Former Chicago Ald. Edward M. Burke asked Wednesday for a new trial or acquittal in spite of a federal jury’s resounding verdict late last year finding him guilty of racketeering and other crimes.
That jury found Burke, 80, guilty in December of 13 charges that included racketeering, bribery and attempted extortion. The panel also found that Burke committed racketeering acts in all four schemes outlined in his sweeping May 2019 indictment. […]
Burke’s lawyers pointed Wednesday to commentary by Kendall, who described the Field Museum scheme at trial as “an extremely odd attempt extortion count.” They argued her skepticism was well-founded, insisting that the law requires an attempt to extort “property.”
“There was no property here, only a potential job interview with the museum, and one which was never requested by Mr. Burke,” the defense attorneys wrote.
A charity organized by Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard has been told by the Illinois attorney general’s office to stop soliciting or accepting contributions, and that it must register with the state.
Separately, a law enforcement source confirmed federal authorities, including the FBI, are conducting an investigation targeting Henyard. The course said the probe has included recent interviews by investigators both inside and outside of Dolton, but is in the early stages and no charges have been brought.
The attorney general’s letter, dated Wednesday and sent by certified mail, notes the Tiffany Henyard CARES Foundation is not in good standing and states the attorney general has sent multiple letters advising, among other things, that it is not registered with the state.
However, the foundation hasn’t responded “and we have not been advised why there has been a delay,” according to the recent letter, sent by Pasquale Esposito, deputy bureau chief of the attorney general’s Charitable Trust Bureau.
* WBEZ | U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García faces a Democratic primary challenge from the right: Even as he identifies as a “deep-blue Democrat,” Chicago Ald. Raymond Lopez appears frequently with some of the country’s most popular right-wing cable TV news hosts — who count on him to share their views and loudly criticize his fellow Democrats. On Fox News in December with host Jesse Watters, Lopez said, “Most of the Democratic voters feel as though this party no longer represents them, that it’s been lurching too far to the left.”
* WBEZ | Eileen O’Neill Burke says she’s running for state’s attorney because ‘our justice system is not working’: O’Neill Burke is aiming for voters unhappy with Foxx’s leadership and convinced the county needs to pursue a more traditional approach to prosecutions in order to combat crime. It’s a message that is resonating with more conservative voters and donors. But O’Neill Burke’s Democratic primary opponent, Clayton Harris III, and other critics have said she is seeking to move the prosecutor’s office backward to a time of soaring incarceration rates and wrongful convictions. Harris won the Cook County Democratic Party’s endorsement in the race to replace Foxx.
* Tribune | FOP seeks extension of moratorium on moving CPD disciplinary cases through police board: The FOP argues that a handful of officers currently facing serious disciplinary charges will be “irreparably injured” if the Feb. 25 deadline is not extended, according to the motion presented to the judge Wednesday. “Because the City Council voted once again to reject the Arbitration Award, Police Officers represented by the (the FOP) are continuing to be denied their statutory right to grievance arbitration to resolve disciplinary disputes,” the union wrote in its Tuesday motion. “If the Court does not continue the current stay of Police Board proceedings and instead allows it to expire on February 25th, these Officers will be irreparably injured by being forced to proceed before the Police Board.”
* Tribune | ‘All hell was breaking loose’: Mystery deepens in case of Highland Park man accused of $400 million crypto hack on FTX: Powell was also believed to be involved with a violent Indiana-based gang known as the “ChoppaBoyz,” whose founding members were under indictment in a drug-related home invasion in South Bend and also were accused of robbing two of Powell’s associates in Utah as they carried a quarter of a million dollars in fraud proceeds back to Indiana, the affidavit stated. But the only charge that ever surfaced against Powell was a misdemeanor gun count filed in Lake County.
* Block Club | Devastated By Floods And Confused By FEMA, West Siders Form Their Own Recovery Group: The volunteer-run group advocates for neighbors, organizes crews to help with cleanup, helps people connect with repair companies and much more. Their work is particularly urgent due to the negative impacts mold can have on people’s health, especially since many flood victims have now been exposed to it for months as it spread through their homes.
* South Side Weekly | Sidewalk-Plowing Pilot Planned for Next Winter: Despite the North Side having the most complaints, a preliminary analysis of city data shows a higher concentration of snow clearance fines imposed on the South Side. The Weekly obtained documents from the Department of Administrative hearings that shows eight of the ten community areas with the most hearings for fines per capita are on the South Side. Englewood, which ranks forty-ninth in 3-1-1 complaints, had the most administrative hearings per capita since 2019, and the highest amount of fines levied. Lincoln Square, which ranks first in 3-1-1 complaints, was twenty-second in administrative hearing dockets per capita.
* Block Club | Unsanctioned Building Next To Puerto Rican Museum To Be Demolished Next Week: The demolition is a “giant step in the right direction” said neighbor Kurt Gippert, who has been vocal in his opposition to the unsanctioned construction. Gippert and his wife started a petition two years ago calling for the demolition of the structure on public land and for more community transparency. The petition received over 2,000 signatures.
* Tribune | R. Kelly’s appeal argument calls reasons for long sentence too vague, but court warns he could wind up worse off: Much of the brief hearing was dedicated to discussing whether Kelly should be resentenced. But in the end, Kelly’s lead attorney Jennifer Bonjean noted, his fate really hinges on what happens on appeal in his New York federal case, a racketeering conviction that got him a whopping 30 years behind bars. “That’s his life sentence,” Bonjean said during the 30-minute hearing at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse. “If that sentence sticks, he will probably die in prison.”
* Crain’s | From Daytona Beach, NASCAR offers post-mortem on ‘incomplete’ Chicago Street Race: “Our work is incomplete,” said Julie Giese, president of the Chicago Street Race. After more than a decade working at the Daytona International Speedway, Giese now lives in Chicago and is focused entirely on organizing the summer event. “There’s a lot that we wanted to do in Chicago, and the weather prevented us from doing a lot of it.”
