicagoans and $490 million from high-earning commuters.” The report cites city income taxes above 3.7% in New York and Philadelphia as justification for implementing a similar tax in Chicago.

While passage of a fiscal 2024 budget took center stage during Illinois’ spring legislative session, lawmakers also advanced potential public-private partnerships, extended transit’s break from farebox funding rules, aided hospitals, and cemented a pension overhaul for Cook County.

Among the programs discussed was the Smart Start Illinois program, which supporters say will eliminate early childhood deserts for 3-and-4-year olds by 2027. The program, in total, will cost the state’s taxpayers $350 million for the programs and new facilities.

One hotly debated bill dealt with the state providing taxpayer assistance to grocery stores. Supporters said the legislation will eliminate food deserts in Illinois, but state Rep. Brad Halbrook said on the floor of the House what is really going on is a “logic” desert. “All this leads to really bad policy and we have the situation that the government is picking winners and losers once again.”

The briefs for the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in the expedited appeal from Cook County, the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois argue the banned weapons pose “extraordinary risks to law enforcement,” are “not commonly used for self-defense,” and that “weapons in common use for criminal purposes may be regulated.”

Illinois will again become an outlier by taxing food at the supermarket: 37 states don’t tax groceries at all. Among the 10 most populous states, Illinois is the only one with a grocery tax.

In the past week alone, gas prices have dropped by seven cents, resulting in an average price per gallon of $3.88. This marks a significant difference from a year ago when the state average was as high as $5.39 per gallon.

Jim Dey: “Although the report (from the Illinois Commission on Government Forecasting & Accountability) was positive, there was one issue of possible concern. The state’s largest source of revenue comes from its 4.95 percent income tax. While corporate and tax tax revenues have grown nicely over the current fiscal year, the report indicated that income-tax revenues ‘remain $1.065 billion behind last year’s pace.'”

State regulators are charging Coinbase for violating securities laws in connection with the company’s staking offerings. Other states on this task force include California, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, Alabama, South Carolina, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.

“When the flow of federal money to state and local budgets runs out, some jurisdictions—including California, Illinois, and New York City—will face enormous budget gaps.”

You know, taxes here in Illinois are crazy,” said customer Kelly Smaltz, who is headed abroad for work. Finances played into the decision to depart for them and for friends. “Of our group, probably 10 of us are leaving or have left Illinois just because, it’s just, taxwise, a very difficult place to live.”

Metro East Republicans, like Sens. Jason Plummer of Edwardsville and Erica Harriss of Glen Carbon, say the Illinois statehouse’s spring session missed some key issues and ended in a mess with last-minute budget negotiations. “First and foremost, it highlighted the poor priorities that we have in Illinois,” Plummer said of the budget. Metro East Democrats, however, praised the accomplishments of the 2023 session.

A report by Wirepoints looks at Illinois’ overall economic performance since Pritzker took office in 2019. The report shows 70,000 fewer jobs in that time frame and that its real GDP growth was 3.2% from 2019 to 2022, which ranked 10th worse in the country.

Article IV, section 11 of the Illinois Constitution dealing with the legislature states, “A member shall receive a salary and allowances as provided by law, but changes in the salary of a member shall not take effect during the term for which he has been elected.” The Illinois Constitution also states the governor may reduce or veto any item of appropriations sent to his desk.

More than a dozen of the hundreds of funds have not consolidated, arguing in court the consolidation takes away local board voting rights for control of the funds. They alleged in a three-count complaint that the law violated the pension protection clause, the contract clause, and the takings clause.

llinois lawmakers passed 566 bills through both chambers of the General Assembly in the recently concluded legislative session – all but one of them in May. Among them are protections for noncitizens, criminal justice reform and education changes.

The legal movement to grant natural entities like forests and rivers the same legal rights as humans has won meaningful success abroad, and has in recent years picked up steam in the United States. Largely indigenous-led campaigns to recognize the legal rights of natural entities like wild rice in Minnesota, salmon in Washington, and the Klamath River in

State Sen. Tom Bennett hosted a BLT party at the capitol to celebrate the passage of Senate Joint Resolution 22, which made Illinois Bacon Day official. Pork producers contribute an estimated $13.8 billion to the state’s economy.

“Sure, no doubt Illinois lawyers will likely claim that private buyers are procedurally different, but it is hard to argue this Illinois practice does not violate the same constitutional rights of the debtor that the high court just upheld in Minnesota.”

A pilot program the Democratic-controlled General Assembly passed six years ago was limited to defendants under 21 with no prior convictions for violent crimes and was set to end in January. Under the new legislation, the age limit would be dropped, the probationary period would be shortened and the program would continue indefinitely. There was no debate over the bill on the House floor when it was called during the early morning hours of May 27, moments after lawmakers voted to pass a $50.6 million budget.

“Sadly, the state of Illinois is in red, and seems poised to kill the Invest in Ed tax credit that provides 9,000 low-income Illinois children the opportunity to attend private schools…. A remedy however is available for these families: leave Illinois. Your state lawmakers care much more about rent-seeking special interests than they care about your family or your children. Other states not only value you more; they have much better return on investment for your tax dollars. These families are,

For employers who utilize third party vendors to announce, post, publish, or otherwise make known a job posting, the employer must supply the vendor with the pay scale and benefits, or aforementioned hyperlink. Employers who fail to provide the information to the third-party vendor will be liable for violating the posting requirement.

Jim Dey: “Legislators didn’t have to vote on the latest increases. That’s been a problem in the past, one that has sparked voter ire. So now the cost-of-living increases are automatic. That’s somewhat akin to the automatic July 1 increases in the state’s gasoline tax. In both cases, lawmakers are able to evade political accountability because of the automatic nature of the increases.”

“The dangerous long-term problems that simply will not go away are underfunded public pensions. The budget shorted actuarial required contributions by more than $4 billion, even though pensions appropriations amounted to roughly 25 percent of general fund spending. And that’s not the worst of it. Legislators are grappling with proposals to address problems related to Tier 2 public pensions that affect shorter-term employees.”

Former NYT reporter Walsh: “Mayor Brandon, you don’t need a working group. The answer is obvious. You’re being asked to spend billions of dollars that you don’t have, to give everybody pensions that are as good as Social Security. It would make a lot more sense to just shift your Tier 2 workers into Social Security. Other cities have already made that switch. Chicago could become an exemplar for other jurisdictions.”

The Decennial Committees on Local Government Efficiency Act — which specifically doesn’t apply to counties and municipalities — was signed into law last June. “We don’t have a clear understanding about what the purpose or the intent or the outcomes intended, but it’s mandatory and we must comply,” said Tim Bartlett, executive director of the Urbana Park District.

After an election cycle freeze on the state’s taxes for groceries and gasoline, the two taxes, among others, are set to increase beginning July 1. Next month, the state’s gas tax will increase by 6.2 cents to a total tax of 45.4 cents, the second increase since Jan. 1. The state’s tax on groceries will also go back into effect after Gov. J.B. Pritzker put a hold on the tax during last year’s election cycle.

A bill on Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk could mandate every public school in Illinois to provide full-day kindergarten by 2027, despite offering no funding assistance or estimates on the costs to taxpayers.

When Schakowsky was sure there were enough votes to pass the measure and prevent the first default in U.S. history, she voted no. But if her vote was needed, she said she would have been a yes.

The Army Corps of Engineers is now on the cusp of construction on modification of the Brandon Road Lock in the Des Plaines River, 27 miles southwest of Chicago and Lake Michigan. The Brandon Road site is “the only single location” that could address the carp advance, according to the Army Corps. But there’s a glitch. The project, originally estimated to cost $275 million is now projected to cost $1.1 billion.

