Stories by Ben Szalinski — Capitol News Illinois

The $55.1 billion spending plan set to take effect July 1 is the largest in state history and is supported by $55.3 billion in anticipated revenue, including more than $700 million in new taxes and more than $500 million in one-time revenues.

Lawmakers and labor unions have both expressed concern that benefits for Tier 2 employees are inadequate and that some workers in that category are in line to receive benefits out of compliance with federal law.

State lawmakers sent Gov. JB Pritzker a $55.2 billion budget on May 31 that raises $1 billion in new revenue and increases spending by more than $2 billion in fiscal year 2026 compared to the current year.

The ban was supposed to take effect on July 1, but lawmakers voted with strong bipartisan majorities Sunday morning to pass House Bill 742 to push the ban back until July 2026.

The $55.2 billion spending plan is supported by $55.3 billion of revenue, including just over $1 billion in new taxes and revenue changes. The four bills making up the budget and capital spending plan were part of a flurry of thousands of pages of legislation that went from introduction to passage in the final 48 hours of the legislative session.

The General Assembly has through May 31 to pass a budget with a simple majority vote before the threshold increases to a three-fifths vote on June 1.

Two hours in the state capital was enough for U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to criticize Illinois’ immigration laws and its governor while invoking the 2023 murder of a local progressive activist.

U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi has represented the 8th Congressional District since 2017. He was born in India and grew up in Peoria. He earned a law degree from Harvard and has worked in the Illinois Attorney General’s Office and led a small tech company in the Chicago suburbs.

U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, a resident of south suburban Matteson, has represented Illinois’ 2nd Congressional District since 2013 and recently served a short stint as chair of the Democratic Party of Illinois.

The Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability’s upward revision to its revenue forecast remains significantly more conservative than what Gov. JB Pritzker’s office projected when he proposed a budget in February.

Nine Illinois police officers who lost their lives in the line of duty in 2024 were honored at a ceremony in Springfield.

With no other Democratic candidates announcing campaigns for the 2026 primary by Monday morning, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton secured the endorsement of two of the state’s top Democrats before fielding any competition.

Standing on his backyard deck Thursday – the same place where he declared his 1996 candidacy for U.S. Senate – Illinois’ senior Sen. Dick Durbin reflected on his decision to retire after four decades in Congress.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker has made supporting LGBTQ rights a regular part of his platform as governor, including speaking at dinner events for the HRC and Equality Illinois in recent months. He’s set to speak to the New Hampshire Democratic Party on Sunday – one of the first Democratic presidential primary states.

Many public defender offices in Illinois, especially in rural areas, are in desperate need of resources to provide adequate defense services.

In a rare rebuke of a Democrat-sponsored bill, a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers voted against House Bill 3332, causing the bill to fail on a 49-51 vote. Bills require 60 votes to pass the House, and numerous Democrats voted against the bill or skipped the vote.

House Republican Leader Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, along with a group of individual voters, asked the court to reject the current legislative map for its partisan bias and lack of compactness. House Republicans wanted the court to appoint a special master redraw the districts.

Mexico was Illinois’ second-largest export market in 2024 with $32 billion worth of goods being sent to the country. Another $19 billion worth of Mexican goods came to Illinois that year, making the country Illinois’ third-largest import market.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker has rarely issued vetoes since he became governor in 2019 and has largely found himself on the same page with the Democratic supermajority in the legislature.

Chicago police executed a search warrant at the wrong address more than six years ago that left social worker Anjanette Young handcuffed and naked in her home as she was getting ready for bed.

Some of Illinois’ largest school districts already have adopted their own limits on cellphones in their classrooms, including Springfield, Peoria and Champaign.

The Local Food Purchase Assistance Program uses federal funding to buy fresh products from farmers at a fair market value, then distributes the food to communities via food pantries and other similar programs designed to help people in need for no additional cost.

Metra, the Chicago Transit Authority and Pace, along with the Regional Transportation Authority, which oversees some aspects of the Chicago area’s transit systems, collectively face a $771 million funding shortfall in 2026 as federal pandemic dollars run out.

State Superintendent Tony Sanders acknowledged that roughly 10% of funding for Illinois school districts could be at risk if the federal government ceases funding. ISBE receives billions annually from the federal government.

The bill comes after the Illinois Supreme Court issued a pair of rulings last year. The court ruled in September that the smell of burnt cannabis did not give police probable cause to search a vehicle, but three months later ruled the smell of raw cannabis was probable cause for a search.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker will present his seventh budget proposal Wednesday as the state faces a projected $3.2 billion revenue shortfall for fiscal year 2026, which begins July 1.