* SJ-R | New look, but familiar feel: Springfield bar reopens following renovations: Brewhaus Bar is breaking open the shelves once again, opening for the first time since renovations shut down the business last year. Owner John O’Riordan held a soft open Monday, Feb. 12 for the establishment, opening the doors and inviting patrons back into the bar they know and love, with a new atmosphere to it.
* WBBM | Chicago accused of failing to protect migratory birds: ‘We’re frustrated’: The Bird-Friendly Chicago Coalition is expressing its frustration with the city of Chicago over its failure to act on bird-friendly design requirements for new construction. […] They’re frustrated, in particular, with the Department of Planning and Development. New York City is among those who have already done this.
* Sun-Times | New White Sox TV voice John Schriffen is ready for inevitable scrutiny: “Nothing comes easy,” Schriffen said. “Chicago is a hard-working town where people have to earn everything they get. And that’s how I grew up. Both my parents were teachers, working-class family. Everything I’ve gotten in my life I’ve had to earn the hard way. I don’t want it to be any different here.”
* Block Club Chicago | How Chicago’s Black Steelworkers Struggled, Thrived And Survived The Industry’s Rise And Fall: While many Black workers spent years in the toughest positions, Hardy and his coworker William “Bill” Alexander were exceptions. Known as “Ramjet” for his speed and efficiency, Hardy moved from laborer to oiler to bridge operator at Interlake/Acme with relative ease before being drafted for the Vietnam War in 1967, he said. He returned to Chicago in 1969 and was back at the mill within a few weeks. He was soon promoted to a bridge, or overhead crane, operator. His coworkers — many of whom also served in Vietnam at various points — “really gave me respect” as a combat veteran, he said.
* AL | Woodfin says if anti-DEI bill passes, he would urge athletes to leave Alabama: Senate Bill 129, sponsored by Sen. Will Barfoot, R-Pike Road and filed on Tuesday, resembles 2022 and 2023 proposals sponsored by Rep. Ed Oliver, R-Dadeville. The bill would forbid public schools from affirming “a divisive concept,” with such examples as teaching that “slavery and racism are aligned with the founding principles of the United States” and that “fault, blame, or bias should be assigned to members of a race, color, religion, sex, ethnicity, or national origin, on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, ethnicity, or national origin.”
* Bloomberg | AT&T says most of mobile network restored: The federal government is investigating whether the outage was caused by a cyberattack, according to two US officials familiar with the situation, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive information.
* White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf sat down with Greg Hinz and talked over lunch. From the article…
• Said financing the stadium would require not only $1.1 billion in subsidies from an existing tax on Chicago hotel rooms but also up to $900 million in infrastructure work that already has been authorized but not funded by a tax-increment financing district that covers The 78 property. Such a move, however, will require legislative and possibly City Council approval.
• Indicated he’s on a fast track, hoping to begin preliminary construction work later this year and play in the new stadium by the 2028 season.
• Conceded that the Sox and the Bears may be competing for the same public-revenue source, the hotel tax, to pay for new Chicago arenas, but said the two family-owned teams are trying to work out a mutually beneficial deal. One thing that’s off the table: sharing a stadium. “It doesn’t work,” Reinsdorf said. “You end up having a stadium that is no good for football or baseball.”
• Said he’s unsure what will happen to Guaranteed Rate and adjoining parking lots if the Sox move downtown. Constructing hundreds of new housing units and retail space is one possibility, and converting the stadium itself into a smaller home for the Chicago Fire soccer team is another possibility, he said.
* Reinsdorf also told Greg that the project would generate tax revenue of $200 million a year - except he also wants to capture all the sales taxes generated. From an earlier Crain’s article…
Reinsdorf is also seeking to create a tax-overlay district surrounding the proposed stadium that would capture the state’s portion of sales taxes generated in the area — estimated at roughly $400 million over an undisclosed period — to be set aside to subsidize the stadium and back the new bonds.
…Adding… Good point in comments…
By the way, how much of that $200mm in tax revenue is offset by the closing of Comiskey?
Alabama doctors are puzzled over whether they will have to make changes to in vitro fertilization procedures. Couples have crammed into online support groups wondering if they should transfer frozen embryos out of state. And attorneys are warning that divorce settlements that call for frozen embryos to be destroyed may now be void.
Throughout Alabama, there is widespread shock, anger and confusion over how to proceed after the state Supreme Court ruled Friday that frozen embryos are people, a potentially far-reaching decision that could upend women’s reproductive health care in a state that already has one of the nation’s strictest abortion laws. […]
Interviews with physicians and attorneys in Alabama, as well as advocates on both sides of the issue nationwide, paint a confusing path forward for IVF clinics trying to interpret the ramifications of the ruling. Although physicians hope the Alabama legislature will limit the impacts of the ruling, they warn that the most dire consequence of the ruling is that some Alabama IVF clinics may be forced to suspend their operations.
“Under the current Alabama ruling, patients nor physicians nor IVF labs are going to be willing to have frozen embryos,” said Mamie McLean, a physician at one of the state’s largest fertility clinics, Alabama Fertility Specialists. “So if we are faced with two potential embryos that need to be transferred, modern practice would say transfer one and freeze one. But under this ruling, it may not be safe to freeze embryos so we will be forced to transfer two embryos … which increases the lifelong health risks to both mothers and children.”
* Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs’ op-ed in the Tribune…
The new battlefield over abortion rights centers on the use of in vitro fertilization. It’s a battle that is highly personal for me and my wife, Erica.
