By Jerry Nowicki State lawmakers Tuesday, Nov. 29 announced a bipartisan plan to use State revenues to pay down the remaining $1.4 billion in debt taken on by the State’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Part of the agreement is expected to move through the General Assembly
By Jerry Nowicki Early voting hours and locations greatly were expanded across the State this week as the campaign season entered its final two-week stretch. Polling places opened across the city of Chicago as well. Information on early voting for each election authority can be found on the Illinois State
By Jerry Nowicki Much of the talk from supporters of the SAFE-T Act criminal justice reform has in recent days centered on how it will or will not be amended before January 1, 2023 when cash bail will be abolished in Illinois as part of a provision known as the
By Jerry Nowicki Governor JB Pritzker announced a plan Tuesday, Sept. 27 to reduce a $1.8 billion Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund deficit by $450 million through an infusion of unemployment-related revenues. The trust fund is the pool of money paid into by employers to provide a social safety net for
By Jerry Nowicki The Illinois government Tuesday this week announced the award of the first electric vehicle manufacturing-targeted tax incentives made possible by a law signed by governor JB Pritzker last year. The incentives come from the Reimagining Electric Vehicles (REV) Act, which passed nearly unanimously and became law in
By Jerry Nowicki In a series of downstate news conferences coinciding with the Illinois State Fair, governor JB Pritzker this week gave an update on the possibility of a special session, outlined new State infrastructure investments, and announced a new program for some Illinoisans over age 55. Although the governor
By Jerry Nowicki Ten months after Illinois lawmakers passed the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act which set a goal of putting one million electric vehicles on State roads by the end of the decade, State agencies are engaged in a flurry of regulatory planning aimed at meeting those goals. The
By Jerry Nowicki Governor JB Pritzker issued a public health emergency declaration and declared Illinois a disaster area in response to the monkeypox virus Monday this week, a move his assistants said would help mobilize resources. The governor’s office personnel said the proclamation will aid in moving vaccines to the
By Jerry Nowicki Illinois Democrats are vying to make Chicago the host city for the Democratic National Convention in 2024 while considering who will lead their party for the next four years. Meanwhile, the State’s Republican Party is hearing calls for a censure of one of its sitting congressmen, Adam
By Jerry Nowicki A $400 million investment in broadband internet infrastructure approved by Illinois lawmakers in 2019 could pay for itself by added tax revenues alone within four years of completion of construction, according to a new study. That’s according to a report by the University of Illinois Project for
By Jerry Nowicki A pair of bills on governor JB Pritzker’s desk would expand a State roadway camera monitoring program to 22 counties while expanding the number of crimes the cameras can be used to investigate and the number of parties that can prosecute them. The measures, House Bill 260
When Capitol News Illinois was launched in January 2019, governor JB Pritzker had just been sworn in, Michael Madigan was elected to his 18th term as House speaker and the Senate’s president was Chicago’s John Cullerton. Now, as our fourth year is well under way, Pritzker is battling a wide
By Jerry Nowicki Illinois Department of Public Health director Dr. Ngozi Ezike will resign on March 14 after three years leading the agency and two years navigating a deadly pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than 32,000 Illinoisans. Ezike, who was appointed IDPH director in 2019, became a
By Jerry Nowicki In the first half-hour of the House of Representatives session Tuesday, Feb. 22 at the State Capitol in Springfield, the leaders of each party made calls for civility, two lawmakers recounted their recollections of a House floor altercation, and three Republicans were removed from the floor for
By Jerry Nowicki Illinoisans should stay tuned for an announcement on the State’s indoor mask mandate, governor JB Pritzker said at an unrelated news conference Tuesday, although he declined to say specifically what changes might be coming. “I think I’ve said over the last few press conferences that I really
By Jerry Nowicki With a massive Winter storm expected to blanket the entire state in ice and snow, governor JB Pritzker Tuesday issued a disaster declaration and activated members of the Illinois National Guard. He announced that his regularly scheduled State of the State and budget address would go on
By Jerry Nowicki A State program aims to take a comprehensive approach to ending Illinois’ firearm violence epidemic will be expanded under a law signed Friday by governor JB Pritzker. The Reimagine Public Safety Act (RPSA) became law in June, but the expansion signed Friday, Dec. 10 clarifies guidelines in
By Jerry Nowicki The application portal is now open for another $297 million of rental assistance for Illinoisans who lost income due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Illinois Rental Payment Program, or ILRPP, money comes from the federal American Rescue Plan Act signed into law by President Joe Biden in
By Jerry Nowicki Governor JB Pritzker signed into law a tax incentives package Tuesday this week that State lawmakers hope will help Illinois become a manufacturing hub for the budding electric vehicle industry. The Reimagining Electric Vehicles in Illinois, or REV, Act, passed the General Assembly with near-unanimous bipartisan support
By Jerry Nowicki Governor JB Pritzker, Tuesday this week, urged eligible Illinoisans to get a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot and called on skilled nursing facilities to make booster shots available to patients and staff members by Thanksgiving Day. Currently anyone who received the Pfizer vaccine and is over 65 years
