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"Illinois’ financial condition would be worse if not for recent favorable investment market conditions, which have increased the value of its pension system investments. As these investment values grow, more resources are available to pay future benefits. However, this has not led to a significant reduction in the state’s unfunded pension liability."
State Sen. Chris Balkema, representing a large rural area between Bloomington-Normal and Interstate 80, said it is better to use rooftops for solar than to build solar farms on top of farmland. “If there's not a solar panel on a rooftop, the rooftop is still there, so if we put a solar panel on a rooftop, we're getting some value out of that rooftop that otherwise there would have been no value,” he said.
Illinois lawmakers this spring failed to pass two bills to make it easier for nurses and physician assistants to work in the state. But Illinois committed to the moves in an application for funding that has awarded the state $193.4 million annually for the next five years under the federal Rural Health Transformation Program, part of the One Big Beautiful Bill.
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Pritzker has been polling between 1 percent and 7 percent in recent presidential polls, though he has insisted he’s focusing on his reelection bid.The governor has recently leaned into criticizing the Democratic Party as it reels in the mess of the 2024 presidential election.
"Organized labor has not been all that ecstatic about (Gov. JB) Pritzker. 'He is labor friendly but not a friend to labor,' is a common refrain. So they’re hoping to use this threat of deferred endorsements to put a bit of fear into him as he gears up to run nationwide."
The plan allows school districts to provide an extended motel stay for students and their parents, guardians, or the person who enrolled them in school.
The SEC charged Illinois with securities fraud in 2013 for misleading municipal bond investors about the state’s approach to funding its pension obligations. Weinberg said the state still uses the same schedule and claims it will pay 90 percent of its pension obligations over 50 years. “The SEC clearly said that is misleading to the public, so maybe the SEC should look at it again,” Weinberg said.
The new taxes, enacted under Senate Bill 3019, amended Illinois’ Sports Wagering Act to add a 1.75 percent tax on the first 5 million sports wagers per fiscal year made on prediction markets, and 3.5 percent for wagers made after. Those taxes are set to take effect next week, as is a requirement that Kalshi obtain an Illinois sports betting license. The initial license fee for online and mobile sports wager operators costs $15 million and is valid for four years.
Companies that violate the Illinois Oil and Gas Act could face stiffer fines under a new bill aimed at reducing the presence of orphaned and abandoned wells scattered throughout downstate Illinois - which as of this month, totaled nearly 3,900 wells. IDNR calculates the cost to plug them is around $155 million.
“It’s all with the goal by the federal government to basically push people off of SNAP,” the governor said.
A prediction market sued this week in federal court over the tax, alleging that the state’s move is barred by federal law.
Ideal US Talent Worker OpCo LLC announced under Illinois' WARN Act that nearly 1,400 employees in five Chicago-area counties would be laid off as part of a "restructuring" within the company. The counties with impacted workers include Cook, Kane, Kendall, Lake and McHenry, according to the filing.
Kalshi’s federal lawsuit, filed in Chicago, seeks an injunction against the transaction taxes ranging from 1.75 to 3.5 percent that state lawmakers voted to slap on every “exchange wager” beginning next month on the prediction markets that have exploded in popularity. But Kalshi — and the Trump administration’s Commodity Futures Trading Commission — maintain that the “event contracts” traded on their markets don’t constitute gambling and can only be regulated by the federal government.
The DHS secretary said Illinois has failed in 29 facilities to have adequate medical or dental care. “They have one doctor per 1,875 detainees. We have one per thousand,” Secretary Markwayne Mullin said.
The data shows Illinois made errors on 14.7 percent of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program payments in federal fiscal year 2025. That includes 13.3 percent of all payments being higher than they should have been. The error rate is higher than the 11.6 percent rate of the previous fiscal year.
The minimum age for a driving test will be raised from 79 to 87, although drivers 79 and older will still be required to take a vision test, and if they have a driving violation, a written test. The 2025 law also creates a process for immediate family members to report cognitive or physical health declines to the state for review.
Teacher contracts expire this year in at least 60 school districts with educators represented by the Illinois Federation of Teachers. IFT is the state affiliate of CTU and embraces the tactics CTU uses to try to further its political goals. But the CTU’s control of IFT became more concrete when CTU President Stacy Davis Gates took the reins at IFT as well.