Last summer, we became the parents of twin sons Max and Theo. For this blessed event to happen, we needed reproductive health care. Erica has endometriosis, a condition that makes it difficult to conceive a child naturally. It affects an estimated 11% of women in our country, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In vitro fertilization made it possible for Erica to conceive and for us to start a family.
Now Alabama, Florida and Missouri want to take away a woman’s right to use IVF to have a child, emboldened by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 disastrous Dobbs decision that took away the constitutional right to abortion.
After the Supreme Court overturned Roe, the “personhood” debate took center stage, with Republicans attempting to define a fertilized egg or embryo as a legal human entity. During IVF, a doctor collects eggs from a woman, sperm is used to fertilize the eggs outside the body and one fertilized egg is implanted at a time.
For Erica, a doctor collected eggs during four rounds. Five days after fertilization, we had four embryos. After testing, only one of them was viable. “Personhood” laws would consider the unviable collections of cells people, and doctors or their patients would be considered to have committed a crime by disposing of them.
After [the Indiana Attorney General’s office] consistently heard from student, parents, and teachers about objectionable curricula, policies, or programs affecting children, we launched the Eyes on Education portal.
Our kids need to focus on fundamental educational building blocks, not political ideology - either left or right.
Eyes on Education is a platform for students, parents, and educators to submit and view real examples from classrooms across the state.
The Office of the Attorney General will follow up on materials submitted to the portal that may violate Indiana law using our investigative tools, including public records requests, and publish findings on the portal as well.
To view examples or submit to the portal, select the school corporation and name of the school and upload your documents.
Upon submission, someone from our office may contact you for additional information or clarification.
Submissions to the portal will be reviewed and published regularly.
Last week, Tennessee state lawmakers passed HB 878, which states “a person shall not be required to solemnize a marriage.”
In Tennessee, only certain people can “solemnize” the “rite of matrimony,” including state notary publics, government officials, and religious figures, according to state code. […]
Camilla Taylor, deputy legal director for litigation for Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ legal advocacy group, said that the law is an effort to “roll back recent progress by the LGBTQ community.”
“Tennessee House Bill 878 would be patently unconstitutional,” Taylor said in a statement to CNN. “Public officials don’t get to assume public office and then pick and choose which members of the public to serve.”
Two dozen protesters gathered near a Texas superintendent’s home on Wednesday to support a Black teen who has been suspended for most of the school year over the length of his dreadlocks.
Hairstylists, children and activists filled a neighborhood entrance in Baytown, about 26 miles east of Houston, chanting “Justice for Darryl George” and carrying signs with hashtags like #DoesMyHairOffendYou and #MyHairIsNotAThreat.
They gathered near the home of Barbers Hill Independent School District Superintendent Greg Poole, one day before a judge is set to hear arguments to determine whether the district can continue to punish George for refusing to change his hairstyle. George and his family have refused to cut his hair, setting off a months long battle between the family and the school district. […]
Janaie Roberts, a loctician, set up a salon chair during the demonstration and styled protesters’ dreadlocks in a show of support. “I’m an advocate for natural hair. This is how we express ourselves, so it’s not fair for us to be held back,” she said. “Just like we have freedom of speech, we have the freedom to be ourselves.” […]
George, a junior at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, has been in in-school suspension or at an off-site disciplinary program for most of the school year. His ordeal started in August, when school officials said that George’s hair, which he wears in neatly twisted dreadlocks away from his face and neck, violates a district dress code regulating the length of boys’ hair.
UPDATE Texas Judge rules in favor of the school district. NBC…
After just a few hours of testimony in Anahuac, state District Judge Chap Cain III ruled in favor of the school district, saying its ongoing discipline of George over the length of his hair is legal under the CROWN Act. For most of the school year, George has either served in-school suspension at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu or spent time at an off-site disciplinary program.
“We appreciate the court giving clarity to the meaning of the CROWN Act,” said Sara Leon, an attorney for the school district.
The school district did not offer any witnesses to testify before the ruling, instead only submitting evidence that included an affidavit from the district’s superintendent defending the dress code policy.
End of update.
Sen. Mike Simmons’ Jett Hawkins Law took effect in 2022. The law prevents school boards, public and charter schools from banning hairstyles historically associated with any race or ethnicity.
…Adding… From Sen. Simmons….
“It’s well past time for the state of Texas to let go of the past and respect Darryl George, a 17 year old Black youth who is wearing his hair authentically and doesn’t need harassment from school officials. That harassment is also now against Texas own laws under the new CROWN Act, so I hope the trial underway delivers justice to Darryl and millions of Texans of African descent and respects the intent of the CROWN Act. It’s time to turn the page in this dark and ugly chapter, just like we did in Illinois in 2021 when we passed the landmark Jett Hawkins Act.”
When disabled Texans used to visit abortion clinics, staffers would remember them. They may have needed in-clinic accommodations or American Sign Language Interpreters, and they appeared infrequently. Still, they came.
But more than a year since performing abortions became illegal in the state of Texas, disabled people have become a “missing population” at the clinics still providing abortions out of state, said Amy Hagstrom Miller, CEO of Whole Woman’s Health, an abortion provider.
“We’re not seeing them traveling over the border,” Miller said. “They just represent a group of people that are falling through the cracks.”
Other than the internal statistics of some abortion providers, abortion fund groups that help pay for the procedure or its transportation costs, and advocacy groups, there’s no central data tracking how many disabled Texans have sought abortions.
This year 35 states will participate in a $2.5 billion federal nutrition program that will help low-income parents buy groceries for their children when free school meals are unavailable during the summer months.
But Texas, which has 3.8 million children eligible for the program, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has opted not to join this national effort. If it had, qualifying families would have received $120 per child through a pre-loaded card for the three summer months. The USDA calculated that Texas is passing on a total of $450 million in federal tax dollars that would have gone to eligible families here.