“Looking at the list of students that are coming here, I think that there’d be a large population that just wouldn’t be able to do it,” Anthony Corapi, the chief operating officer for the High School of Saint Thomas Moore, said. “This wouldn’t be reachable for them.”

“Members of the legislature can hammer things out behind closed doors ahead of public debates because the General Assembly has long exempted itself from the Illinois Open Meetings Act…The Illinois House Democrats have 78 of 118 members, but they’re exempt, so they’re all allowed to meet. I’ll leave the judgment of whether that’s good or bad to others, but it was clearly an advantage for (Speaker Chris) Welch’s caucus on the health care issue.”

Car manufacturers will be required to set up a 24-hour hotline to help law enforcement track stolen cars after a bill passed both the Illinois House and Senate. The next step is making auto manufacturers’ compliance a national requirement, said Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, who helped craft the language in the bill.

“This will allow participants to purchase insulin at the state post-rebate price, allowing individuals to pay less for their insulin by utilizing the contract power of the state of Illinois,” state Rep. Jenn Ladisch Douglass said.

“The reason Illinois’ population is shrinking is because of politicians’ longstanding failure to curb public corruption and fix our flailing finances. Failing to acknowledge these basic truths helps nobody, especially not the people here struggling to stay here.”

The legislation requires school districts to create a policy on discrimination and harassment based on race, color, or national origin. It also requires the Illinois State Board of Education to create a data collection system to report on allegations of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation against students.

“Illinoisans are guinea pigs in an official campaign of kinder and gentler treatment of society’s law-breakers. In some cases, that means no enforcement of the law, particularly in Cook County, where State’s Attorney Kim Foxx makes more news dropping criminal cases than trying them.”

“An analysis of 2021 U.S. census data by Wirepoints shows that Illinois spends 20% to 60% more per pupil than its neighbors and other Midwestern states…One would think that the well-documented strong performance of parochial and other private schools would compel the legislature to not only extend the successful Invest in Kids scholarship program but also make it permanent and even expand it. Not in Illinois.”

“Our state is located in the center of the United States. Illinois is second only to Texas with the most miles of railroad tracks. Only Texas and California have more miles of Interstate highways than Illinois. We also have access to numerous rivers, and Chicago is home to one of the busiest airports in the nation. Illinois should be a destination for companies not a place these businesses are looking to leave. These companies are leaving not just because of the bad policies in Illinois but also because our state’s leaders continue to refuse to do anything to address our

The Illinois Human Rights Commission’s unanimous ruling “is believed to be the first to expressly confirm that excluding gender-affirming care from employee insurance plans violates Illinois’ civil rights laws, including protections for gender identity,” according to an ACLU statement. The ACLU is representing former Lincoln Library manager Katherine Holt at no charge.

A SafeWise study found that Illinois was the second-most worried state in the country when it comes to residents fearing for their safety on a daily basis, with 64% of respondents saying that they were. The state only ranked behind New York, where 70% of respondents voted yes.

“Todd Maisch was a statehouse fixture and synonymous with the Illinois Chamber of Commerce,” state Senate President Don Harmon said. “A fierce defender of and astute negotiator for the business community, Todd was also a genuinely likable person who could find the path forward among adversaries. He departs this world far too soon.”

The small business network Alignable reports that 52% of small business owners surveyed weren’t able to pay their rent in full, the highest percentage in the country. That is an 11% increase over April. That is compared to 37% nationally.

“Four convictions all swirling around the person that presided at this rostrum, at this dias, for 38 years and we as a legislature are adjourning without doing anything on the topic of ethics reforms,” state Rep. Ryan Spain said.

Business groups have been pleading with lawmakers to address the law. “No data breaches, no lost information, but billions of dollars have already been paid out with more on the way, and it’s already having a significant impact on our economy,” said Mark Denzler, of the Illinois Manufacturers Association.

Manner Polymers plans to invest $54 million and create more than 60 jobs for the Southern Illinois region. The facility will be powered by a 15-acre solar field located on site.

Illinois Representatives were split for a vote on the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2023. Those voting NO included: Mary Miller, Mike Bost, Darin Lahood, Jan Schakowsky, Delia Ramirez and Jesus G. “Chuy” Garcia.

“I think we should have tax credits that support education and other things in state government, but we also have the federal government willing to cover about 40% of the cost,” Gov. JB Pritzker

An additional $85 million will go towards “Home Illinois”, Governor JB Pritzker’s plan to address the issue. This brings the state’s total investments towards preventing and ending homelessness to more than $350 million.

“When you’re spending that amount of money and you can’t balance the budget, that’s a problem,” said state Sen. Jason Plummer. “It doesn’t fund our schools appropriately and it doesn’t fund our hospitals appropriately. It’s not balanced and it sets us up for a tax increase in the future.”

If the bills are signed by Gov. JB Pritzker, noncitizens will become eligible to obtain standard driver’s licenses and will be allowed to become peace officers. This year’s budget also dedicates approximately $550 million to pay for health services for noncitizens aged 42 or older. A spokesman said the new noncitizen enrollees will add about 65,000 people to the pool of people eligible for state-funded medical care.

The Pritzker administration had estimated a Medicaid-style program providing health coverage to eligible undocumented residents would run Illinois about $1.1 billion. Republican skeptics cast doubts on whether it’s practically or politically possible for Gov. JB Pritzker to keep the program to the budgeted $550 million in the next fiscal year, but Welch said he’s “confident” it can be done, and that Pritzker can contain growth of the program via the “tools” provided by the General Assembly and through the limited expenses eligible for matching federal funds.

The pressure — in the form of legislation from U.S. Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Tammy Baldwin — would require the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct new airplane cabin evacuation tests with more realistic conditions, and issue standards that include the size of and space between seats. Duckworth said, “I mean, for crying out loud, put some carry-on baggage on the (test) aircraft.”

“When there is more poverty in a community, there is more likely to be criminal activity that arises in that community,” Gov. JB Pritzker said. “The more we can lift people up, and we are doing that in a number of ways,

Last September, the state of Illinois announced that more than 1,200 small cities, towns and villages across Illinois would receive $371 million as part of the second round of funding through the federal American Rescue Plan Act. Officials have denied that funds already distributed would be taken back, but money sitting in the U.S. Treasury Department that hasn’t been doled out yet could be recalled.

State Rep. John Efgosky decried the lack of full funding from the Local Government Distributive Fund back to 10%. He said municipalities should also expect a hit from a reduction in Personal Property Replacement Tax funds to cities for a net loss of $600 million statewide. “This is frankly catastrophic,” Egofske said during debate Saturday morning.

Police are not allowed to use drones at political protests, demonstrations or other First Amendment-protected gatherings. Another stipulation of the legislation is that the footage must be erased within 24 hours unless a crime is captured. Police agencies also must publicly post their drone program usage at least 24 hours in advance.

Matt Jungmann, national events director for Farm Progress, inked a deal in the early 2000s that locked in 10 shows over 20 years, estimating that each year would have a $10 million economic impact. “Now we’re up to $31 million, and it feels good to more than fulfill the promise with our upcoming 10th show at the Decatur site,” Jungmann says. Farm Progress reached an agreement to keep the show coming to Decatur on a biennial basis

House Republican Leader Tony McCombie asked Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch to put aside political agendas and allow the House to vote on Republican proposals. “Respect parental rights and respect women who don’t agree with you,” McCombie added. “Address our immense pension liability, high property taxes, and stop growing our government.”

Rep. La Shawn Ford, a Chicago Democrat and the bill’s sponsor, said that Senate Bill 1559 didn’t pass in part due to disagreements around delta-8 THC, a synthetic psychoactive substance typically manufactured from hemp-derived CBD.

