According to the 2020 Census, Cook County is 40% white, 26% Latino, 22% Black and 8% Asian. Chicago is 21% of the state’s population. But the statewide ticket recently endorsed by the Cook County Democratic Party is overwhelmingly made up of white Chicagoans (JB Pritzker, Alexi Giannoulias, Mike Frerichs and Margaret Croke), with two Black […]
Rich Miller
Posted inOpinion
Fights continue over RTA funding
The Taxpayers’ Federation of Illinois and the Regional Transportation Authority agree that a change to Illinois’ sales tax law will net the RTA an additional $150 million this year and another $225 million next year. That money will drastically reduce the impact of the looming $770 million “fiscal cliff,” which begins in January. The extra […]
Posted inOpinion
Illinois braces for impact of federal cuts
The costs to Illinois’ government because of the new Republican congressional budget reconciliation law will be steep. However, the state has some time to prepare itself, and possible Democratic gains in the U.S. House and Senate next year might be able to reverse or mitigate some of the steepest cuts to food security and health […]
Posted inOpinion
Pritzker’s new running mate is “The Chosen One”
Christian Mitchell has had strong detractors ever since Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle elevated the young Black man out of obscurity and backed him for the Illinois House in 2012. Preckwinkle chose her trusted aide Mitchell over appointed Rep. Kimberly du Buclet, D-Chicago. Preckwinkle’s move upset a lot of people in that part of […]
Posted inOpinion
Pritzker touts need to protect progress
“I ran for governor in 2018 to change our story,” Gov. JB Pritzker told a Chicago crowd June 26 as he announced his bid for a third term. “I ran for governor in 2022 to keep telling our story. And I am running for governor in 2026 to protect our story.” This general theme of […]
Posted inOpinion
Legislators react to Madigan sentencing, assassinations in Minnesota
I reached out last week to several members of the “19” – the Democratic House members who refused to vote to reelect House Speaker Michael Madigan in 2021, thereby forcing him into retirement. I asked for their reaction to Madigan’s 90-month federal prison sentence handed down a few days earlier. In talking with several members […]
Posted inOpinion
Chicago on list for ICE raids
As I write this, multiple news outlets have reported that the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency is preparing to deploy its Special Response Teams to five major U.S. cities, including Chicago, in the very near future. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s chief of staff Cristina Pacione-Zayas told reporters last week: “There will be tactical teams, […]
Posted inOpinion
Why the omnibus energy bill failed to pass
I asked Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch last week about the failure to pass an omnibus energy bill (the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act) during the just-ended spring legislative session. “I think the same thing that happened on energy happened on all the things, you know. Big bills take time,” Welch said. “And I […]
Posted inOpinion
State officials eye Chicago mayor’s race
For quite a while now, most folks in politics have assumed that Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias and Comptroller Susana Mendoza will probably run for mayor of Chicago in 2027. The incumbent Brandon Johnson is spectacularly unpopular, and a real hunger is developing in the city (again) for new leadership. Anyway, some wags have […]
Posted inOpinion
State prepares for reduction in federal dollars
The U.S. House’s Energy and Commerce Committee released its recommendations for budget reconciliation early last week. A preliminary review by the Congressional Budget Office projected that, if implemented, at least 8.6 million Americans would lose their Medicaid coverage during the coming decade. That translates to well over 300,000 Illinoisans. In addition, the CBO projected that […]
Posted inOpinion
Rep. Fred Crespo kicked out of caucus
House Speaker Chris Welch took the extraordinary actions last week of permanently kicking Rep. Fred Crespo, D- Hoffman Estates out of the House Democratic caucus, stripping him of his legislative staff, removing him from his appropriations committee chair’s position and booting him from the bicameral Legislative Audit Commission. Speaker Welch also suspended a Democratic staffer […]
Posted inOpinion
A conservative approach to state finances
I spent some time talking with a top legislative budget negotiator last week who said rank-and-file legislators will very soon have to come to terms with a state budget environment unlike anything many have ever seen before. The “budgeteer” didn’t know yet how things would shake out, but the person was adamant that weak revenues […]