"Since (Gov. JB) Pritzker took office in 2019, Illinois’ real gross domestic product has grown just 8.2 percent through 2025, ranking 46th among states. Meanwhile, the U.S. grew 17.7 percent. That difference translates to missing jobs, investment and tax revenue. In this light, pausing a policy that leverages our existing assets seems particularly self-defeating."
This plan could increase the income eligibility threshold for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). "The reality is this is another rate increase on the people who are middle income and all the way up," said Rep. CD Davidsmeyer. "If we're talking about affordability, frankly, we can't afford it."
Jim Dey: "Union leaders failed to win unemployment benefits for striking workers after spending two weeks on the picket line and substantial increases in pension benefits for Tier 2 public employees (those hired on or after Jan 1, 2011). Gov. JB Pritzker also drew their ire for his two-year suspension of state tax credits for new data centers whose construction would provide lots of jobs for union workers."
"A chatty CTA planner told Skokie officials, according to an account in Pioneer Press: 'NITA is unlocking so much money for us, and so much opportunity for us to think about how we can evolve the transit service.' ... While the CTA plans for static fares and expanded services, despite ridership below pre-pandemic levels, I-Pass owners (most tollway users) will find it will cost more to travel on some of the 294 miles of tollways across a dozen northern Illinois counties."
Under the deal, Walmart will secure approximately 176 megawatts of wholesale electricity supply from the Dresden facility in Morris. The agreement includes 30 megawatts of additional generating capacity that will be created through efficiency improvements at the plant to help support Walmart's new technology-focused perishable goods distribution center currently being developed in Belvidere.
An exception in the federal law gives states with the highest error rates more time to try to reduce them. Illinois is one of a few jurisdictions receiving a one-year, cost-share delay.
“The $2 billion that we are owed just adequately funds, but when you are repairing harm you have to fund above and beyond,” Chicago Board of Education member Jitu Brown said. Brown also asked that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson duplicate his December 2025 $1 billion tax-increment-financing sweep to Chicago Public Schools.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled occasional and "habitual" marijuana use alone cannot be used by governments as a reason to deny people the right to own guns. In Illinois, however, the state can still deny FOID cards, which are needed to legally own guns in the state, to anyone the state determines to be "addicted to or a habitual user" of marijuana.
The legislation, spearheaded by state Sen. Celina Villanueva and state Rep. Mary Beth Canty, limits access to medical record systems containing abortion-related information; Any information on abortion services will be required to be segregated from the rest of a patient’s medical record, which will have access disabled to out-of-state entities. If the new privacy safeguards are violated, patients would be able to sue.
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To chip away at Chicago’s $36 billion pension crisis and erase the city’s structural deficit, the 23-member group of civic leaders is also suggesting offering retirees lump-sum payouts in lieu of monthly pension checks and restoring the automatic escalator locking in annual property tax increases at the rate of inflation. Because Gov. JB Pritzker signed a pension sweetener that threatens to make Chicago’s pension crisis $11 billion worse, the task force also suggests requiring the state to provide funding for any future increase in pension benefits.
A separate proposal going before the City Council would permanently create the Department of Gun Violence Reduction with a budget of more than $100 million. The proposal also includes 15 community engagement specialists, a data analyst to track the illegal gun market and emergency relocation funding for victims whose lives are in danger.
“We know that from CPS and the city, we have been meeting weekly for months, that they believe they may have to cancel two weeks of school this year,” Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jackson Potter said. “Two full weeks of school, or layoff 1,700 additional people.”
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CPS said it is making headway on the initiative, and recently got a $250,000 grant from a Chicago-based foundation for its work on cultivating Black student unions and hiring more Black male educators. The statement also cited an increase in Black student enrollment in Advanced Placement courses and ongoing efforts to reduce discipline for Black students.
"Think about that. If you're in the market to buy a house or an apartment, you don't offer $550,000 when likely competing bids are $400,000. And if you do, you're considered a fool."
Retired Riverside police chief Thomas Weitzel said the new department is not just a scheme, but a scam. “It creates bureaucracy instead of deploying officers, that’s what this will do. That’s not good, and nor are there any measurable outcomes that will come from that,” Weitzel said.
The stepped-up enforcement comes as the CTA faces federal threats to pull millions in funding and as the state mandates reforms under last year's transit funding bill. The sheriff's office said it has spent $3.1 million on the patrols since late March. Funding for any new transit policing entity remains unclear.
The budget timing is especially critical, Chief Financial Officer Wally Stock said, because the district is expected to hit the current fiscal year's borrowing limit of $1.25 billion in August.