Illinois is in the minority of states graduating a higher percentage of students during the first two years of the pandemic. But state data shows those high school students’ SAT scores are dropping and a smaller percentage are immediately continuing onto higher education.

A former public school teacher documents the profound betrayal of America’s students. “Today, the union is a captured institution, and it argues that the country must be remade for education to even be possible. Favoring ideological indoctrination over academic achievement fundamentally devalues teaching and learning. It is this devaluing that was the nail in the coffin for the school system.”

The regional index of the manufacturing economy plunged in May from 48.6 to 40.4 (against expectations of 47.3). That is the ninth straight month below 50 (in contraction).

Jim Dey: “While citing a litany of errors detailing the squandering of many millions of dollars, the report (from the Illinois Auditor General) soft-pedaled its final conclusion. It said the BIG program and its purported safeguards ‘failed to work as advertised.’ That was a line originally used by spin doctors of the early 1900s regarding the maiden voyage of the Titanic, which also failed to work as advertised.

Illinois and other states with the most lead service lines are getting substantially less federal money per line than those with far fewer toxic pipes. For instance, Alaska, with 1,454 lead lines, and South Dakota, with 4,141, will get $19,704 and $6,919 per line respectively during the coming year. The federal money headed to Illinois amounts to $221 per lead service line, a review of EPA data shows. Michigan and Wisconsin are getting $241 and $238 a line.

In the final hours of their spring session last week, lawmakers approved a controversial measure that would give existing power companies in downstate Illinois, notably Ameren Illinois, the first crack at installing new transmission lines. Critics of the proposal said that it would reduce competition, leading to higher costs for construction projects and ultimately higher costs to energy consumers. But proponents said that it will streamline the billions of dollars of construction planned for the coming years while creating union jobs for Illinoisans.

The Illinois Supreme Court’s Committee on Equality has quietly established a special subcommittee on “Pronoun and Preferred Name Usage/Gender Identity Policy” to presumably investigate further new rules for courts in the Land of Lincoln. Illinois, however, is just one of several states currently at some stage in the process of revising or creating rules specifically to address pronoun usage.

Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer complained that while hospitals will see their reimbursement rate increase by 10%, it’s not enough to keep struggling rural medical centers from “hemorrhaging dollars,” even as he said that the spending plan is riddled with $150 million in giveaway “pork” projects. “The priorities are giving people just enough so you’re not hurting ‘em, and then giving yourself stuff that helps you get reelected,” Davidsmeyer said. “And that’s what disgusts me around here…”

“If we want to level the playing field for the American people and maintain our place as the global economic leader for the rest of the 21st century, we need to protect ourselves from unfair trade practices by the Chinese Community Party. At the same time, we must up our own game and enhance our competitiveness.”

State Sen. Dave Syverson said that undocumented migrants should not be the lone responsibility of Illinois taxpayers. “If they (the federal government) are going to keep the border open, then they should be paying for those costs, not asking Illinois taxpayers to put aside programs for the disabled, seniors and our own residents to provide high-quality health care for people from other countries.”

The General Assembly passed House Bill 3445 giving Ameren the right of first refusal to build transmission lines. The measure surfaced on Wednesday at the request of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

While the Invest in Kids school choice scholarship program is not extended in the budget, a new program, Pritzker’s “Smart Start,” funds $250 million for more early childhood education. House Minority Leader Tony McCombie had concerns: “Whether or not this program, as good as it is, is it going to be sustainable? It’s subject to appropriations.”

Illinois lawmakers put $100 million in the new budget so students could choose the private or public college that best fit their needs; MAP grants are entirely funded by the state. Invest in Kids receives funding from donors who are partially reimbursed with income tax credits. The state can’t give out more than $75 million in tax credits, and averages significantly less than that each year.

He said, in part, “The FY 24 budget is a balanced plan with conservative revenue estimates that builds on our fiscal progress while making transformative investments in early childhood and higher education, workforce development, and efforts to fight violence and poverty.”

Drivers nationwide saw fuel prices fall for the Memorial Day holiday weekend, but Illinois drivers should expect to pay more by the July 4 travel season.

Should the Governor sign the bill into law, as expected, punitive damages will be available for most wrongful death actions filed on or after the date of the Governor’s signature, except for actions related to legal malpractice, medical malpractice, and against state or local government, or their employees acting in their official capacity. Several professional associations and chambers of commerce opposed the bill.

House Bill 2831 creates the Illinois Interagency Task Force on Homelessness as well as the Office to Prevent and End Homelessness. Both seek to address the bigger picture issues of homelessness such as housing and institutionalism.

The Local Government Distributive Fund returns a portion of income taxes to municipalities on a per capita basis. Since 2011, the percentage distributed to Illinois cities was reduced to about 6% from 10%. “This is about priorities and fulfilling a promise in an agreement that was made with municipalities and, more importantly, residents who make up those municipalities,” Mayor Tom McNamara said. “We obviously provide far more services and far more direct services than the state does. Those dollars need to come to municipalities so that we can continue to provide critical core services.”

Once again, Illinois political leaders are congratulating themselves for performing a basic governmental function — agreeing on a state budget for the upcoming fiscal year…. Until state lawmakers tackle these critical issues [pensions and property taxes], they deserve no applause for passing a budget.”

“Illinois’ budgeting process is broken. The fact that no one beyond a select group of lawmakers – let alone anyone from the public – had even seen this 3,000-plus page document prior to a few days ago underscores just how very flawed this process continues to be.”

Jim Dey: “Pritzker’s politically driven flip-flops show he’s more than a crafty politician who tailors his answers to his audiences. The moves reveal that the governor’s pledges come with expiration dates, inoperative once they no longer suit his political or policy needs…Reneging on Invest in Kids is only the latest.”

“But don’t confuse a quiet town with a dead one. Cullom’s business center is crowded, its high school enrollment is stable, and most homes here are occupied, so trying to buy one can be difficult.

The budget includes a $50 million appropriation for demolition of the Stratton Office Building adjacent to the Capitol, and design and construction of a new legislative office building to replace it. The nearly 70-year-old Stratton is considered outdated and even unsafe.

The legislation—which also contains language directing funding to a cannabis development fund and extends a deadline for conditional licensees to find a storefront—decouples marijuana businesses from the federal tax policy, which currently bans the industry from making key deductions that are available to other traditional markets.

House Republicans are concerned that these changes could cause insurance companies to leave Illinois. “We need to be careful about government intervention in the ability to predict losses,” said Rep. Jeff Keicher. “We especially need to be cautious when we have a department that is chronically understaffed, unable to meet deadlines, and the criteria that it takes for an insurance company to maintain its operations.”

The lawsuit against Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, the consolidated police and fire pension fund boards and others, was in response to Mr. Pritzker signing a law in December 2019 consolidating municipal police and fire pension plans outside the city of Chicago into the two new consolidated pension investment funds.

The new measure requires the Illinois State Board of Education to develop and adopt a comprehensive literacy plan to improve how reading is taught by January 2024. The bill also calls for new training opportunities for teachers and a renewed emphasis on phonics.

In Illinois, Democratic lawmakers passed a bill that requires investment managers of Illinois public funds, including pension systems, to disclose how they integrate environmental, social and governance policies into their investment strategies.

With the budget for the coming fiscal year, the governor is being given the authority to manage what could be a $1.1 billion taxpayer cost for undocumented migrant health care. But, a recent Auditor General report on the governor’s handling of the Business Interruption Grant gives pause. The BIG audit found that Pritzker-administered state agencies lacked proper oversight of the $585 million in grants to businesses, initiated the spending without administrative rules and didn’t comply with conflict of interest policies.

