Illinois comptroller candidate state Rep. Margaret Croke (D-Chicago) reported receiving the maximum campaign contribution of $72,800 from Gov. JB Pritzker on Feb. 19. Since then, Pritzker has appeared in some Croke campaign ads. The day before the Pritzker contribution was reported, I spoke with incumbent Comptroller Susana Mendoza about the governor’s support of Croke – […]
Rich Miller
Rich Miller publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and CapitolFax.com.
Posted inOpinion
Teachers’ unions slam state budget
As expected, we did not see a whole lot of spending increases in Gov. JB Pritzker’s state budget proposal last week. Last year, Pritzker said his budget limited discretionary spending to less than a 1% increase. The plan unveiled last week limits discretionary spending to less than a half a point increase. An education funding […]
Posted inRich Miller
State seeks revenue streams
As I write this, Gov. JB Pritzker is preparing to give his annual budget address. It’s an unenviable task. Earlier this month, the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget released a report showing federal tax cuts caused a $587 million reduction in state revenues this fiscal year. The governor announced last month that he was […]
Posted inRich Miller
Put new spending ideas on hold
Gov. JB Pritzker announced a plan last week to “manage Illinois pension commitments through a set of proposals designed to build on the state’s recent fiscal progress and further reduce long-term risk for taxpayers and retirees.” The price tag, however, is already giving one legislative leader pause. And “fiscal progress” is not the reality when […]
Posted inRich Miller
Senate candidates debate
The top three Democratic U.S. Senate candidates faced off twice last week. The first debate wasn’t televised, so the live audience was quite small. The second debate was televised, so the audience was bigger. However, these debates don’t attract even a smidgeon of the audience of presidential debates, when half the country often tunes in. […]
Posted inRich Miller
Bears’ Indiana gambit changes tone of legislators
Illinois House Democrats were told last week that a state capital projects plan designed to assist Arlington Height’s bid to lure the Chicago Bears away from their Indiana stadium gambit would cost up to $895 million. None of the money would be used to directly build the new Bears stadium or the surrounding commercial district […]
Posted inRich Miller
Resign-and-replacement schemes
Remember the national uproar last November when U.S. Rep. Chuy Garcia bowed out of his reelection race at the last minute and quietly passed petitions to put his chief of staff Patty Garcia on the ballot? We saw a lesser, but still quite palpable mass grumbling when state Rep. Marty Moylan (D-Des Plaines) did the […]
Posted inRich Miller
SAFE-T Act questions persist
Gov. JB Pritzker set off a chain reaction last November when he told reporters he’d be open to changes in the SAFE-T Act, which eliminated cash bail and replaced it with a new pre-trial release/retention system, among other things. Pritzker was asked about the case of a woman, Bethany MaGee, who was horrifically set ablaze […]
Posted inRich Miller
Power shortages predicted
A recent study published by three state agencies warns electricity shortages are coming to Illinois. The shortages will start in PJM’s regional transmission system by 2029, with the shortage hitting Illinois’ ComEd territory (which is within PJM) beginning in 2030, and then kicks in hard by 2032. Capacity shortages in downstate Ameren’s territory are expected […]
Posted inRich Miller
Mid-decade congressional remap unlikely
The two most intense state legislative pressure campaigns I’ve witnessed both ended in failure. Back in 2017, Gov. Bruce Rauner tried everything he could think of to stop legislative Republicans from voting to increase the income tax to about where it was right before he took office for his one and only term. Both political […]
Posted inRich Miller
SAFE-T Act under fire again
In the days after the horrific burning of a woman on a Chicago CTA train by a clearly deranged habitual criminal suspect last month, some in the news media immediately focused on their go-to issue: The SAFE-T Act. “Illinois leaders blast SAFE-T Act after repeat offender charged with lighting woman on fire on CTA Blue […]
Posted inRich Miller
State targets SNAP program error rate
Congress’ “Big Beautiful Bill” that passed last summer could prove to be far more damaging to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in Illinois than most people know. A SNAP “death penalty” is built into the budget reconciliation law. Before we go further, there’s a caveat: The US Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service has […]