The reason for the pass is simple, according to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. When the USDA notified HHSC officials of their new Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer, or EBT program on Dec. 29, that gave the nation’s second largest state only six months to get it up and running and that’s not enough time, said Tiffany Young, a spokesperson for the state agency.
Although the summer program would involve two other agencies as well – the Texas Education Agency and the Texas Department of Agriculture – HHSC would have to bear the brunt of the work because they would have to coordinate and direct the distribution of the preloaded cards to qualifying families.
Newsmax has joined the legions of conservative media outlets and figures who have trashed a pair of Florida GOP bills that ostensibly aim to curb so-called “liberal media” by loosening the definition of defamation.
“Newsmax strongly opposes both bills and any proposed law that makes it easy to sue media companies,” Chris Ruddy, Newsmax’s CEO, said in a statement to The Daily Beast. “Free speech and a free press are the most fundamental of our constitutional rights and must be zealously safeguarded.” (Newsmax maintains a headquarters in Boca Raton, Florida, and Ruddy is a West Palm Beach native and a friend of former President Donald Trump.)
The bills—House Bill 757 and its Florida Senate companion, SB 1780—would lower the threshold for defamation in Florida, allowing public officials to sue journalists and media outlets if an anonymous source says something the official believes to be false. The bills passed out of a Florida House committee on Wednesday in a 14-7 vote, and it is next headed to a Florida House vote.
Whatever the right-wing legislative effort’s intentions, these conservative critics say, it would be an affront to the First Amendment and would ultimately harm right-of-center media.
The Utah State Board of Education could conduct a hearing on whether a school library book or other materials should be removed statewide under a compromise between state lawmakers that led to final passage of HB29 on Wednesday.
The House voted 52-18 to approve the compromise legislation.
A conference committee of Utah Senate and House of Representatives members agreed to language that gives the state school board the option of holding a hearing after three school districts or two school districts and five charter schools determine the materials are pornographic or indecent, which under HB29, triggers removal of the materials statewide.
The board could decide not to hold a hearing, which means the book or materials would be removed from collections statewide.
The Transportation for Illinois Coalition, an umbrella organization of business, labor and infrastructure groups that advocates for federal and state transportation funding, today issued the following statement in response to Gov. Pritzker’s proposed Fiscal Year 2025 budget plan:
“We are disappointed in and cannot support the Governor’s budget proposal to cut transportation funding after just a few years of Rebuild Illinois’ important investment in our state transportation infrastructure.
The Governor’s proposal calls for the Road Fund to cover $175 million in spending on public transportation operations in the Chicago region that have been historically paid for by the state’s General Revenue Fund. Road Funds are dedicated for road, bridge, and transit capital improvements. We cannot support this proposal and ask the Legislature to reject any plans that pit transportation needs against each other.
The $175 million loss in road funding would multiply to more than a $1 billion impact in lost road and bridge improvements over the next few years. After decades of inadequate funding, Governor Pritzker and the Legislature invested billions of dollars to improve thousands of miles of roads and bridges – including the largest road program in state history this year. Illinois cannot afford to move backward now.
This policy change does not include any new money for transit operations, nor does it fully meet the need for transit operations. What this proposal does is take money away from other transportation needs, making it impossible to deliver on the promise of sustainable transportation for all modes of transportation.
We encourage the Governor and Legislature to develop and support a new state budget that strongly funds all our transportation infrastructure. Rebuild Illinois is working to put our state on a better path, and we must not bring that progress to a halt this summer.”
TFIC Co-Chairs:
Patrick Hosty, Executive Director of the Chicago Laborers District Council-LMCC
Kevin Burke, Executive Vice President of the Illinois Asphalt Pavement Association
The full list of the group’s membership is here, and interestingly enough it includes several public transportation organizations, including the Illinois Public Transportation Association.
* More criticism on a different topic from SEIU Healthcare…
Greg Kelley, President of SEIU Healthcare Illinois, issued the following statement in response to Governor JB Pritzker’s budget address:
“As a union of frontline workers providing home care, child care and healthcare services, we applaud the Governor’s commitment to investing in crucial services in ways that will not only provide much-needed care to more families, but also help provide the economic stability that makes it possible for more workers to enter and stay in caring professions.
“While his leadership as an advocate for providing needed care services was evident in the Governor’s address, his proposed funding priorities fall short from what is required to address Illinois’ ongoing care crisis.
“We’re encouraged by the Governor’s commitment to continued increased investment in early childhood education and care, and look forward to working with him to continue to implement Smart Start and the new early childhood state agency, while also investing in the existing early childhood workforce.
“We support the proposed funding increase in the Governor’s budget to meet the existing rates and caseload of the growing Community Care Program. However, the budget lacks funding required to address the cause of the state’s care crisis—the fact is that the crucial jobs that provide home care and child care services are not good and stable jobs. Care workers struggle with unlivable paychecks and no means or path to retirement. The result is that there are simply too few care workers to provide these services. In the Community Care Program, the number of authorized hours of care for which no caregiver is available is now up to 46% and will only continue to go up failing a real investment in the care workforce.
“Care workers are a stabilizing force both in the state’s economy and in the lives of the thousands of working families who rely upon their services. It is our hope that the Governor and the legislature will address the needs of these workers in budget deliberations and add in the funding needed to lift their wages to $20 an hour as a means of stabilizing the workforce for all who need care in the state.
“We look forward to working with the Governor and the legislature to build off of this proposed budget to ensure that home care and child care workers—and the crucial services they provide—are prioritized, and to advocate for the additional investment required to serve the needs of seniors and those who care for them.”