“If the NAACP wants to identify states where policy is hostile to blacks, it should turn its eyes to states and cities run by Democrats. At the end of 2022, the national black unemployment rate stood at 6.1%. In Florida, it was more than two points lower at 3.8%. Meanwhile, black unemployment was higher than the national average in California (7.5%), Illinois (10.9%), and New York (8.3%).”

“Overall, motor fuel tax revenues make up 52% of Illinois’ transportation funding and 82% of the Federal Highway Trust Fund…According to a recent report by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute, the price of reaching our state’s stated goal of 1 million EVs on the road in Illinois by 2030 could result in the loss of $1.1 billion in transportation funding. When combined with expected improvements in fuel economy for gasoline-powered vehicles, the impact on Illinois transportation revenues rises to $4.3 billion.”

Service in the U.S. military can be a speedier route for people hoping to get citizenship, but it’s not a guarantee. Non-citizen veterans are subject to deportation for crimes committed after the military service, and application of those rules can be inconsistent across states. Reports indicate that at least hundreds of veterans have been deported, but no full accounting has ever been done.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, 20 states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws to permanently allow cocktails to-go, and 14 others, including Illinois, have enacted laws that allow cocktails to-go on a temporary basis. Numerous states are still considering cocktails to-go legislation.

First, they blew past a self-imposed deadline. Then there was scrambling behind the scenes, and grumbling over the exploding costs of health care for undocumented immigrants.

Illinois homeowners in the state’s top 11 most populous counties have lost almost $400 million in tax foreclosures between 2014 and 2021, according to research by the Pacific Legal Foundation. On average, these former homeowners lost 84% of their equity. Among those counties studied across the country, Illinois suffered the highest number of homes taken under this scheme and, combined, lost the most equity in their homes.

Around 175 million tons of freight travels on the Mississippi River each year, and from the river’s headwaters to southern Illinois, a series of locks and dams guide barges through the journey. A 2019 Agribusiness Consulting report found that in 2017, more than half of boats and barges on the river were delayed at locks and dams, up from about one in five in 2000. Delay time increased from 90 minutes to about 122 minutes, some of the longest delays in the country.

A statement from the caucus reads, in part, “Creating new programs and new line items in the budget does nothing to address the long-term budgetary issues facing our state. We are not addressing pension reform. There won’t be any meaningful property tax reforms and there won’t be any accountability measures in this budget to ensure taxpayers’ dollars are being spent wisely.”

State Senator Terri Bryant said that instead of providing Illinois’ developmentally disabled communities with the funding they need, democrats chose to spend more than $100 million on immigrant welcome centers and hundreds of millions of dollars for their totally free undocumented immigrant healthcare program. “By taking 120 souls from Choate Mental Health and moving them to a different facility, a place they didn’t want to go, sometimes as much as 50-60 miles away from their homes because the money wasn’t set aside to fix the problems that were at that facility.”

The 2023 spring legislative session came to an end in the early hours of Saturday morning after the Illinois House gave its approval to a $50.6 billion spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year that begins July 1. The 73-38 party-line vote came around 2:30 a.m. after lengthy debate during which Democrats called the budget “balanced” and “compassionate” while Republicans claimed it masks hidden costs and fails to address the state’s most urgent priorities.

Illinois and other states which allow county governments to keep the money after seizing and selling homes to satisfy unpaid property taxes, will need to rewrite their laws to come into compliance with the Supreme Court’s ruling that such practices violate the U.S. Constitution, say the lawyers from the Pacific Legal Foundation. But even if the state changes the law immediately, local governments in Illinois could also face the risk of lawsuits from former homeowners and others demanding refunds for the money pocketed from past tax sales

The governor and leaders of both chambers in the state legislature chose private schools for their children, but they couldn’t figure out how to include that choice in the state budget for 9,000 low-income students.

Illinois lawmakers expect to cast a final vote early Saturday on a nearly $50.7 billion budget that preserves scheduled deposits into the rainy day fund, Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposed $200 million pension supplemental pension payment and pay off of the state’s tobacco bonds.

The General Assembly was unwilling or unable to pass packages updating the state’s policy on legal marijuana despite applicants calling for fixes to the troubled social equity system. Illinois is also putting off next steps for Chicago’s elected school board, and lawmakers rebuffed requests by the business community to reform a law regulating biometrics.

Republicans criticized subsidies for undocumented health care workers and the absence of extending the Invest In Kids school choice scholarship program set to sunset at the end of the year. The budget includes an increase to legislator pay from $85,000 to $89,675 for the coming fiscal year.

The motor fuel tax will be 45.4 cents per gallon beginning July 1. Gas tax hikes disproportionally hurt lower-income residents, who give up a larger percentage of their paycheck to pay for gas.

House Bill 2389, filed in February by Rep. La Shawn Ford, would take away the police’s ability to stop or search a car because the driver hung something off the mirror. Supporters say the current law allows police to racially profile drivers.

Legislation to give Ameren a monopoly over future transmission projects was added to an energy bill today. The Senate Executive Committee quickly held a subject-matter hearing on it.

Gov. JB Pritzker approved the popular policy during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was set to expire in June of 2024.

“People in East Central Illinois can be forgiven if they’ve completely overlooked one: the red-light-camera corruption scandal, confined exclusively to Cook County. But just because red-light cameras are confined by law to Cook County, it doesn’t mean residents of the other 101 Illinois counties don’t have a stake in setting this egregious situation right.”

The primary reason Republicans rose in opposition was due to the exclusion of the state’s $75 million tax credit program that supports private school scholarships. A possibility remains for a continuation of the program during the fall veto session, but Sen. Chapin Rose said the decision to not act now will have major ramifications in the upcoming school year. Sen. Sue Rezin called the exclusion a “missed opportunity” by lawmakers.

It was led by Sen. Julie Morrison who was at the July 4th parade in Highland Park last year when a man started shooting from a rooftop. The idea is that drones would help identify threats that aren’t easily spotted from the ground.

Many disabled veterans in the state are exempt from paying property taxes, which has been received with lukewarm results. “What this does is include veterans of World War II, regardless of level of disability,” state Rep. Stephanie Kifowit said. “These veterans would receive a 100% reduction of their property assessed value.” According to the National World War II Museum, there are just over 6,000 World War II veterans living in Illinois.

During a committee hearing on the budget, state Sen. Chapin Rose asked how a looming union contract with state workers will impact the budget. “This is going to hit us eventually, right, presumably in ‘24. So is it the … departments, plural, are gonna have to live within the means of this budget or are we anticipating another supplemental down the road whenever the contract is released?”

Rep. Patrick Windhorst noted that Attorney General Kwame Raoul has been asking lawmakers for additional authority to take on cases in other areas of law throughout the spring session. “This is the same attorney general’s office that has requested from this body additional authority to investigate and bring actions against crisis pregnancy centers this session, to bring actions against and investigate gun manufacturers this session. It doesn’t seem that the Attorney General’s Office is lacking resources when they’re constantly coming to this body requesting more authority to do things.”

The average price of gas in Illinois is $3.98 – 41 cents higher than the national average of $3.57 as of May 25.

An analysis by the website doxoINSIGHTS found that the average Illinois household spends $2,121 a month on the 10 most common household bills, including a mortgage, auto loan, and utilities. Illinois is the 17th most expensive state for household expenses and accounts for 35% of the annual household income.

State Sen. Jason Plummer characterized such investment strategies as trendy and not good for taxpayers or pensioners. “The data shows that long term, companies that focus on these policies and investment managers that put these policies ahead of traditional investment philosophies generate a lower return over the medium and long term for their investors.”

Republican Deputy Senate Leader Sue Rezin said despite questions about migrants and health benefits, the issue at hand is getting a balanced budget. She said there are other line items that need funding, including dollars towards universities. “Coming out of the pandemic, we owe the developmentally disabled a half a billion dollars from Medicaid payments that have not been paid at a timely manner.”

