Tag: Capitol News Illinois

Government Money

State ends fiscal year with nearly $5B cash on hand

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By Jerry NowickiCapitol News Illinoisjnowicki@capitolnewsillinois.com Illinois entered a new fiscal year Monday, July 1, with a bit of a financial cushion when the prior year’s revenues exceeded final projections by approximately $123 million. The state ended fiscal year 2024 with approximately $4.7 billion cash on hand, or approximately nine percent...

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Government

Pritzker signs bill to increase party power

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By Andrew AdamsCapitol News Illinoisaadams@capitolnewsillinois.com Changes to primary election fundraising, the electoral college and the state’s voter registration database are now law after governor JB Pritzker signed a wide-ranging bill Monday his week. The legislation, containing several unrelated election measures, passed near the end of the legislature’s spring session on...

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Government

U. S. Supreme Court passes on weapons ban

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By Peter HancockCapitol News Illinoisphancock@capitolnewsillinois.com The U.S. Supreme Court announced Tuesday it will not immediately review Illinois’ assault weapons ban, leaving the law in place at least until challenges to the law have been fully heard in lower courts. The announcement came just two days before the two-year anniversary of...

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Government

State Board to dismiss election complaint

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By Hannah Meisel State elections officials Tuesday, June 18 indicated they were unlikely to step in to clarify what constitutes illegal campaign coordination after voting to dismiss a complaint alleging such coordination in the 2022 campaign for governor. At their monthly meeting in Chicago, Illinois State Board of Elections members...

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Government

Governor signs $53.1 billion Illinois budget

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By Andrew Adams, Jerry Nowicki, & Hannah MeiselCapitol News Illinoisnews@capitolnewsillinois.com Governor JB Pritzker Wednesday, June 5, signed the State’s $53.1 billion spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year, the largest in State history. The signing caps months of work – and tension – among top Democratic Party leaders in Springfield...

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Taxes to increase on sports betting, video gambling

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By Hannah MeiselCapitol News Illinoishmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com In order to boost infrastructure spending and avoid a projected fiscal cliff facing the State in the next couple of years, Democrats who control State government are betting on two of its most rapidly growing revenue sources: Sports wagering and video gambling. The industries –...

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Government Health

Health insurance changes target ‘utilization management’

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By Peter HancockCapitol News Illinoisphancock@capitolnewsillinois.com A package of health insurance reform measures that Gov. JB Pritzker called for at the beginning of the legislative session will soon be headed to his desk for his signature. The Illinois House gave final approval Saturday to a pair of bills that limit the...

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Government

Measure targets ‘legacy’ admission at public universities

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By Dilpreet Raju, Cole Longcor, & Alex AbbedutoCapitol News Illinoisnews@capitolnewsillinois.com Illinois lawmakers missed a self-imposed Friday deadline for passing a budget, but they had approved more than 250 bills last week as of Friday afternoon. Amid the flurry of legislation was a measure prohibiting State universities from admitting students based...

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Potawatomi Nation closer to acquiring land

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By Peter HancockCapitol News Illinoisphancock@capitolnewsillinois.com The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation is a step closer to acquiring a 1,500-acre state park in DeKalb County, much of which was once part of a reservation that was illegally seized from the tribe in the mid-19th Century. As the Senate worked through its last...

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Government Seniors

Nursing homes still grappling with worker shortage, cost increases

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By Hannah MeiselCapitol News Illinoishmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com It’s been four years since some of the worst scenes of COVID-19 played out in locked-down nursing homes during the early months of the pandemic. But while most of the world has moved on, the nursing home industry is still reeling from COVID, which exacerbated...

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Government

Report says natural gas prices could triple in next 10 years without State action

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By Hannah MeiselCapitol News Illinoishmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com Consumer natural gas bills could triple over the next 10 years without state intervention, according to a report from the Building Decarbonization Coalition and Groundwork Data. The report attributes much of the potential increase to the fact that most utility infrastructure spending is going toward...

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Education Government

House okays program for student teacher stipends, but not the funding for it

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By Peter Hancock & Andrew CampbellCapitol News Illinoisnews@capitolnewsillinois.com The Illinois House approved a bill Tuesday to allow student teachers to receive stipends while earning their education degree, even though the money needed to fund those stipends is unlikely to be included in next year’s budget. House Bill 4652, by Rep....

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Government Health

State leads Medicare reform: Pritzker

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By Dilpreet RajuCapitol News Illinoisdraju@capitolnewsillinois.com Approximately 73% of Illinois’ Medicaid recipients remain on the rolls after the first redetermination cycle following the COVID-19 pandemic, while approximately 660,000 recipients have been disenrolled. Speaking at a news conference in Chicago, governor JB Pritzker celebrated the fact that 2.6 million Illinoisans remained on...

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Carousel Government

After 3 years, State poised to enforce law aiming to end lending discrimination

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By Peter HancockCapitol News Illinoisphancock@capitolnewsillinois.com In 1977, then-president Jimmy Carter signed into law the Community Reinvestment Act, a federal law that sought to wipe away the last vestiges of racial discrimination and redlining in America’s home mortgage industry. The idea was simple. By requiring lenders – primarily banks – to...

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Election officials to weigh whether Darren Bailey and GOP operative Dan Proft illegally coordinated

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By Andrew Adams & Hannah MeiselCapitol News Illinoisnews@capitolnewsillinois.com A year and a half after Republican Darren Bailey lost his campaign to challenge governor JB Pritzker, State election officials are weighing whether he illegally colluded with conservative radio show host and political operative Dan Proft in the 2022 campaign. The State...

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Potawatomi first federally-recognized tribe in Illinois

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By Hannah MeiselCapitol News Illinoishmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com Nearly 200 years after Native Americans were forced out of Illinois, the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation has become the first federally recognized tribal nation in the State of Illinois after a decision from the recent U.S. Department of the Interior. The move represents the first...

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Advocates renew push to tighten firearm laws aimed to protect domestic violence victims

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By Cole Longcor Advocates for stricter gun laws rallied at the state Capitol Tuesday for a measure aimed at protecting domestic violence victims and two other criminal justice reforms. The bills are backed by organizations such as Moms Demand Action and One Aim Illinois among others. “These policies support those...

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Education Government

New childhood agency plan

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By Alex Abbeduto, Hannah Meisel, and Cole Longcor Governor JB Pritzker’s plan to create a new State agency to oversee Illinois’ various early childhood programs moved forward Friday, April 12 after the State Senate’s unanimous approval. It was one of 244 bills that cleared the Senate last week. Early childhood...

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Prisoner Review Board controversy continues

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By Cole Longcor After two members of the State’s Prisoner Review Board (PRB) resigned last week following the release of a prisoner who then stabbed his ex-girlfriend and killed her son, Republicans are again calling for reforms while governor JB Pritzker said he will order better training. The PRB voted...

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Government

Illinois still suffers shortage of teachers

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By Peter HancockCapitol News Illinoisphancock@capitolnewsillinois.com Illinois continues to suffer from a shortage of teachers and other education professionals, although recent efforts by the State to ease the strain have made an impact. That’s according to the latest annual survey of school officials from the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of...

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