By Ben SzalinskiCapitol News Illinoisbszalinski@capitolnewsillinois.com The number of homeless people in Illinois is rising, but the State’s spending on homeless prevention and other housing programs is headed in the other direction. Facing a tight budget year with constrained spending and limited natural revenue growth, the $55.1 billion fiscal year 2026
By Andrew AdamsCapitol News Illinoisaadams@capitolnewsillinois.com Illinois students won’t need to fill out applications for most state universities to be admitted — if they have high enough grades. With his signature, governor JB Pritzker on Monday approved a bill creating the direct admissions program. Along with it, he approved bills that
By Peter HancockCapitol News Illinoisphancock@capitolnewsillinois.com Immigration rights advocates in Illinois are anxiously awaiting the governor’s signature on legislation aimed at protecting K-12 students who may be in the country without legal authorization from being denied access to a free public education. House Bill 3247, known as the “Safe Schools for
By Ben SzalinskiCapitol News Illinoisbszalinski@capitolnewsillinois.com Governor JB Pritzker signed a new law Friday to make a series of changes to the Prisoner Review Board after it released a man who would go on to commit murder, leading to intense scrutiny in Springfield. Pritzker signed Senate Bill 19, which contains changes
By Ben SzalinskiCapitol News IllinoisBszalinski@capitolnewsillinois.com Governor JB Pritzker signed Illinois’ fiscal year 2026 budget into law Monday, taking shots at president Donald Trump’s budget management to defend hard choices state lawmakers were forced to make this year. The $55.1 billion spending plan set to take effect July 1 is the
By Ben SzalinskiCapitol News Illinoisbszalinski@capitolnewsillinois.com Public employees hired since 2011 must continue to wait for pension reform after Illinois lawmakers declined to take up the issue during the spring session. Lawmakers and labor unions have both expressed concern that benefits for Tier 2 employees – those who entered the public
By Reilly CookMedill Illinois News Bureaunews@capitolnewsillinois.com The “Clean Slate” Act, which could have sealed thousands and potentially millions of nonviolent criminal records in Illinois, had bipartisan support but failed to pass in the final flurry of legislative action this spring, the sponsor says. Senate Bill 1784 would have required law
By Ben Szalinski & Jerry NowickiCapitol News Illinoisnews@capitolnewsillinois.com Giving almost no time for public review, Illinois Democrats pushed through a $55.2 billion budget for next fiscal year late Saturday, bolstering coffers with new taxes on sports bets, nicotine products and businesses. The $55.2 billion spending plan is supported by $55.3
By Ben SzalinskiCapitol News Illinoisbszalinski@capitolnewsillinois.com The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear an appeal on a lawsuit led by Illinois Republican U.S. representative Mike Bost challenging Illinois’ mail-in voting law. Bost and a pair of Illinois primary delegates for president Donald Trump sued the Illinois State Board of Elections
By Ben Szalinski & Peter HancockCapitol News Illinoisbszalinski@capitolnewsillinois.com Illinois lawmakers have one week to pass a new state budget with little room for new spending and Congress presenting further challenges and uncertainty. Revenue projections had already been declining as the spring session has progressed. Now, lawmakers who have long feared
By Jade AubreyCapitol News Illinoisjaubrey@capitolnewsillinois.com Illinois lawmakers passed two bills this week that aim to support mothers in the state. One bill requires employers to give paid time off to employees who pump breastmilk at work. The second allows midwives to help with home births, which is the latest attempt
By Ben SzalinskiCapitol News Illinoisbszalinski@capitolnewsillinois.com Governor JB Pritzker’s office is now projecting state revenues to come in about a half-billion dollars below the baseline projections assumed during his February budget address. The latest downward revision comes as lawmakers are entering the final two-week stretch to approve a budget before their
By Simon Carr & Sonya DymovaMedill Illinois News Bureaunews@capitolnewsillinois.com A growing number of state lawmakers are moving to repeal a 2015 Illinois law penalizing companies that boycott Israel to protest its policies toward Palestinians. Amid concerns about Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza, lawmakers in Springfield supporting human rights for Palestinians
By Jade AubreyCapitol News Illinoisjaubrey@capitolnewsillinois.com Governor JB Pritzker issued an executive order May 7 that bars State agencies from collecting and disclosing data about autism to the federal government unless it’s medically or legally necessary. The order was in response to a move by the U.S. Department of Health and
By Jade AubreyCapitol News Illinoisjaubrey@capitolnewsillinois.com Fallen Aurora firefighter Cristian Medrano was honored at the state’s 32nd annual Fallen Firefighter Memorial held outside the Statehouse Tuesday, May 13. The memorial is held each May in front of the commemorative statue on the Statehouse’s back lawn as a tribute to Illinois firefighters
By Beth HundsdorferCapitol News Illinoisbhundsdorfer@capitolnewsillinois.com As the red velvet curtains at the Vatican parted, a priest realized that his college pal from the South Side of Chicago that he knows as “Bob” had been elected the first American pope. “Oh, dear God,” the Very Rev. Anthony Benedetto Pizzo, the prior
By Ben SzalinskiCapitol News Illinoisbszalinski@capitolnewsillinois.com The General Assembly’s independent forecasting commission has improved revenue projections for the upcoming fiscal year despite growing economic volatility. That’s good news for state lawmakers who are in the final weeks of crafting the fiscal year 2026 budget set to take effect July 1. But
By Grace FriedmanMedill Illinois News Bureaunews@capitolnewsillinois.com Health care unions continue to rally for legislation to address understaffing they say strains hospitals and threatens both patient safety and staff well-being. Lawmakers are considering the Hospital Worker Staff and Safety bill, which would establish mandatory nurse-to-patient staffing ratios and increase support for
By Sonya DymovaMedill Illinois News Bureaunews@capitolnewsillinois.com John Gerend, a Vietnam War veteran from Lake Villa, Ill., was exposed to Agent Orange while on duty. Suffering from diseases associated with exposure to the toxic chemical, he said he still considers himself fortunate. “I’ve had some issues with it — diabetes, some
By Ben SzalinskiCapitol News Illinoisbszalinski@capitolnewsillionis.com Standing on his backyard deck Thursday, April 24, the same place where he declared his 1996 candidacy for U.S. Senate, Illinois’ senior senator Dick Durbin reflected on his decision to retire after four decades in Congress. “I’ve done this my way, making decisions based on