Recommendations in a new report by the Illinois Immigrant Impact Task Force, a group created by the General Assembly in 2021 to help immigrant communities, include recruiting and hiring more bilingual staff in state agencies, and continuing to require state employees complete anti-immigrant bias training.

In February, the governor proposed adding $100 million for early childhood education capital investment, but the document released by his office indicates that number has decreased to $50 million. The Monetary Award Program, which provides funding for students from low-income families to get into colleges, could receive an increase of $100 million – what Gov. JB Pritzker asked for in February. The program’s overall budget would be $701 million.

The near-$1 million price tag would be the largest service area patrolled by P4 in the city, according to the company. Fulton Market and the West Loop, which are in the 12th Police District, have experienced an increase in crime year over year, including carjackings, robbery and theft, according to police district data.

Graphic Packaging International produces sustainable cups, lids, to-go containers and more, all from renewable materials. A spokesman said they will employ more than 1,000 people in the next few years.

Jim Dey: “It would be unfair to conclude, based on these two extreme examples, that all state spending is haphazard, that so much money is moving in and out that few pay attention to where it’s going. Yet these grotesque displays of lack of oversight and irresponsible legislating actually happened, and they involve real money.”

“Reparations and sanctuary cities have long been the bread and butter of identity politics. For years, Democratic politicians have campaigned on these ‘moral imperatives’ in passing sanctuary laws and setting up reparation task forces. It is the equivalent of a compounding interest on credit card debt. Each election Democrats used these issues for short-term political gains. Now those bills are coming due and Democratic leaders are balking.”

The deal allocates about $550 million for the Medicaid-style program that covers

Left on the cutting room floor was the Invest in Kids program, Illinois’ closest thing to school choice. State Rep. Brad Halbrook said there appeared to be bipartisan support for the program, and that was evident when a letter supporting the program was distributed. “Several of us put out a letter last week, it was all Republican signatories on it,” Halbrook said. “Some of the Democrats were approached about it, they spoke favorably, but they didn’t want to sign.”

The Illinois state legislature approved a plan last week to spend $20 million dollars to help small local grocery stores stay open and to help new co-ops or municipal governments open up grocery stores in food deserts. It would run a lot like a public utility, according to Deputy Gov. Andy Manar, who said Illinois hopes to emulate a plan in rural Kansas. He described it as “the public option for grocery.”

State Rep. Lindsey LaPointe, State Rep. Lakesia Collins, State Rep. Nabeela Syed and State Sen. Celina Villanueva: “Our state ranks 49th in the country for funding and support of the estimated 300,000 Illinoisans with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families, who deserve an opportunity to live safe, full and meaningful lives. Forty-ninth out of 50 states — that is unconscionable.”

Legislators have sent a spate of pro-LGBTQ and specifically trans-inclusive legislation to Gov. JB Pritzker’s desk this month, sharpening Illinois’ contrast against its neighbors as surrounding state legislatures move to add restrictions on healthcare, bathroom access and school sports for transgender and nonbinary residents.

Starting next year, the Attorney General can take up complaints on prescription price gouging in the state, and take drug manufacturers to court who break the law.

Illinois Auditor General Frank Mautino’s office released the Business Interruption Grant (BIG) audit Wednesday with more than a dozen findings and 15 recommendations for DCEO.“Our analysis found 196 ineligible applicants received $3.42 million,” the audit said. “In Round 1, we were only able to concur with 8% of the BIG awards from our sample…”

Among other regulations, one element prohibits contractors for such technology from making political donations, and would prohibit the hiring of former elected officials into such industries for two years after they leave office. Some foresee legal challenges, as political contributions are considered protected by the First Amendment.

“It prevents counties from becoming private contractors in other counties and has the work performed by union labor contractors that exists within those counties,” state Rep. Greg Johnson said.

M3 is an Illinois-based Republican pollster.

“We’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: Illinois needs a pension reform amendment to its state Constitution that would essentially leave current earned benefits untouched, but would allow for reductions in future benefit growth to levels that the state could afford. Passage of such an amendment would require a referendum that’s put before voters. If (Gov. JB) Pritzker is truly committed to putting Illinois’ financial outlook back on track, he should push for that referendum.”

While a majority of districts in Illinois report having full-day kindergarten, about 150 do not offer a full-day program. Even though the bill had bipartisan support in the general assembly, school district leaders voiced concern that creating full-day kindergarten would be expensive for school districts as they try to find space for more children and hire more staff.

Not reaching a deal on a massive bill increasing state aid to Wisconsin’s local governments will only increase the chances that Milwaukee runs out of money, while smaller communities around the state will also struggle to pay bills. The urgent warnings came as Republican leaders who control the Senate and Assembly disagree on a key part of the plan — who determines whether the Milwaukee city and county can raise the local sales tax to pay for pension costs and emergency services.

The GVA allows a person who has been the victim of gender-related violence to sue the person who committed the act of violence and seek various damages. HB1363 amends the GVA to now specifically apply it to employers under certain (broad) circumstances.

Called “Roadmap to Grow Illinois’ Rural Health Workforce,” the plan has been in the works for more than a year, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said, and prioritizes recruitment and incentives for working in rural areas, and expanding educational programming at colleges and universities. Durbin said there are not yet metrics to track the plan’s success, saying “I just want Illinois to get it organized, first.”

“The broad constitutional framework is that contributing or spending money to influence politics is protected political speech under the First Amendment, and so, if you’re going to restrict it, then it has to be narrow,” emeritus professor of political science Kent Redfield said. Although there’s a record of political corruption in the industry, it is by no means unique, he said, raising the issue of why red-light camera companies would be subjected to restrictions that don’t apply to other state-regulated industries.

“Unfortunately, policymakers know what happens when we loosen the rules for colleges focused on boosting the profits of their owners and investors, rather than supporting students. Bad actors find ways to exploit loopholes, push vulnerable students into low-quality programs and leave students drowning in debt they can’t repay.”

ComEd’s four-year proposal would increase the average Chicago-area residential electric bill by about $6.72 next year and raise it by a cumulative $17 by 2027. That’s about an 18% jump from today’s average $93 bill. The utility maintains that’s the price of beefing up the electric grid in a statewide effort to roll out a million electric vehicles by 2030 and phase out carbon emissions from power plants by 2050, as outlined in landmark state legislation signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in 2021.

House Bill 2878 and House Joint Resolution 23 both include provisions that would expand the scope of public-private infrastructure partnerships, in effect ceding a portion of control over planning and development to private entities, opponents said. The infrastructure most immediately in question is I-55, specifically a plan to expand the highway by adding express toll lanes that would be managed by a private party.

Before adjourning Friday, state Rep. Steven Reick said he’s ashamed of the legislature. “We’ll probably be here until 3 o’clock on some morning just in order to pass a budget because that’s the tradition,” Reick said. “The tradition is dropping it at 3 in the morning so nobody sees what we do under the cover of darkness.”

In the month before essential movement went into effect, Sheriff Tom Dart said 73% of people on electronic monitoring in Cook County who asked to leave home for a specific reason were allowed to do so, with the reasons ranging from regularly scheduled doctor appointments, job interviews and laundry runs. But from Jan. 1, 2022 until May 1, 129 people in Cook County have been arrested while on such passes; 29 of them were gun-related charges.

“This bill will prohibit out-of-state law enforcement from utilizing automatic license plate data gathered in Illinois to prosecute people seeking legal reproductive health in Illinois,” state Sen. Sara Feigenholtz said. The measure also would prohibit the use of such camera data by out-of-state law enforcement for tracking down undocumented migrants in Illinois.

