3 Weeks Left in the 2026 Spring Session
The Illinois House has only 19 scheduled days of session left in the 2026 regular calendar. Any bills passed in May only need a 60-vote majority to be effective immediately on signing by the Governor. After May, legislation needs a “super-majority” of votes, 71, to have an immediate effective date. Those numbers are important. Even though, Democrats have 78 seats in the House, there is some disagreement on a number of legislative proposals still under consideration.
Here are a few of the big still unsettled policy items for May:
- The Budget – Pritzker’s introduced budget is over $56 billion, the largest in state history and will require tax and/or fee increases
- Pension reform – Democrats make a tweak to pensions every year. There has been a clamoring to change Tier II pensions back to the same level of benefits of Tier I. This change would massively increase pension debt in Illinois which has the worst funded pension system in the U.S.
- The Bears/Mega-Project bill – The bill is now in the Senate and revisions are expected. I voted No on the bill. There is nothing in it that helps ordinary property tax owners and plenty that could hurt them.
- Pritzker’s BUILD Bill – this bill usurps local control on zoning and gives power to state government to demand low-income, multi-family housing in every neighborhood. It also supports that with massive subsidies to developers and first-time home owners.
- Energy/Data Centers – The Chicago Tribune, after first supporting CEJA, is now calling loudly for changes as it becomes increasingly obvious are facing potential energy shortages. Literally, one natural gas company is dismantling equipment and moving it to Texas to operate because CEJA requires it to shutdown by 2030. They aren’t waiting and they are taking 900 MW, the output of one nuclear plant, out of the state. There have been marathon hearing on data centers and their energy and water use with no final legislation proposed yet.
Pritzker-Style Affordability
Pritzker Has Imposed State Tax & Fee Hikes 57 Times Since 2018
“Soak the taxpayers so ‘I’ can afford to do whatever ‘I’ want.”
Governor Pritzker has presided over $77 billion in tax increases since 2019 while Illinois’ economic growth woefully lags behind the rest of the country, yet HE WANTS MORE TAX AND FEE HIKES! Last year alone, Illinoisans paid $16.5 billion more in state taxes than they would have if taxes stayed consistent with 2018 levels.
This article lays out the stark reality of this man’s fiscal mismanagement and his unquenchable greed:
https://www.illinoispolicy.org/pritzkers-57-tax-and-fee-hikes-cost-illinoisans-77-billion/
Democrats Tried to Cheat with New Redistricting Amendment to Illinois’ Constitution
In a political power grab, the radical Democrats filed legislation that would change the long-standing fairness standard in the Illinois Constitution used to judge legislative maps. However, the Supreme Court shut it down. Illinois lawmakers punt remap amendment after SCOTUS Voting Rights Act ruling
House Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment 28 was filed by Speaker Chris Welch in response to concerns over a case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court, Louisiana v. Callais. The proposal would rewrite Illinois’ constitutional standard for drawing legislative maps.
Under the current standard, maps must be “compact, contiguous and substantially equal in population.” Welch’s proposal would instead create a ranked list of five criteria.
HJRCA 28 would amend the Legislature Article of the Illinois Constitution on decennial redistricting to require Legislative and Representative Districts to be drawn, in order of priority:
(1) To be substantially equal in population
(2) To ensure that no citizen is denied an equal opportunity to participate in the political process and to elect representatives of his or her choice on account of race
(3) To create, where practical, racial coalition or influence Districts
(4) To be contiguous
(5) To the extent practicable, to be compact. The current requirements are compact, contiguous, and substantially equal in population
Compactness is moved to the bottom of the list and qualified by the phrase “to the extent practicable.” House Republicans argue that change would significantly weaken the compactness requirement and point to their lawsuit filed last year which alleges maps passed by Democrats violate Illinois’ compactness standard in 52 of the state’s 118 House districts.
Who Is ‘Gerry Mander’?
Not an actual person (haha), ‘gerrymandering‘ goes back a long way and refers to the practice of ‘moving the political goal posts’ by deliberately designing voting districts to achieve specific outcomes rather than representing voters fairly. It is named after US Governor Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts (pictured above) who helped to creatively redraw districts in 1812 in order to ensure his political party’s continued majority in the state senate.
