Illinois lawmakers are finalizing the state’s budget for the next fiscal year. But it’s not happening without some challenges.

States and the federal government jointly pay for Medicaid, which offers nearly-free health care coverage for roughly 80 million poor and disabled Americans, including millions of children. It cost $880 billion to operate in 2023.

The U.S. Agency for International Development has lost almost all ability to track $8.2 billion in unspent humanitarian aid following the Trump administration’s foreign funding freeze and idling of staffers, a government watchdog warned Monday.

“State and municipal budgets across the nation and here in Illinois are being decimated,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Wednesday. “It’s not a blue state problem or a red state problem.”

A Trump administration rule change could leave almost 700,000 people without food stamp benefits by mid-2020. How those changes could impact Illinois residents.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Wednesday will deliver her first budget address, with an expected plan to close an $838 million budget deficit. She’s already accounted for $200 million of that with a proposal to refinance $1.3 billion in city borrowing.

A lawsuit was filed by a coalition of major public employee and teacher unions in Springfield today claiming the cost-of-living cuts, salary caps and raising of the retirement age is unconstitutional. Eddie Arruza and his guests discuss how the state can move forward with funding the pension gap. Read the full complaint from We Are One Illinois.