“I understand the intent, we want to help those that need to be served, however, there are much better ways to do it than putting the future taxpayer on the hook of Illinois, and having the government run grocery stores is an absolute, horrendous idea,” state Rep. Martin McLaughlin said.

The unions claim the program strips money from public schools, but that’s nonsense. The scholarships are privately funded, and the Invest in Kids Act was part of a bipartisan bill that created an evidence-based funding model and provided $350 million a year to Illinois public schools. Since the scholarship program started, Illinois has funneled an extra $1.3 billion into public education.

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation may soon be unable to require criminal background information from certain applicants for licensure. Under current law, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation may consider mitigating factors and evidence of rehabilitation contained in an applicant’s record after finding that the applicant for a license, certificate, or registration was previously convicted of a felony or misdemeanor.

Multiple trade organizations and the Chicago and Illinois Chambers of Commerce noted that potential negligence damages would increase by 50% and expressed concerns about the electronic signature provisions.

“The automatic underfunding of pensions in the state budget has severe consequences for the overall fiscal health of Illinois. Despite claims of passing a balanced budget, inadequate pension contributions automatically tip the scales towards imbalance. The failure to address this issue not only exacerbates the pension crisis but also undermines the long-term financial stability of the state.”

There’s too much at stake, says U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, for Republicans to dig in on the debt ceiling crisis.

Said Pastor Corey Brooks, CEO of Project HOOD – a well-known nonprofit community development organization in Woodlawn, “Sometimes I think, in our community, we fail to make the tough decisions until things just die.”

“We believe that children with special needs only get one chance at a quality education. It is alarming and unacceptable that Governor Pritzker, Speaker Chris Welch, and Senate President Don Harmon would even consider terminating this program…The Invest in Kids Act is set to expire unless these political leaders quickly become education champions and save the program by removing the sunset. It’s that simple.”

HB2245, if signed by Gov. JB Pritzker, will force any car manufacturer which sells its vehicles in the state to create a 24/7 hotline for use by law enforcement to obtain a stolen car’s location to the best of a manufacturer’s technical abilities. Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart helped to craft the bill and he wants to see similar legislation at the federal level.

The Farm to Food Bank pilot program has been administered by Feeding Illinois and was launched in 2021 with grant funding from USDA. The program connects food banks with Illinois farmers to establish a pipeline of fresh food for food pantries throughout the state. It also provides a secondary market for products that might be left in the field or trees, or blemished products.

Jim Dey: “This is Illinois — the state where financial prudence goes to die. There’s always a caveat. Even as Mendoza applauded another step toward fiscal probity, Gov. J.B. Pritzker and his legislative supermajority are preparing to pass new budget that shortchanges the state’s five public pension systems by $4.4 billion.”

While the economy has proved resilient in many places, it has had an uneven effect on cities. The pressures facing municipalities include the imminent end of federal pandemic aid, uncertainty around the economic condition of downtowns, inflation, and increased demand for social services and other city services.

Passing a budget is arguably the single must-happen task for lawmakers and it was supposed to have been done by Friday, but that self-imposed deadline came and went without any budget action. Other proposals remain in flux, including significant packages to do with elections, cannabis and red light cameras.

Tom Weitzel, retired chief, Riverside Police Department: “Officer Preston grew up in the city. Her college professor stated she stood out in class as ambitious and professional, and she wanted to advance. She was homegrown, educated locally, female, young, African American, and stayed in the community she served — that should mean something to every Chicagoan.”

State Rep. Dan Caulkins explained he couldn’t support the hard deadlines for the mandated wage increase for disabled workers. “Let’s have the task force. Let’s get together. Let’s work on trying to find a way. Let’s look at federal programs that we can bring here for every sheltered care workshop. But before we do that, let’s not force this minimum wage on our sheltered care workshops.”

Dawn Blackman, who works as the steward of Randolph Street Community Garden in Champaign, which feeds more than 40 families, said, “Green spaces keep people calmer, getting to know your neighbor before there’s a problem helps to keep neighborhoods calmer. It’s a win-win situation, and it feeds people in a food desert.”

Two pension-related measures await action in the legislature. House Bill 4098 would discontinue the General Assembly Retirement System (the worst funded of the state’s five systems) and the Judges’ Retirement System and would allow for future members to be offered enrollment into the existing State Employees’ Retirement System. House Bill 4099 would adjust the pension age for individuals who provide various security duties for the state of Illinois.

The measure phases the policy in over two years so schools can garner funding for the change, which is more than half the state’s schools, according to state Rep. Patrick Windhorst.

The measure requires Illinois school districts, excluding private religious schools, to create and maintain at least one written policy prohibiting discrimination and harassment against students based on race, color or national origin. “A November 2021 report found that hate crimes in schools increased by 81% from 2016 to 2018,” state Rep. Maurice West said.

With Illinois being one of just 14 states that does not have a federally recognized American Indian reservation, the bill establishes that students in elementary school begin learning about Native American history including Native American contributions to art and politics. In the case of older students, darker parts of that history, including the “genocide of and discrimination against Native Americans,” are also required to be part of the instruction.

Illinois citizens wanting to sue the state for alleged violations of the constitution would only be able to file their complaints in Sangamon or Cook counties with a bill advancing in Springfield. Two high-profile cases, the challenges against the state’s no-cash bail law and the state’s gun ban, resulted in temporary restraining orders against the laws. Those cases, filed in Kankakee County and Macon County, respectively, are still pending before the Illinois Supreme Court.

Tony Sanders said the pandemic was a critical point in recognizing the importance of meeting the needs of students, and not just at the academic level. “I’m more worried about the social-emotional gaps that we’re seeing versus the academic gaps,” he said. “I actually think it existed before the pandemic; we just were not as attuned to it as we are now.”

Little Liberty, a 34-foot replica of the Statue of Liberty, originally stood atop a warehouse in New York City. After some restoration work in Illinois she’ll stand at the entrance to the National Building Arts Center, facing Eero Saarinen’s Gateway Arch. “We’re putting it up, so it’s going to be over 50 feet in the air,” said Michael Allen, of the National Building Arts Center. “It will be visible from the Gateway Arch Observation Deck.

“There are about 75,790 pieces of property in (Champaign) county, and the total tax take by various taxing districts — school districts, cities and villages, park districts, community colleges, fire protection districts and others — this year amounts to more than $451.7 million. Last year, it was $419 million. Six years ago, it was $332.6 million.”

The Illinois State Senate approved legislation introduced by powerful Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, that would rewrite the rules on where Illinois residents are allowed to file lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of state laws or seeking court orders blocking state officials from enforcing such laws or taking constitutionally questionable actions. The legislation further makes clear that it would not matter how far away from Chicago or Springfield plaintiffs may live, or the difficulties involved for those attempting to press their constitutional rights claims, as the legislation states that “the doctrine

Both measures passed the House and Senate without opposition and require signatures from Gov. J.B. Pritzker before becoming law.

“Of course, in getting to know our new friends we invariably ask what brought them to the area, and the answers are consistent: property taxes, home values and now the ability to work remotely. Mixed in are occasional comments about politics, but this isn’t as common as one might think.”

Mark Klaisner, president of the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools, doesn’t see how such investigations of reporting of bullying can fit into a legislatively mandated timeline. Lawmakers could say “in an expedient fashion” or expect three days. “But we can’t guarantee one day,” he said.

State Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer said he expects the state budget to, once again, be filed “at the last minute” and quickly pushed through by the supermajority party, a customary process in recent years. Meanwhile other major, wide-ranging initiatives were filed in a similar last-minute fashion, including an exapansive cannabis regulatory bill, a broad elections bill and an ethics proposal prohibiting political donations from red light camera companies.

Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth discusses U.S. support for Ukraine, the debt ceiling showdown and the Race for 2024.