The word ‘gerrymander’ was a political satire made famous in a cartoon (also pictured above) that combined the governor’s name with his slithery map that was likened to a salamander.
You can dig a little deeper into the history of the practice here:
https://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/who-is-gerry-mander.html
Illinois is currently in ‘gerrymandering news’ after the US Supreme Court recently put a pause on Governor Pritzker’s effort to redraw the state’s legislative districts. In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court struck down Louisiana’s congressional map and ruled that racial gerrymandering is unconstitutional. In response to the ruling, Illinois Senate President Don Harmon (D-Oak Park) announced that a proposed state constitutional amendment on redistricting would not advance this legislative session.
Read more in these articles on how the high court’s decision is impacting Illinois:
https://www.thecentersquare.com/illinois/article_b2b9fd9c-41af-4abe-9049-f289555003d2.html
Illinois Dems Are Putting Criminals Before Citizens
Governor Pritzker’s pro-illegal immigrant madness has consequences. More than 400 criminal illegal aliens have been released into Illinois’ streets in just one year. Recently released public records show that despite explicit Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers, Democrats in this blue sanctuary state are endangering American lives by blatantly ignoring the law.
Pritzker has said “Every family, every child, every human being deserves to feel safe and secure in the place they call home”, but he neglected to further qualify- only if you are politically advantageous to him.
Governor Pritzker then takes it one step further by hurling abuse charges at federal immigration law enforcement officers in Illinois. He created a commission in October designed specifically to target agents.
The system Pritzker has created is making Illinois UNSAFE!
https://www.thecentersquare.com/illinois/article_43434f0d-2139-4847-be3f-ab1a1dd45e84.html
Then We Have Politically Misguided Judges…
Judge John Lyke (above left) and Cook County Chief Judge Charles Beach (above right) have been friends for 25 years, and they are both delivering the goods that Governor Pritzker feeds on- incompetency and chaos.
Last month, under the ‘leadership’ of these two judges, two Chicago police officers were shot (one killed) at Swedish Hospital. The shooter, Alphanso Talley (pictured above) had been released by Judge Lyke even though he had five prior felony convictions and pending cases for possessing a stolen vehicle, battering a correctional officer, armed carjacking and armed robbery. And, the dangerous criminal was released under Chief Judge Beach’s disaster of an electronic monitoring system that he claimed to have cleaned up under his administration.
https://www.thecentersquare.com/illinois/article_71189623-5ca5-51ed-8cf5-ebe35b5b1e42.html
The dangerous situations that Governor Pritzker’s SAFE-T Act continues to put law enforcement and Illinois citizens in needs to be challenged and intelligently rewritten if not completely abandoned- NOW!
Keep This Toxic Nonsense Out Of Our Schools
Dozens of Illinois school districts have been put on notice and are being investigated by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division for including ‘sexual orientations and gender ideology’ content in their pre-K – 12 grade classes, and whether or not parents were notified. The investigation will also assess the school districts’ use of single-sex intimate spaces (such as bathrooms and locker rooms).
The following article includes a full list of the school districts being investigated: https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/dozens-of-illinois-school-districts-many-in-suburban-chicago-being-investigated-by-doj/3930294/
Did You Know?
Many of the words and phrases we commonly use to communicate actually originated in the military! It only makes sense that an institution so valuable to any society would have a lasting impact on its language.
You might be surprised by these 10 ‘military’ words that we use every day:
Resources for Veterans
The State of Illinois offers a variety of programs and resources for veterans and their families. Here you will find a collection of federal, state, and local services available to veterans on a wide variety of issues. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, please feel welcome to give my office a call at 217-508-4108 and a member of my constituent service team will be ready to assist you. Learn more…
As your state representative, my office is available to assist you with any issues you may have when interacting with a state agency.
Please call our office at 217.508.4108 to get help or schedule an appointment to see me.
The office is located at 1113 Lincoln Ave, Charleston and is open Mon-Fri from 9am- 4 pm.