* Illinois Association of Rehabilitation Facilities…
We appreciate the Governor and his administration working with the disability community and ultimately deciding not to pursue a proposed decrease in hours for Direct Service Professionals (DSP) in the proposed budget, an action that would have had severe consequences for the many people our members serve. It’s clear through communications with individuals with disabilities, frontline staff, disability providers, and legislators, they understood that decision would have taken Illinois backwards after our recent progress to better fund services for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
With this decision in mind, and while the Administration is simultaneously seeking to exit the Ligas Consent Decree and proposing to increase state revenues, we are deeply concerned that the Governor’s budget proposal does not include any increases in wage rates for DSPs. We do not see a path to exiting the consent decree, of which the state has been out of compliance since 2017, without minimally achieving full funding of the Guidehouse rate study, which indicated higher wages and benefits for frontline staff as its top priority.
Disability service providers throughout Illinois continue to face serious pressures and obstacles to attracting DSP workers to provide services, including additional increases in the minimum wage this year and next to $15 an hour on January 1, 2025. Regrettably, the proposed budget’s lack of a DSP wage rate increase represents a significant step backwards in our ability to provide competitive wages and benefits for frontline staff.
This spring, with the leadership of Representative Michelle Mussman and Senator Karina Villa, we will pursue an increase in DSP wages of $3 an hour, to help us stay ahead of these pressures and put us more in line with the progress envisioned by the Guidehouse study two years ago.
We hope the Governor and Legislature will recognize the ongoing struggles of service providers and support this wage increase in the final budget later this spring
* Illinois Partners for Human Service…
In response to today’s Budget Address, Illinois Partners for Human Service recognizes and appreciates the priorities outlined in this budget for the health and human services sector. In particular, we applaud the investments in Smart Start, Homeless Services, and the commitment to continued funding for new arrivals. We commend the Governor and his administration for celebrating the importance of health and human service work and the workers employed by the state, but are disappointed in his failure to acknowledge the thousands of frontline workers from community-based service providers in his remarks, especially since the vast majority work for organizations contracted by the state.
Our coalition partners are among these invaluable providers, working tirelessly on the frontlines every day caring for our communities. Unfortunately, state contracts and reimbursement rates continue to lag behind, failing to cover the full cost of delivering essential services. As a result, our community-based workforce continues to be undervalued, overworked, and underpaid. While the Governor did laud the impact of these services on lives throughout Illinois, he did not address how we will sustain the sector for community-based providers and support our workforce, the majority of whom are women and people of color. We must commit to rectifying the consequences of twenty years of the state’s chronic disinvestment of health and human services - bold actions and long-term funding solutions must be a priority for decision makers.
We look forward to working with the administration and our legislators to do everything possible to find these solutions, increase investment in the community-based human services workforce, and reduce administrative burden for community providers. These organizations are valued and integral to their communities, and their work is essential to the well-being of all Illinoisans.
* NFIB…
The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), the nation’s leading advocate for small business, commented on Governor J.B. Pritzker’s State of the State Address.
“Governor Pritzker painted a rosy picture of the state of the state today, but—outside the halls of power in Springfield and Chicago—Main Street businesses are experiencing a different reality,” said Noah Finley, NFIB Illinois State Director. “Small business optimism remains depressed, as job creators face ongoing inflation, onerous regulations and mandates, and a shortage of qualified labor.”
“To realize the state’s full potential, NFIB calls on Governor Pritzker and the General Assembly to roll back tax and regulatory burdens on small businesses and unleash the dreams and aspirations of current and aspiring job creators and small-business owners across Illinois.”
* ILGOP…
Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy released the following statement in response to Governor Pritzker’s budget response:
“Governor Pritzker has made it a habit of standing up every year to tell the people of Illinois not to believe their own eyes and just trust him with their money. Governor Pritzker’s budgets have spiked spending more than 30% since he took office while we as a state continue to lose population, more than 260,000 people leaving Illinois in the last 3 years alone. Governor Pritzker helped bring the ongoing migrant crisis to Illinois and despite 18 months of disaster proclamations, still can’t get on the same page with the state’s largest city. All the while, he jetsets across the country giving political speeches, more interested in headlines and presidential speculation than actually governing this state.
This budget proposal represents what we’ve come to expect from Governor Pritzker: empty promises of bipartisanship, a radical agenda, and more of your taxpayer dollars to cover the tab.”
* Senate GOP Leader John Curran…
“The Governor just proposed raising taxes on every Illinois family struggling to make ends meet to fund the non-citizen welfare state he created. We have made it clear that the citizens of this state are our priority, while today, the Governor made it clear they’re his piggy bank. Our focus will remain on providing meaningful financial relief to the people of Illinois .”
* Rep. Ryan Spain…
Following Gov. Pritzker’s joint State of the State and Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Address, Deputy House Republican Leader Ryan Spain (R-73rd District) released the following statement:
“For a Governor who is perpetually trying to sell himself as a friend of business development and job creation, the budget he proposed today runs completely contrary to that notion. Instead of focusing on his future presidential ambitions and competing with California for the title of most progressive state in the nation, I wish we could get serious about growing Illinois’ economy.
“His proposal includes $2.29 billion in additional spending, a 4.5 percent increase, which would leave us with a $775 million deficit. How does he propose to solve his deficit problem? By raising another billion dollars in taxes on job creators and cutting tax deductions for working-class families. We’ve already spent $2.8 billion on healthcare for non-citizens, and he wants to spend another $811 million instead of admitting his sanctuary state policy has hurt our state and is taking money away from vulnerable Illinoisans who should be our first priority.
“One of the few positives I heard from the Governor today was his embrace of a plan I’ve been pushing for years to eliminate the grocery tax. Unfortunately, that is a small consolation in relation to everything else I heard today.
“Illinois has lost population for ten years in a row, and we face the second highest property tax burden in the nation. Putting more pressure on families and small businesses under his proposal is only going to drive more people away. We should be providing tax relief, not asking Illinoisans to pay more.”