From a potential south suburban airport to free meals for Illinois students, here’s the latest look at where several bills stand as lawmakers prepare to leave Springfield.

The bill’s final passage caps a yearslong effort by Central Illinois Regional Airport leaders to expand the airport’s taxing boundaries. Currently, only those who live within Bloomington-Normal city limits pay property taxes to the airport. After this change, everyone in McLean County will pay them. It’s expected to raise the overall tax bill for rural McLean County residents but lower them for those living in Bloomington-Normal.

“Given their sloppy initial oversight, it’s fair to say they deserve all the trouble this issue has created for them. Unfortunately, Illinois taxpayers are right there with them, well within the blast radius. It reminds us of the question routinely posed about government in Illinois: Does this state have a revenue problem that necessitates substantial tax increases? Or does it have a spending problem caused by reckless legislators who insist on finding new ways to spend money?

After Tuesday’s oral arguments in the gun ban challenge, attorney Jerry Stocks said the question of judicial integrity was important to address, but concerns still linger. The court could rule on the gun ban challenge in the weeks ahead. “If we see how the ruling is and the ruling is adverse, we just have to measure and evaluate at that time,” Stocks said.

During House floor debate, Rep. Jeff Keicher, R-Sycamore, renewed his request for an estimate as to when a draft copy of the budget might drop – or at least a revenue estimate for the state’s fiscal year that begins July 1. “You’re asking me?” replied Rep. Jay Hoffman, a Democrat from Swansea who was presiding over the House chamber at the time. Hoffman’s quip elicited laughs from members, and Keicher broke into a smile. “Funny story,” Keicher responded. “After I made my inquiry last night, I had eight members of

Recognizing the unique challenges faced by Black immigrants in Illinois, a resolution sponsored by State Senator Mattie Hunter to create the Task Force on Black Immigrants has been adopted by the Senate. House Joint Resolution 18 was adopted by the Senate on Friday.

Senate President Don Harmon introduced an amendment which sets courtrooms in Sangamon and Cook counties as the only locations where actions alleging constitutional violation brought on by legislation or executive orders can be heard. “The reality is we’re trying to legislate venue shopping because certain constitutional officers in the state, frankly, are having a lot of their decisions challenged by the people that they’re supposed to serve,” said Sen. Jason Plummer, later calling the legislation an “affront to democracy.”

The major obstacle facing budgeteers is how to account for its health care program for undocumented adults. Originally estimated to be $220 million in Gov. JB Pritzker’s budget proposal in February, recent reports indicate that number is nearly $900 million short.

Friday, on the last day of scheduled session without a budget, House Minority Leader Tony McCombie said Republicans have not been invited by the Democratic majority to help craft the budget.

Under SB 2243, the state board must develop and adopt a comprehensive literacy plan by Jan. 31, 2024 and create a rubric by July 1, 2024. Local school districts could use the rubric to evaluate their reading lesson plans. In addition, the bill requires the state to develop training opportunities for educators by Jan. 1, 2025, and future elementary school teachers will also be tested on their knowledge

Enacted in 2021, the law would have forbidden people and organizations from outside Illinois from donating to campaigns or specific kinds of political committees designed to support judicial candidates. Further, Democrats imposed a $500,000 limit on all donations to judicial campaigns.

The current and projected accounts payable amounts are a major improvement from the large backlog of bills in previous years and represents a normal bill payment schedule.

Community leaders believe the new ethnic identity designation will give the state important insight into health care, education and employment. For instance, during the pandemic, when they were handing out food at the Islamic Center, this data would have allowed them to better understand how much of the community received the vaccine, and how well it worked.

“There’s not a single business organization that supports this legislation, except the trial bar,” Illinois Manufacturers Association president and CEO Mark Denzler said. “Make no mistake, this is not BIPA reform. … Just when we thought BIPA couldn’t get any worse for businesses in Illinois, lawmakers unveil a proposal that will only increase abuse of this law by trial attorneys.”

Senate Bill 1782 provides that a video blogger who features a minor child in 30% of their content shared on online platforms like YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, or others must set aside 15% of gross earnings on the video content in a trust account to be preserved for the benefit of the minor upon reaching 18 years old. The measure also would allow the child to request the deletion of the content upon turning 18.

State Rep. Lance Yednock said there is still time to address any issues. “We are a long way away from this happening, but you have to plan for it now to start thinking about what we may need in the future, which is going to be a lot more carbon-free energy that can be produced carbon-free from advanced nuclear reactors.”

Hendon and a group of business owners are urging Gov. JB Pritzker to make changes to allow them to sell interest to investors to get their businesses up and running.

“In fact, when measured in 2023 inflation-adjusted dollars, Illinois has realized no net revenue growth over the past 24 years from its sales taxes, liquor gallonage taxes, insurance taxes, corporate franchising taxes and associated fees combined. Projected forward over the next 20 years, Illinois’ extant tax policy won’t generate sufficient revenue growth to cover the cost of both maintaining the same level of public services currently provided into the future and repaying existing debt service. Which is the definition of a structural deficit.”

In 2021, there were changes to the Climate And Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA), which allows people to have solar panels installed to their homes and the Illinois Power Agency pays them back based on the size of the home and how much energy it would consume. More than 2,000 families are currently waiting for their claims to be processed.

Current federal law prohibits a non-U.S. citizen from becoming a police offer throughout the country. House Bill 3751 looks to change that law in Illinois.

“For decades, Illinoisans have seen state lawmakers pass surface reforms that simply delay the state’s pension challenges. Illinoisans have also seen state courts strike down any meaningful pension reforms because of the Illinois Constitution’s extreme pension provision, which has been interpreted to mean pension benefits are prioritized above all other government spending. This poll indicates the majority of Illinoisans are not OK with the status quo. “

“The state generated $212 million in gas-tax revenue in April, the highest monthly total for the fiscal year that began July 1, 2022. Look for that number to go even higher on July 1, 2023, when another automatic gas-tax hike takes effect.”

Supporters of the legislation, including the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, say it will enhance “victims’ rights.” But business groups, including the Illinois Manufacturers Association, and Republicans warned the law would only make Illinois – a state already known as being unfriendly to business and employers – even less so.

That amendment to SB 79 would exempt “relicensure” of nuclear power plants from the requirement that they use “advanced nuclear reactor” technology, which would be required for new construction.

In 2021, the lawmakers passed a bill requiring that Asian American history be taught, making Illinois the first state in the nation to do so. Before that, lawmakers passed requirements for teaching Black history, which followed laws requiring lessons about the contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. “There are 134 standards that a kindergarten teacher must teach throughout the year. … Our teachers are coming out of COVID, we are struggling to teach basic math, writing, reading. When is this institution going to give our educators a break?” state Sen. Seth Lewis said.

State Rep. Patrick Windhorst said the proposal is going to put some Illinoisans out of work. “At least 25% of polystyrene in North America is manufactured in Illinois,” Windhorst said. “Polystyrene food ware is also manufactured at a number of manufacturing facilities throughout this state, so there will be an impact on jobs.”

“So we took into consideration the concerns of several members who voiced that concern in terms of again, people who walk into a restroom and might be offended by a urinal so what we are trying to do is to make sure that we are addressing those concerns,” state Sen. Celina Villanueva said. “Urinals are just as good as a toilet.” State Sen. Neil Anderson asked, “Are they going to be offended if I leave the toilet seat up?”

Earlier this year, lawmakers considered a wide array of major environmental proposals that have, so far, not been moved forward. These include a pilot project for off-shore wind on Lake Michigan, a new regulatory framework for carbon sequestration and a measure that would provide relief to utility consumers.

No matter what rhetoric about passing a balanced budget comes out of Springfield, the state budget will automatically be unbalanced because of inadequate pension contributions.