The battle between a billionaire and the teachers union mirrors wider power struggles within the party.
"There must be an impermeable, strictly enforced barrier between the political activism of the CTU and the foundational lessons taught to Chicago’s children. May Day was the ultimate case study of CPS letting that barrier completely collapse, choosing to look the other way while hiding behind a convenient veil of plausible deniability."
“So the mayor put a bid in six months ago, $3.3 billion, for parking meters that we don’t have the money for, didn’t disclose that to anybody in the City Council, and then agreed to a non-disclosure agreement, did not have to talk about said agreements, and now is unwilling to share all this information,” Ald. Matt O’Shea said. “I’m guessing someone on the fifth floor is listening right now, and I think we need to get someone down here to answer some of these questions.”
"The biggest issue is that in the last few years, only 20-25 percent of the homicides committed in Chicago have resulted in a timely prosecution. Chicago is an outlier here."
Fingerprint records allegedly linked Leonel Mercado Jaimes to a 2011 federal drug trafficking conviction in Chicago and a 2012 Illinois conviction for aggravated criminal sexual abuse. Authorities also determined that he had been deported in 2015 as an inadmissible immigrant, according to the complaint.
"That argument had a certain Chicago logic. The products were already being sold. Consumers were already buying them. The ordinary sales tax already applied. A separate hemp levy would have recognized the reality of the market while extracting revenue from it. ... But (Mayor Brandon) Johnson’s tax plan had a weakness. It looked like City Hall was monetizing a public health concern before proving it could control it."
In the city’s current year budget, youth employment was allocated $49 million, with participants between the ages of 14-24 being given a roughly $2,000 stipend for summer work.
The city’s main operating fund faces at least a $680 million structural deficit in 2027.
"This is all part of a pay-to-play operation. The unions fund Democratic campaigns and then Democratic politicians fund bloated union contracts. Teachers then cycle some of this money back into Democratic campaigns in a self-perpetuating machine. The only losers are the taxpayers and, more importantly, the children."
The aggressive legal posture marks an escalation in Bally’s campaign against video gambling in the city. After previously arguing that competition from video terminals would reduce casino revenue and undermine the city’s tax projections, the company is now warning that legalization could force a broader renegotiation of its agreement with Chicago and trigger legal action.
"I liken this to the deal that at the time Congressman (Bill) Lipinski … (voted) to bring us the Orange Line, which was beneficial to the city, but it also funded the Iran-Contra affair too, so let's not split hairs here as relates to jurisdictional items," West Side Ald. Jason Ervin said.
Ald. Pat Dowell was grateful to hear from youth, but wanted a more “balanced” hearing on the topic that includes Chicago police, the park and school districts and parents. “This is an important topic, and we really can’t sugarcoat it,” she said, citing a recent gathering where she says police recovered 53 guns. 
At stake is the money private interests are collecting from the meters — CPM reported nearly $189 million in revenues last year alone — as well as control of the parking spaces themselves.
The renewed concern about late-night crowds comes after a 39-year-old woman was shot multiple times about 4 a.m. June 7. The woman drove herself to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where she was listed in critical condition, police said.
"We live in a political culture in which some people have become so consumed by their hatred of Donald Trump they are willing to engage in increasingly bizarre conduct to express it. Burning a cross in Grant Park to protest a president hundreds of miles away is not rational political discourse. It is attention-seeking theater conducted with one of the most explosive symbols imaginable."
Elk Grove Village Mayor Craig Johnson said 20 data centers are currently operating, with five more under construction. He said the data centers generated $26 million in revenue to the village last year alone. In some years, the windfall is so high that the town issues $200 gift cards to residents as tax rebates.
Village board member Cory Wesley, perhaps the most outspoken proponent of eliminating single family zoning districts in Oak Park, says single family zoning is racist in origin and limits affordability and socio-economic diversity: “It was implemented to keep Black people out of various different areas, Oak Park being one of them. It is not unique to Oak Park, this is prevalent across the entire country.”
"Illinois is betting on a promising—but commercially unproven—technology." Wirepoints Research and Commentary
Moreover, the portion of new education dollars going to pensions is accelerating rapidly. 
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With $162 billion more from taxpayers, couldn't you deliver a few bond upgrades, too 
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A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.
Everybody needs a side hustle these days, and mine is Ukraine, where I am now.
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