* Attorney General Kwame Raoul at the City Club today…

AG Raoul: I often get that type of question asked different ways: What’s my top priority? What’s top of mind? What are my top three priorities? And it’s very difficult presiding over an office that’s so multifaceted to say that defending against overreach from the federal government is more important than collaborating with law enforcement partners to stop the flow of drugs and guns, and to prosecute help state attorneys partners in prosecuting homicides, to work in collaboratively to protect against internet crimes against children, to fighting against monopolies that create higher costs and unfair competition for people throughout the country, it’s multifaceted […] there’s so much,

I’m just blessed to have the type of staff that I have, and some of which I have to credit my predecessor for recruiting, and some of which I take credit for bringing on. But the one of the most important, top of mind things, given that all the work that we achieve can’t be done without - I get the credit all the time but can’t be done with the staff that I have - is the work we’ve done to try to retain that staff. I took over in 2019, and in 2018 the National Association of Attorneys General did a survey of attorneys generals, attorney general offices from throughout the country on retention. 48 states responded. We were number 48, so we were training a lot of lawyers to go be employed elsewhere. I’ve been aggressive about going to the legislature in the seven and a half years that I’ve been in office to appeal for investment in this office that returns over this course of my seven and a half years, for every dollar of general revenue fund spent on the attorney general’s office, we return $21. Anybody who has that in their portfolio is rich, but we can’t do this type of work without adequate investment.

* Capitol News Illinois last year…

During budget hearings in April, Raoul said he needed additional funding to hire attorneys and other staff to handle the increased workload that his office now manages. Some of that workload, he said, is the result of legislation that has given the attorney general’s office more responsibility.

But he also mentioned the increased workload that stems from more than a dozen lawsuits his office has joined challenging actions of the Trump administration as well as defending the state against legal actions the administration has filed against Illinois. […]

As a result, the total “all funds budget” for the attorney general’s office [from FY26] comes to about $194.465 million, which is just $700,000 more than this year’s budget.

This year, the AG’s office was appropriated $184.47 million.

* Back to today…

AG Raoul: [U]nfortunately, at approximately 3 am in the morning a week ago Monday, we were shorted about $10 million from what our overall appropriation was for Fiscal Year 26, and I can’t imagine why what came about at 3 am in the morning to make that this investment, but —

Dan Gibbons: It’s interesting, especially when you put it in terms of the return on investment.

AG Raoul: The budget had included the full, keeping us just flat. All iterations of it all the way until 3 am in the morning had us fully funded, so I don’t know. […] And I should explain that, by the way, because, it can be characterized, and for those of who served in the legislature, they understand it can be characterized as a $5 million increase, because there was a $5 million increase in general revenue fund, but we’re funded by both the general revenue fund and other state funds. Overall, it’s a $10 million decrease from what we had to operate under last year.

Thoughts?