Business representatives are crying foul as 11th-hour legislation to allow unlimited punitive damages in wrongful-death cases is poised to pass the state Senate today and clear the Legislature. The bill, known as HB 219, flew through the House on Tuesday on a party-line vote of 75-40. The Senate Executive Committee cleared it yesterday, also on a strict party-line vote.

Legislators will spend the next 48 hours passing a flurry of bills that could reshape Illinois law. Also, per state law, they must approve the governor’s 2023-24 budget by June 1. Three items for consideration are pension funding, new ride-share rules, and a new bill to water down Illinois’s existing Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).

House Bill 2471 creates the Healthy School Meals for All program to provide state funding to Illinois schools to enable them to offer quality, free school meals to all children who need and want one, no matter their family’s income. It is estimated to cost around $115 million in the first year, and up to $194 million in future years, depending on how many schools and students opt-in.

In a new lawsuit against the Illinois Department of Agriculture, more than a dozen licensed cannabis transporters accuse the state of failing to regulate how marijuana is being moved – despite strict and expensive regulations in place. “I can’t keep paying the licensing fee every year to make zero sales,” said Norberto Brown, who has poured thousands of dollars into his truck, including GPS, cameras mounted inside and a refrigeration system.

Black and brown cannabis license holders said they are struggling to open dispensaries in Illinois and if they cannot open for business by the end of July they will lose their license.

Population decline being concentrated among the most populous areas of the state wasn’t because these areas have more people to begin with. Even when controlling for population levels, Illinois’ largest cities are experiencing rates of population decline more than 50% faster than smaller communities.

Sarah Bonner held a “book tasting” for students in March and offered an array of fiction and nonfiction titles including Juno Dawson’s “This Book Is Gay,” which quickly became the epicenter of a massive controversy when parents called the police over the book choice. It is the ninth-most banned book in America, according to Publishers Weekly.

Jim Dey: “In February, Champaign County Circuit Judge Jason Bohm ordered (Sally K.) Carter to repay $1.8 million in unaccounted grant money to the Illinois Department of Human Resources. The $1.8 million was awarded to Carter in 2016 so she could oversee social-welfare programs aimed at assisting lower-income children and teens…Another issue…raised was Carter’s relatively recent employment as a member of Urbana state Rep. Carol Ammons’ staff.”

Rep. Jay Hoffman said his bill would give heirs the same right as families of an injured person, who can presently seek punitive damages. Suits against government officials, state and local, would still be exempt from damages if the legislation passes.

The bill’s language requires the Department of Transportation to enter into public-private agreements and to establish a prequalification process for vendors to participate in the development, financing, construction, management and operation of the new airport. This process must be offered within the next six months, according to the bill.

By declining to intervene Wednesday morning, the Supreme Court didn’t make any decision about the constitutionality of the Illinois law. Instead, the high court merely allowed Illinois to begin enforcing the law’s provisions. There is plenty of reason to believe the Supreme Court will step in to vindicate both Bruen and the Second Amendment by striking down the Illinois law (or a similar law in a different state) as unconstitutional.

The ruling allows the Illinois law to remain in effect while lower courts deliberate on its constitutional status. Those who already legally own such weapons would not have to turn them in.

The state flag has remained basically the same since it was first adopted in 1915. Its only change in 1969 was an addition of the word “Illinois” underneath an eagle standing on a rock with a

The legislation requires certain courses for grades six through 12 include teaching about Native American nations’ sovereignty and self-determination with a focus on urban Native Americans, as well as information about discrimination and genocide of Native Americans in North America.

The legislation makes $20 million in tax credits available annually for eligible companies. Said state Rep. Ryan Spain, “We [Republicans] would advocate that we need to continue to make changes, wholesale, large-scale changes to improve the economic competitiveness of the state of Illinois. So I hope this can be a starting point where Democrats are listening to Republicans and understanding what we need to do to make sure that we are growing our economy.”

Last year’s budget was over 3,000 pages and was presented by the Democratic majority to Republicans at the last moment, giving the public no time to review it.

Opponents pushed back and said the vagueness of the overall proposal likely will lead to court involvement challenging the bill if it were to become law. Attorney General Kwame Raoul said, “If that’s what gives you pause with this then we just need to just revise our Illinois codes along a wide range of laws that we’ve set out.”

The U.S. Supreme Court has turned aside a long-shot bid to secure an order blocking the state of Illinois from enforcing its ban on so-called “assault weapons” while legal challenges to the law continue to play out in lower courts. This means the law, which bans the sale and purchase of a long list of semiautomatic firearms and related accessories will most likely remain in effect throughout much of the summer.

“No portion of that cost is reimbursable by the federal government,” Wirepoints reported. Illinois is being crushed by fleeing citizens and an ever-growing mountain of debt, which stands at more than $154 billion. This program would be an expensive investment for even the most fiscally sound states, but in Illinois, it’s unaffordable and pushes the state closer to the brink of economic ruin.

Jaclyn Driscoll, a spokeswoman for Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, said lawmakers still have time to extend Invest in Kids before the end of the year; State lawmakers could approve an extension during a special session or the veto session in the fall. If Invest in Kids is allowed to end, Illinois will be bucking the trend of red states such as Indiana and

While the additional transfers into the Rainy Day Fund are a welcome boost, Comptroller Susana Mendoza continues to call for regular automatic deposits into the fund during strong economic times, without having to depend on one-time infusions from future legislatures.

The report from The Pew Charitable Trusts scored states based on the volatility of major revenue streams over 20 years that included sales taxes, personal income taxes, and corporate income taxes while controlling for changes in state tax policy. While Illinois tax revenues were among the most unpredictable in the nation, its neighbors make it look even worse. Kentucky, Iowa, and Wisconsin were ranked as having among the most stable revenues.

While tollway board vice chairman Jim Connolly was not accused of wrongdoing, the recordings played at a recent bribery trial appear to show him pledging allegiance to former Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan, who is now under indictment, and his top lieutenant who was just found guilty of bribery conspiracy.

“This bill is a pension sweetener, pure and simple,” Ms. Lightfoot’s finance chief, Jennie Huang Bennett, said in legislative testimony last week.

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="article-image article-image-ux-impr aligncenter" tabindex="0" title="Irene Perez holds up a “Healthcare For All” sign during a news conference at Alivio Medical Center to urge the passing of the Healthy Illinois For All bill on May 16, 2023, in Chicago. If passed, the bill would provide funded health care services for Illinois immigrants." src="https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AA1bhzKk.img?w=768&h=512&m=6&x=124&y=418&s=781&d=249" alt="Irene Perez holds up a “Healthcare For All” sign during a news conference at Alivio Medical Center to urge the passing of the Healthy Illinois For All bill on May 16, 2023, in Chicago. If passed, the bill would provide funded health care services for

“If you look at the amount of money that is being saved by our Illinois families,” said Dr. Erica Thieman of the Illinois State Board of Education, “when they get a three or higher, they don’t have to pay for that college credit — it’s in the $200 million range.” It does cost students money to take the exam: nearly $100 a pop, with many students taking multiple exams. But in Illinois, low-income students only have to pay $7 per exam thanks to supplemental state funding.

“I want to ensure the Secretary of State’s office implements equitable hiring strategies and promotes an inclusive culture that will improve interactions with customers and the public,” Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias said. “This is a top priority of my administration…”

The Illinois House passed House Bill 219, which would reverse current law that prohibits insurers from paying punitive damages in wrongful death cases. Many states that do allow for punitive damages also limit both punitive and non-economic damages in some way, which Illinois does not.

“This was about the fundamental individual right under the Second Amendment that could not be diluted by Illinois’ version of the Second Amendment,” plaintiff’s attorney Jerry Stocks said after the hearing.