…Adding… Illinois Chamber…
The Illinois Chamber of Commerce is aligned with the Governor’s goal of expanding opportunities for the growth of businesses of all sizes and to continue the expansion of our state’s gross domestic product that has surpassed $1 trillion.
We are, however, disappointed by the Governor’s proposal to extend the cap on business net operating loss. The cap is nothing more than forced borrowing of funds from Illinois businesses to finance government.
We are also disappointed by the Governor’s proposal to reduce the sales tax retailers’ discount. This is a stealth tax increase on our retail sector, who are managing increased operating expenses due to rising labor and raw materials forcing them to operate on already razor thin margins.
We appreciate the Governor’s unwavering support for education and we are aligned that investing in education is vital to building a brighter future for our communities. We believe strongly that educational optionality should be the right of all our states students, especially those in underrepresented communities which saw significant cut backs due the expiration of the Invest in Kids Act.
* Jennifer Welch, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Illinois Action…
“Planned Parenthood Illinois Action (PPIA) commends Governor Pritzker’s dedication to addressing the inequities that exist in Black Maternal Health. At the same time, PPIA urges the governor and state legislature to expand funding for family planning resources and address inequities in sexual reproductive education.
We have requested funding for the family planning program, which helps providers across the state cover costs for patients receiving basic primary and preventive health care, such as wellness exams, lifesaving cancer screenings, contraception, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) testing and treatment.
In addition, we have asked the governor and the state legislature to allocate funding to implement the Keeping Youth Safe and Healthy Act. Over 70% of Illinois schools report not teaching any kind of personal health and safety education. Funding would help school districts across the state meet this need.
While we did not see these vital funding requests in the Governor’s request today, we hope to see his administration revisit these requests and look forward to continuing our joint work on increasing the health and wellness of all Illinoisans.”
…Adding… IRMA…
The Illinois Retail Merchants Association (IRMA) released the following statement regarding Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s budget proposal:
“The retail discount is a partial reimbursement to the hard-working retailers across Illinois who collect sales taxes on behalf of state and local governments. Contrary to claims, this proposal does not just target large retail stores but would impact retailers of all sizes, from independent grocers to the corner hardware store,” said Rob Karr, president and CEO, Illinois Retail Merchants Association. “Regardless, it should not fall on retailers to take on all the costs of administering the sales tax code. We look forward to working with the governor and legislative leaders to find a way to preserve this reimbursement and avoid further damage to our state’s retail sector.”
* Community Behavioral Healthcare Association CEO Blanca Campos…
“We applaud Governor Pritzker’s proposal to ban prior authorization requirements for in-patient mental health care for both children and adults and eliminate “step therapy” for prescription drugs, a requirement that patients first “fail” to use one or more lower-cost, alternative medications before the insurance company will cover a higher-cost drug prescribed by a doctor, and force insurance companies to use the same definitions of medical necessity that doctors use.
“Nevertheless, the governor’s FY2025 budget makes no new investments that the state needs to continue to boost funding to strengthen the behavioral healthcare workforce and create more access to care. Thus, the Community Behavioral Healthcare Association will vigorously advocate with lawmakers for increased investment in care and the workforce in next year’s budget.”
Five years ago, when people said we couldn’t do it, many of us went to work eliminating our bill backlog and balancing five state budgets in a row. We created a $2 billion Rainy Day Fund. We achieved nine credit upgrades. And in the face of a pandemic and high inflation, we delivered historic tax relief, provided record levels of rental and mortgage assistance, and reduced interest costs by paying off more than $11 billion in debt.
We’ve also grown Illinois’ economy to over $1 trillion. That’s more than most nations. In 2023 alone, we attracted billions of dollars in new business investments and created tens of thousands of new jobs.
In fact, on average, a new business moved to Illinois or expanded here every single day last year.
Thanks to our bipartisan tax credit legislation, Illinois is now the world’s fourth largest data center market, and we broke an all-time record for film and TV production revenue. Tourism is booming. Last year, Illinois’ hotel industry set a record at $5.5 billion.
In the Midwest, we are now the number one state for workforce development. Across all fifty states, we are number two for infrastructure. Number two for education. Number three for power grid reliability. We have the number one and number two best business schools in the country. Since 2018, we moved up a whopping thirteen spots in CNBC’s Best States for Business.
These are the things that matter to businesses looking for a home. Where their workforce can live, work, and play affordably and with world class healthcare and education.
Now we have a lot of work left to do—but we, together, have met this moment we are in. Do not let the doom grifters steal your optimism about what’s ahead for Illinois. Our future is bright, and opportunity lies ahead.
* More info here and here. The governor’s budget office briefed reporters this morning on this year’s proposal and a couple of stories have popped up since then. I tipped subscribers yesterday about this corporate net operating loss deductions thing mentioned by the Tribune…
Facing a tighter budget outlook, Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Wednesday unveiled a $52.7 billion election-year spending plan built on more than $800 million in tax increases that would largely fall on businesses, from large corporations to state-regulated sportsbooks. […]
The governor also proposes extending a cap on losses large corporations can write off on their state income taxes, which he estimates will generate another $526 million in annual revenue. The current annual cap of $100,000 is set to expire Dec. 31, but Pritzker proposes raising the limit to $500,000 and allowing it to continue.
Pritzker also is proposing a permanent repeal of the 1% sales tax on groceries, which he and the Democratic-controlled legislature previously suspended for one year in 2022, when the governor was running for reelection.
Lastly, Pritzker is dusting off a previous unsuccessful plan to limit the tax discount retailers receive for collecting sales tax, which his office estimates would generate another $101 million annually.
That tax discount thing has been tried for years, but IRMA always beats it back.
The plan also includes transferring mass transit costs from sales tax to the state’s Road Fund, to take in an additional $175 million.
