13 Apr 2026

April Is the Cruelest Month for Illinois’ Fiscal Health – Except Maybe Going Forward, for All the Others

By Rich Miller

State government revenues were up $1.571 billion at the end of the third quarter, according to the most recent report from the legislature’s bipartisan, bicameral Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability. The almost $1.6 billion in new revenues is an increase of 4.2 percent. The state budget was crafted last year with an expectation that revenues would rise just 2.3% for the full fiscal year, so that’s pretty darned good news.

06 Apr 2026

Sixty-Five Percent of Polled Illinoisians Want More Affordable Housing – and Don’t Call It “Granny Flats”

By Rich Miller

A YouGov poll conducted last month shows registered voters in Illinois overwhelmingly believe that the cost of renting and buying a home is a problem, think that there aren’t enough affordable homes for average folks and want the state Legislature to take action.

30 Mar 2026

Turn In, Tune Out, Drop On: The Illinois GOP Primary Election Strategy as Read by Timothy Leary

By Rich Miller

The trend in special elections around the country for the past several months has shown spiking Democratic voter turn-out and tanking Republican turn-out. And some preliminary primary election results from earlier this month show the same trend here.

23 Mar 2026

Juliana Stratton and Josh Higgins Both Pulled Low(ish) Cards, but They Played Them and Won

By Rich Miller

One of the biggest stories to come out of election day was that several candidates with the most money came up short.

16 Mar 2026

This Election Cycle, Independent Money Is Plentiful, the Messaging Positive, and the Fear of Upset Pervasive

By Rich Miller

Independent-campaign expenditures have skyrocketed this year in state legislative races. All of these numbers were current as of Friday, at 4:20 p.m., when I finished writing this column.

09 Mar 2026

If There Remains Confusion Over What the Meaning of “Is” Is, Illinois Politics Offers No Clarification

By Rich Miller

Unless you’ve been under a rock, you likely know that former President Bill Clinton seemed to say that he flew on Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet with JB Pritzker and his spouse – after saying that it was likely that Epstein as well as his notorious co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell were passengers on every flight he took on that plane.

02 Mar 2026

Representative Margaret Croke: Free Enough to Collaborate with Pritzker, Strong Enough to Take His Money

By Rich Miller

State Representative Margaret Croke, D-Chicago, who is running for Illinois comptroller, reported receiving the maximum campaign contribution of $72,800 from Governor JB Pritzker on February 19.

23 Feb 2026

Pritzker’s Proposed Allocation of Common School Funds Gives Three-Card Monte a Bad Name

By Rich Miller

As expected, we did not see a whole lot of spending increases in Governor JB Pritzker’s state budget proposal last week. Last year, Pritzker said his budget limited discretionary spending to less than a one percent increase. The plan unveiled last week limits discretionary spending to less than a half a point increase.

16 Feb 2026

Can Illinois Dems Drum Up New Revenue to Replace Public Health Grants Axed by Trump?

By Rich Miller

As I write this, Governor JB Pritzker is preparing to give his annual budget address. It’s an unenviable task. Earlier this month, the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget released a report showing federal tax cuts caused a $587 million reduction in state revenues this fiscal year.

09 Feb 2026

Upon How Many “Unexpected Surplus Revenues” Can Pritzker Depend to Pull His Bacon from the Grease?

By Rich Miller

Governor JB Pritzker announced a plan last week to “manage Illinois pension commitments through a set of proposals designed to build on the state’s recent fiscal progress and further reduce long-term risk for taxpayers and retirees.” The price tag, however, is already giving one legislative leader pause. And “fiscal progress” is not the reality when factoring in federal funds.

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