* Gov. JB Pritzker was asked by reporters today if he had a response to former Gov. Pat Quinn’s call for a special session to take up a set of ethics reforms…

I saw the letter and I know there were enumerated some ideas at the end of the letter and I think those are, you know, ideas, some of them worthy of consideration. […]

Well, he’s asking for a special session. We’re still in session. So there’s an opportunity while in session and, of course, all along there are opportunities for the General Assembly to take up these ideas. […]

Well, again, I mean, the General Assembly has, you know, committees and hearings and has addressed ethics concerns over time. I don’t think that there’s anything that’s been specifically brought up by the recent doings in court that isn’t already illegal in law. They have been found guilty. And I think we need to look always at upgrading and improving our ethics laws in the state and so I want to continue to do that.

* Pritzker was then asked about downward revenue projections for the current fiscal year and if that means he’d be taking any of his budget proposals off the table, or what other impacts it could have…

Well as you know, we also projected downward number in the budget that I proposed in February, because we understand that the broader economy is slowing down a bit. And we also understood that the benefit to the economy of some of the stimulus that was put into it in prior years will also wane. So this is actually a lower revenue estimate that was put into my budget than we actually thought. We wanted to make sure that we were being conservative and you’ve seen I think everybody’s come down very close to where we are on the revenue estimate. So my budget actually takes all of it into account and if we pass the budget as it is, that budget would be balanced and indeed we would have a surplus.

* Has he figured out what to do about the exploding Medicaid program costs for non-citizens?…

Well, the General Assembly is considering all the options. The budgeteers as well as the various caucuses. So, it’s something that I hope they’ll come forward with their ideas about among the options that we presented, that they might want to use in order to make sure that the program fits within the budget. But my priority to be clear is balancing the budget. I’ve done that every year with the leaders. We need to make sure we do that again. We’re on a great trajectory from a fiscal perspective, we want to stay on that trajectory.

* He was also asked about Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s emergency declaration in the wake of an influx of asylum-seeking migrants…

What I can say is that we’re gonna do everything we can to take care of those who are sent here by Governor Abbott, that are sent here by mayors of cities in Texas. And it’s a humanitarian crisis. There’s no doubt about it. Thousands of people that are here legally, I might add. Asylum seekers here legally, who are being sent from the place that they arrived to someplace that they did not necessarily choose to go to. But it is our obligation as Americans to help take care of them. And it’s obligation of the federal government to step up and help us deal with that challenge. But we will do everything that we can. And I think if the mayor felt that an emergency needed to be declared, remember that just gives her more procurement capability than anything else. That is what she felt was necessary and I think that we’ve got to do what is necessary to take care of these folks. […]

There was an $800 million appropriation at FEMA that is meant to support states that are challenged with this. We’ve not received enough of that yet. And there will be I think more grants given in the next month, I am told, but we’re gonna fight hard for it and we deserve it. We’re doing everything that we should do to provide food, clothing and shelter for people who need it.

More on this presser later. I’m still waiting on some answers to a different question.