Pritzker’s budget team is also aiming to hasten the state’s pension funding ramp with an eye toward landing another credit upgrade from Wall Street ratings agencies.
Since 1994, the state has been on a slog toward filling the gap in the grossly underfunded system to 90% by 2045. Pritzker’s team is adjusting that goal to reach 100% funding by 2048 — closer to pension goals set by many other states.
The governor’s team says they can make that happen in part with savings from paying off two other major bonds issued by the state over the next decade. Pritzker will need legislative approval for the pension proposal.
Pritzker also wants to more than double the state tax on sports betting revenue collected by casino sportsbooks from 15% to 35%, a proposal that’s sure to draw pushback from a rapidly expanding industry that raked in more than $1 billion in 2023. The governor’s team predicts such a hike could pump an additional $200 million into state coffers.
Almost everyone you talk to has a horror story about prior authorizations and step coverage.
I'm introducing the Healthcare Consumer Access and Protection Act, a bill to curb predatory insurance practices — putting the power back into the hands of patients and their doctors. pic.twitter.com/iW4c9rTLU0
Illinois will become the first state in the nation to ban prior authorization for in-patient adult and children’s mental health care. That means patients suffering a mental health crisis can get the care they need without jumping through hoops designed to deny coverage. And we are going to make sure that insurance plans publicly post all treatments that require prior authorization, so consumers can compare plans when they are shopping for coverage.
Today, nearly every call to the [DCFS] abuse and neglect hotline is answered immediately. That’s up from only 50% back in 2019. Of the more than 94,525 investigations conducted last year by DCFS, 99.7% were initiated within 24 hours. And within seven days, 96% of children have been seen by an investigator. With an additional $14 million in funding in FY25, DCFS will reach a headcount of 4,000 staff for the first time in more than two decades.
My budget also proposes investing $12 million to create a Child Tax Credit for families raising our youngest children. By targeting this investment at low and middle-income families with children under 3, we can put money back in the pockets of our newest parents who need it most and make those early years just a little bit easier.
And we know that Black individuals and families make up 61% of the unhoused while making up only 14% of the overall population. So, this year, we created a racial equity roundtable on Black homelessness—the only effort of this kind in the entire nation. To advance that work, I am proposing an additional $50 million to attack the root causes of housing insecurity for Black Illinoisans, while continuing to serve other at-risk populations like veterans and those who are medically vulnerable with the shelter and wraparound services they need.
Now, I expect that some of you will want to spend more, and some of you will claim you want to spend less. Know this: I am always open to good ideas that members of both parties have to more efficiently and effectively fulfill our obligations.
My one line in the sand is that I will only sign a budget that is responsibly balanced and that does not diminish or derail the improving credit standing we have achieved for the last five years.
…Adding… A much more detailed description of the proposed operating budget is here. The proposed capital budget is here.
* Here’s what the governor’s office is pushing today…
✅ erase $1 billion of medical debt for more than 340,000 families. ✅ more than $20 million to improve black maternal health outcomes ✅ eliminating the sales tax on groceries ✅ rebuild our arts communities around the state
* There’s a lot going on here, but the briefing book claims this proposal is less than a 2 percent increase…
• FY24 revised estimated spending reflects proposed spring supplemental appropriations of $1.183 billion and proposed transfers.
• Estimated FY24 budgetary surplus of $273 million, with $205 million set aside in Budget Stabilization Fund.
• Proposed FY25 General Funds expenditures total $52.695 billion, a $752 million (<2%) increase from FY24 estimated spending.
• The proposed budget reflects full payment of the certified FY25 pension contribution.
• FY25 Government Services recommended budget reflects direct funding of enterprise- wide IT budget lines to DOIT and current estimates of employee and retiree health insurance liabilities.
• Estimated FY25 budgetary surplus of $298 million, with an estimated $170 million reserved in the Budget Stabilization Fund.
* Some one-pagers. Click the pics for larger images…
* Some media advisories. Senate Democrats…
Following the governor’s joint State of the State and Budget Address Wednesday, a number of Senate Democrats will provide their reactions to his proposal and what they hope to see in the final Fiscal Year 2025 budget live on Blue Room Stream.
WHO: Senate President Don Harmon, Senate Majority Leader Kimberly A. Lightford, and Senators Sims, Gillespie, Castro, Stadelman and Halpin
WHAT: Senate Democrats react to governor’s joint State of the State and Budget Address
WHEN: Immediately following the governor’s address, approximately 1 p.m.
WHERE: Live on Blue Room Stream
* Black Caucus…
Members of the House and Senate Black Caucuses will host a press conference immediately following Gov. JB Pritzker’s State of State and Budget Address on Wednesday, Feb. 21 on the second-floor staircase of the Illinois Capitol Building to address budget priorities for the upcoming year.
* Comptroller Mendoza…
Comptroller Mendoza, a fierce advocate of responsible spending and fiscal stability, will offer her reaction to the Governor’s Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Plan.
What: Media availability
When: Shortly following Governor Pritzker’s Budget Address, Wednesday, February 21st
Where: Capitol Rotunda, outside of House Chambers
* Home care workers…
Today, February 21, Illinois agency home care workers who serve seniors through the Community Care Program will be available for in-person interviews following Governor Pritzker’s budget address. They’ll share reactions at the Statehouse in Springfield starting at 1:30pm CT.
Gov. JB Pritzker plans to take on the state’s health insurance industry this year by calling for legislation to curb many of the standard practices they use to hold down costs and boost profits.
He plans to outline those reforms in his State of the State and budget address Wednesday, according to an advance excerpt of his speech, kicking off a process that will eventually require approval from lawmakers.
Pritzker’s “Healthcare Consumer Access and Protection Act” will include a package of proposals aimed at controlling strategies that insurers use to reduce the amount of health care patients receive.
