By Ben Szalinskiby A week after ballots were cast, former Illinois governor Pat Quinn said the November 5 election results show voters are willing to support a graduated income tax structure to provide property tax relief. Quinn, who left office in early 2015, made a stop at the Illinois Capitol
By Jerry NowickiCapitol News Illinoisjnowicki@capitolnewsillinois.com The first extensive public look at next year’s State finances contains a warning to lawmakers from the governor’s office: “The ability to fund new programs will be severely limited” next fiscal year. That comes from the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget, which projected a
By Hannah MeiselCapitol News Illinoishmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com Commonwealth Edison’s top attorney was busy preparing for the General Assembly to take up major legislation the utility had spent months negotiating when ComEd’s top in-house lobbyist stopped by his office in late October 2011. A little more than 13 years later, the attorney, Tom
By Andrew AdamsCapitol News Illinoisaadams@capitolnewsillinois.com Lawmakers in Illinois are asking voters to weigh in on three hot-button issues on their ballots this year: Election interference, income taxes, and reproductive health care. Voters in Illinois are being posed three “advisory” questions that ask voters whether they support a specific policy, but
By HANNAH MEISELCapitol News Illinoishmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com Illinois surpassed $2 billion in tax revenue last year from all types of gambling and the state lottery – a record bolstered by continued growth in video gambling, sports betting and the opening of several new casinos. But that growth comes at the expense of
By Hannah Meisel and Andrew Adams Illinois governor JB Pritzker is set to join state legislative and business leaders on a trade mission to Japan next week to explore clean energy, manufacturing, life sciences, quantum, and other “key growth industries,” according to the governor’s office. Members of the delegation will
Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell came under fire for his hiring practices after he employed a deputy with two DUI convictions, who is now accused of the murder of an unarmed black woman in her kitchen. But it wasn’t the first time he chose to hire someone accused of drunk
By Peter Hancock and Hannah MeiselCapitol News Illinois The Illinois Supreme Court last week vacated a lower court ruling and reinstated a statute that authorizes the state to revoke a person’s Firearm Owners Identification card once they’ve been charged with a felony, even if they haven’t yet been convicted. The
By Hannah MeiselCapitol News Illinoishmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com A federal judge on Thursday declared a mistrial after a jury deadlocked in their deliberations over whether former AT&T Illinois President Paul La Schiazza bribed longtime Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan via a no-work contract for the speaker’s political ally. After nearly 15 hours of
By Andrew AdamsCapitol News Illinoisaadams@capitolnewsillinois.com Approximately 4.6 million records associated with Illinoisans in more than a dozen counties, including voting records, registrations and death certificates, were temporarily available on the open internet, according to a security researcher who identified the vulnerability in July. The documents were available through an unsecured
By Peter HancockCapitol News Illinoisphancock@capitolnewsillinois.com One year after Illinois became the first state in the nation to eliminate the use of cash bail, the impact on the state’s criminal justice system appears to have been far less dramatic than people on either side of the debate had predicted. That, at
By Beth HundsdorferCapitol News Illinoisbhundsdorfer@capitolnewsillinois.com An Illinois law intended to help people with mental illness avoid confrontations with police had been on the books for three years when Sonya Massey was shot by a Sangamon County Sheriff’s deputy.The Community Emergency Services and Supports Act, or CESSA, requires mental and behavioral
By Jerry NowickiCapitol News Illinoisjnowicki@capitolnewsillinois.com Illinoisans may soon submit designs for what could be the new state flag. The Illinois Flag Commission, a bipartisan body of appointed officials, will accept designs for a new state flag online or by mail from September 3 to October 18. More information can be
By Dilpreet RajuCapitol News Illinoisdraju@capitolnewsillinois.com Medical marijuana patients can now purchase cannabis grown by small businesses as part of their allotment, Illinois’ top cannabis regulator said, but smaller, newly licensed cannabis growers are still seeking greater access to the state’s medical marijuana customers. Illinois legalized medicinal marijuana beginning in 2014,
By Hannah MeiselCapitol News Illinoishmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com A federal judge is ordering governor JB Pritzker’s administration to move the vast majority of those incarcerated at Stateville Correctional Center near Joliet out of the aging prison by the end of September, citing health and safety concerns posed by the facility. The Illinois Department
By Beth Hundsdorfer & Molly ParkerCapitol News Illinoisinvestigations@capitolnewsillinois.com An Illinois lawmaker heading a child welfare committee said the state must strengthen its laws and policies to protect homeschooled children facing inadequate education, abuse and neglect. Representative Terra Costa Howard, the chair of the Adoption and Child Welfare Committee in the
By Peter Hancock, Hannah Meisel, & Andrew AdamsCapitol News Illinoisnews@capitolnewsillinois.com MILWAUKEE – A former Republican congressman from New York told Illinois Republicans Tuesday, July 16 that to win more elections in their deeply blue state, they need to reach beyond the traditional conservative voting base. “We need to challenge ourselves
By Peter HancockCapitol News Illinoisphancock@capitolnewsillinois.com When Illinois high school students sit down to take their annual State assessments next year, they will take a different exam than in recent years. The Illinois State Board of Education recently announced that starting next Spring, it will use the ACT exam rather than
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
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
