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 […]
Opinion
Posted inLetters to the Editor
Letters to the editor
OPPORTUNITY IN SANGAMON COUNTY As someone who has spent my career representing working men and women across central Illinois, I’ve seen what real investment can mean for a community. I’ve also seen how quickly progress stalls when we hesitate to invest in our future, which is why I believe the CyrusOne data center project deserves […]
Posted inOpinion
Saving money on police costs safety
The Jan. 22 edition of Illinois Times included an article by Dean Olsen with an overview of the upcoming city budget. Former Springfield budget director Bill McCarty blames the police and fire contracts for causing a “structural deficit” and pats himself on the back for the work he and former mayor Jim Langfelder did to […]
Posted inJames Krohe Jr.
A real planner this time
The city of Springfield has hired its own city planner, a real one this time. Her name is Suraksha Bhandari. She studied at the University of Utah after life in Nepal but she might find Springfield’s city hall no less strange a place than Mormon Salt Lake. She brings to the job degrees in architecture […]
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 inLetters to the Editor
Editors note 2/12/26
Once a month Springfield welcomes the world. At 7 p.m. Feb. 19, the World Affairs Council of Central Illinois hosts Reyna Torres Mendivil, consul general of Mexico in Chicago, for a free program open to the public at Illini Country Club. A big part of the job of a regional consul general is to be […]
Posted inLetters to the Editor
Letters to the editor 2/12/26
We welcome letters. Please include your full name, address and telephone number. We edit all letters. Send them to editor@illinoistimes.com. NOT JUSTICE I rent space from Chelsey Farley at her small business, The Soul Shoppe. I stayed to keep the shop open for her on Jan. 30 so she wouldn’t lose business while she attended […]
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 inLetters to the Editor
Letters to the editor
VOTE YES In March, Sangamon County voters will decide whether to create a county mental health board funded by a small, dedicated sales tax (“Creation of mental health board will be up to voters,” Jan. 29). As a pediatrician and president of the Sangamon County Medical Society, I strongly support voting yes. Mental health needs […]
Posted inEditor's Note
Editor’s Note
“A Forum on the City Garbage Ordinance,” the title of a recent Springfield public meeting, sounded like a recipe for complaints about disastrous public policy. Everybody knows, don’t we, that the city’s trash collection system, using multiple private haulers, leaves many households without regular pickups, an invitation for fly-dumping? Not so, says the Independent Coalition […]
Posted inJames Krohe Jr.
America’s Parkopolis
The Scots poet Robert Burns famously said (I’m using the version in English) “Oh, would some power gift us / To see ourselves as others see us!” For me, that power turned out to be YouTube. I am a latecomer to the video blog posts of transportation planning and engineering consultant Ray Delahanty, known professionally as […]
Posted inOpinion
New wisdom for a dangerous world
“We live in a world – the real world, Jake – that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world that have existed since the beginning of time.” – Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff, to journalist Jake Tapper […]
