Capital Facts

Illinois lawmaker going after fellow Republicans

Published by admin on Mon, 07/15/2019 - 1:21pm

For the second time this year, House Republican Leader Jim Durkin has stripped one of his member's access to a House communications staffer.
Rep. Chris Miller (R-Oakland) is the most recent to lose his state-funded communications staff member. Earlier this year, Rep. Dave McSweeney (R-Barrington Hills) lost his comms staffer for criticizing fellow Republican Rep. Steve Reick for allegedly making "racist" comments and calling on House GOP Leader Jim Durkin to resign for being a "fake Republican" and "corrupt insider."

Pension squeeze is real for all Illinois towns

Published by admin on Wed, 07/10/2019 - 8:00am

One of the points that Gov. JB Pritzker has made since Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot began using the news media to ask for a multi-billion dollar state pension bailout is that other parts of Illinois are having the same problems as our largest city.
Rockford is one of them, as the governor noted last week. Its first responder pension funds are in horrible shape for pretty much the same reason as so many others are: The state didn't require local governments to fully fund those particular pension funds, so a large number of locals just didn't do it.

J.B.’s private money for a private plane, so what

Published by admin on Mon, 07/01/2019 - 6:29pm

Gov. JB Pritzker signed the $45 billion infrastructure bill into law last week during a three-day fly-around to several Illinois cities.
It's a good bet that the billionaire Pritzker paid for the plane that took him and whatever staff he brought to the various venues, since he's regularly done that since taking office in January. The state hasn't had an appropriation to pay to operate its fleet of aircraft since Gov. Bruce Rauner halted their use during a long period of political gridlock.

Lt. Gov Stratton’s absence noted in Springfield

Published by admin on Mon, 06/24/2019 - 11:37am

"We are so proud of what we've been able to accomplish this first legislative session of ours," Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton told a TV interviewer earlier this month. "We said that we wanted to think big for the people of Illinois, we said that we wanted to get Springfield back on the track of working families and that's what we did."

More funding for colleges a step in right direction

Published by admin on Wed, 06/19/2019 - 8:00am

Back when this state was fairly well-run - meaning, before Illinois voters elected three anti-Springfield "populist" governors in a row - the general rule of thumb was that for every two dollars appropriated to K-12 education, higher education received one dollar.
The split wasn't based on any sort of scientific study, as far as I know. It was just the tradition, but the tradition seemed to work pretty well. Even in lean years, everybody got something, and our state's higher education institutions appeared to thrive.

Rookie governor off to a record start

Published by admin on Mon, 06/10/2019 - 3:15pm

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. JB Pritzker cleared even that high historical bar this year, mainly because he had friendly Democratic super-majorities in both chambers. The Republican Thompson had to deal with a Democratic-controlled legislature for almost all of his 14 years.

No turning back now for Pritzker, Illinois

Published by admin on Mon, 06/03/2019 - 12:25pm

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 the hook.

Threatening letter targets everyone receiving a state pension

Published by admin on Tue, 05/28/2019 - 10:55am

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 several state legislators reported receiving an identical mailer in late April with the headline: "Dead People Can't Collect Fat Pensions."  The envelopes were postmarked in Champaign, but that's a central collection point so the letters could've been mailed from anywhere in the region.

Union priorities shape end of session

Published by admin on Mon, 05/20/2019 - 1:34pm

If you want to see how times have changed this legislative session, take a quick look at Senate Bill 1591.
The Illinois and Chicagoland chambers have been pushing legislation all session to offer state incentives to data centers. A data center basically stores massive amounts of electronic information. Illinois has been a national leader for data center locations because the Chicago region is a national Internet hub, connecting the country's east and west, and has a reliable and plentiful electricity supply. Only two states, Virginia and Texas, have more data centers.

Grandstanding reps let the rest do heavy lifting

Published by admin on Mon, 05/13/2019 - 11:21am

If you listen closely to what Democratic state Reps. Sam Yingling and Jonathan Carroll are saying in public about their opposition to Gov. JB 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,” Rep. Yingling wrote in the Tribune last week, “the disproportionate reliance on and financial burden of property taxes to fund government — roads and bridges, education, police, fire and other essential services — is devastating.”