Politics – Rich Miller

If you talk to the Statehouse old-timers, they’ll tell you they haven’t seen such a productive spring legislative session since Gov. Jim Thompson’s days. I think it’s probably safe to say that Gov. J.B. Pritzker cleared even that high historical bar this year, mainly because he had friendly Democratic super-majorities in both chambers. The Republican […]

 The governor and his top staff showed again last week that they can make things happen under the Statehouse dome. To corral 73 votes for a graduated income tax constitutional amendment in a 74-member House Democratic caucus accustomed to extreme coddling and over-protecting its more politically vulnerable members was quite something. Nobody was left off […]

As the spring legislative session nears its end, I want to take a moment to look back on one of the scariest times of the year with the hope that one of you might recognize something and help bring a deranged person to justice. You may have seen a brief news story about it, but […]

 If you want to see how times have changed this legislative session, take a quick look at Senate Bill 1591. The Illinois and Chicago-land chambers have been pushing legislation all session to offer state incentives to data centers, which stores massive amounts of electronic information. Illinois has been a national leader for data center locations […]

 If you listen closely to what Democratic state Reps. Sam Yingling and Jonathan Carroll are saying in public about their opposition to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s graduated income tax proposal, they appear to believe that Pritzker’s proposed tax rates aren’t high enough. Yingling and Carroll are both demanding significant property tax relief. “In Illinois,” Yingling wrote […]

 The Chicago Police Department reported last week that the number of people murdered in the city fell 10% during the first four months of 2019 compared to last year during the same period. While that’s good news and part of a two-year downward trend, lost in much of the coverage was a worrisome murder spike […]

There’s probably never a good time for a news story about how a source claims you, your wife and your brother-in-law are under federal investigation.  But when that report is aired just days before what is likely the most consequential five weeks of your entire governorship, that’s definitely not an opportune moment. Chicago’s public radio […]

 From the looks of things, the fine print of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s most important legislative priorities should start becoming public not long after state legislators return from spring break on April 30. Legislators, the governor’s office and stakeholders have been negotiating the nuts and bolts of numerous items for weeks and they’re just about finished. […]

Sen. Melinda Bush, D-Grayslake, spent more than a year holding hearings and overseeing negotiations which eventually produced SB 1829, a massive omnibus bill on sexual harassment. The proposal would do everything from limiting non-disclosure agreements that could prohibit disclosure of sexual harassment, to preventing unions from representing both an accuser and an alleged harasser in […]

 Freshman Rep. Terra Costa Howard, (D-Glen Ellyn), was reportedly none too pleased when Think Big Illinois began running TV ads in her district. Think Big Illinois is the dark money group created to support Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s progressive income tax proposal. It started running ads in late March in four individual House districts a couple […]

Almost exactly one year ago, I attended a hearing of the House Judiciary criminal law committee and watched as the Democratic majority killed one Republican-sponsored penalty enhancement bill after another. One would’ve made recruiting street gang members a Class 4 felony instead of the current Class 3. A bill to prevent child sex offenders from […]

 Should proponents of legalizing cannabis in Illinois be worried about Rep. Marty Moylan’s (D-Des Plaines) House resolution? The resolution, HR157, urges legislators “to slow the process of legalizing recreational marijuana in Illinois.” Moylan’s resolution now has 60 sponsors and co-sponsors, which is a majority of the House’s 118 members. In theory, anyway, it has enough […]