It also includes new requirements for insurers to offer enough in-network doctors to meet consumers’ needs, as well as state regulatory control over rate increases in the large group insurance plans similar to regulations lawmakers approved last year for small group policies.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker will call for the permanent repeal of the state’s 1% tax on groceries in his fiscal year 2025 budget proposal to be delivered Wednesday afternoon.
Repealing the tax, which is collected by the state and distributed to local governments, would save state taxpayers collectively about $350 million in the fiscal year that begins July 1, the governor’s office estimates.
If Illinois continues spending next fiscal year as it has been this year, the state will face an $891 million deficit. […]
The $891 million fiscal year 2025 deficit figure, which was projected in that November report by Pritzker’s own Governor’s Office of Management and Budget (GOMB), assumes a $350 million increase in the state’s main K-12 education funding formula, an annualized bump in cost for Medicaid enhancements and “moderate growth rates in the various categories of state spending.”
But it does not include what the report describes as “significant changes to base programs” which could bring savings, or could come with a cost. […]
Those factors led GOMB to revise up its revenue projections to $52 billion for the fiscal year, which runs through June.
Even after accounting for an extra $1 billion in revenues, pressures “that will offset the revenue gains including increased case load pressures at Department on Aging and DHS (Department of Human Services)” and “potential spending pressures related to asylum seekers at DHS,” GOMB said the state is set to end this 2024 fiscal year with a $422 million surplus – the opposite of the in-the-red situation lawmakers are staring down as they begin the budgeting process anew.
Following Cook County’s lead, Gov. J.B. Pritzker will propose investing $10 million of federal funds in his budget to erase more than $1 billion in medical debt for Illinois residents. […]
Pritzker will include the $10 million ask in his budget proposal for the next fiscal year — and the investment would mark the first year in a multi-year plan, the governor said in an interview with the Sun-Times on Tuesday.
“This first tranche of this for FY [fiscal year] 25 will remove the medical debt for 364,000 people. That’s just the first year of a multi-year plan and it’s a $1 billion of the $3 billion that remains outside of Cook County. So the first year — again $1 billion, 364,000 people will have this cloud removed.” […]
Of the nearly two million Illinois residents with medical debt in collection, 1.75 million are low-income, according to the governor’s office. The total amount of medical debt that can be acquired from those 1.75 million low-income residents is $4 billion — with 25% in Cook County.
Pritzker wants to allocate more than $20 million in his proposed state budget to reduce health disparities and help prevent more Black women from dying before, during and after childbirth. He’s set to give his budget address on Wednesday, kicking off a round of negotiations for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
The money for birth equity initiatives would help cover what can be expensive barriers for community-based providers, such as licensing fees for midwives who deliver babies or capital expenses to open birth centers.
Having enough staff has been another barrier for birth centers to stay open. In birth centers, patients can deliver their babies with a midwife on a big bed in a homelike atmosphere rather than in a hospital. […]
A state report last fall documented that while deaths among pregnant women are rare, they have increased across Illinois — and the majority of them were possibly preventable. More than half of the pregnancy-related deaths happened more than 60 days after the women gave birth.
The governor’s office wants $500 million for quantum, the next generation in computing technology that’s only now moving from theory to practical application. About $300 million of the funding would go toward building a campus that would include a cryogenics facility — some early quantum computers operate at extremely cold temperatures. […]
It’s a bold ask at a time when the state faces what could be its most challenging budget in several years, with a potential deficit as spending needs grow in human services, health care, pensions and government health insurance, as well as the migrant crisis.
But Pritzker can point to wins on the EV front with Stellantis and battery maker Gotion. And his early $200 million investment in quantum technology efforts at the University of Chicago and University of Illinois have paid off with large federal grants and commitments by private companies, such as Google and IBM.
“We have heard from companies who have been in discussions with the state of Illinois about a location in North America and have said to us: ‘If we want to be co-located somewhere, you would be attractive for all of your existing tech assets. How can you help us source the location?’ ” Richards says. “It’s about building out a campus and a cryogenics facility.”
She declined to say where the facility would be built.
Republicans in the Illinois Senate indicated Tuesday that their sticking point for budget negotiations this year will be the same as it was last year – state spending on programs for noncitizens and recent arrivals from the country’s southern border.
In what’s been a rarity over the past five years, Senate Republicans were in on budget negotiations with their Democratic counterparts last year until the legislative session neared its end. But when the final budget bill materialized in the waning days of May, no Republican supported it. […]
Gov. JB Pritzker on Wednesday is set to lay out his vision for the upcoming fiscal year 2025, which begins July 1. Because Democrats hold supermajorities in both the House and Senate, Republican votes aren’t necessarily needed to pass a spending plan.
Still, Curran said he’d like to engage with Democrats to the same extent his caucus did during his first year as its leader.
* Center Square | Migrant funding top of mind ahead of Pritzker’s budget address: Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza’s office Tuesday announced a portal to track taxpayer spending on the crisis. Since November, the tracker shows the state’s taxpayers have spent more than $31.1 million. The governor’s office said last week taxpayers have covered $478 million since the start of the crisis in 2022. He announced the state will commit to $182 million for the issue in the coming budget.
* KFVS | Gov. Pritzker to deliver State of the State, budget address Wed: In the lead up to the address, Republicans are calling for Gov. Pritzker and Democratic lawmakers to focus on the people of Illinois. Senate GOP Leader John Curran says Democrats need to stop prioritizing migrant spending.
* WGEM | State Senate Republicans call on Gov. Pritzker to ‘prioritize Illinois citizens’ in upcoming budget: Curran said Pritzker should course correct. “Instead of more free health care for noncitizens, we want to see efforts to lower costs for Illinois citizens. Instead of non-citizen programs, we want to see efforts to make Illinois more affordable for working families, seniors and our most vulnerable populations,” Curran said.
