Capital Facts

Ethics reform not a priority in Illinois

Published by admin on Sat, 02/22/2025 - 3:57pm

Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch didn’t sound all that enthused about passing any new ethics reforms during an interview last week.
In the wake of former House Speaker Michael Madigan’s conviction on 10 felony counts earlier this month, I asked Speaker Welch if he believed Madigan’s conviction called out for new reform laws.

Madigan pays the price while Blago gets full pardon

Published by admin on Sun, 02/16/2025 - 4:27pm

Mike Madigan knew for a very long time that the US Attorney’s office and the FBI badly wanted to put his head on a spike.
It was no secret. Everybody knew it. Madigan was investigated over and over again, but nothing ever came of it.
“This was a guy they wanted to go after, and they gathered as much as they could against him and something stuck,” the Madigan/McClain jury foreman told the Chicago Tribune.

Pritzker may be stuck having to raise taxes

Published by admin on Sat, 02/08/2025 - 1:06pm

Gov. JB Pritzker has "revised" his remarks about not raising taxes to balance the budget.
“It’s very important that we live within our means in this state, and that we not resort to tax increases as a way to, you know, to balance the budget,” Pritzker said on Jan. 30th.

Illinois better plan for what might happen next

Published by admin on Sun, 02/02/2025 - 12:05pm

To many Statehouse types, some of last week’s news out of Washington, DC felt eerily familiar.
Last Monday night, the White House announced a sweeping new policy that would’ve at least temporarily defunded trillions of dollars of government spending on everything from the National School Lunch Program, to Head Start, to cancer and sleep disorders research, and on and on through 50 small-print pages.
So, some Illinoisans rightly pointed out that former Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner also tried crashing government spending by defunding vital social services and other programs.

Union-backed bill would cost Illinois $30 billion more for pension payments

Published by admin on Sat, 01/25/2025 - 10:56am

The Illinois legislature’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability recently released an eye-popping actuarial analysis of a union-backed pension reform plan.
The analysis concluded that the proposal, House Bill 5909, would cost taxpayers almost $30 billion through the year 2045.
And the annual state cost starting in Fiscal Year 2027, which begins in mid-2026, would be $1.13 billion.

Madigan should’ve known better

Published by admin on Sat, 01/18/2025 - 2:21pm

Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s longtime law firm partner Vincent “Bud” Getzendanner testified in Madigan’s defense against numerous federal charges last week.
One of the main themes of Getzendanner’s testimony was the property tax firm’s process of weeding out clients and potential clients who could pose a conflict of interest to Madigan.

House caucus off the rails over hemp bill

Published by admin on Sun, 01/12/2025 - 11:33am

Every now and then you get a story that helps explain the Statehousepower dynamic. The saga of the “intoxicating hemp” regulation bill is one of those stories.
The governor’s office began last week by handing House Speaker Chris Welch a list of 62 House Democrats who said they would vote for the hemp regulation bill.
The day ended with the bill in flames and a decision by the House Speaker not to move forward.

Who in Illinois will run again? Polling begins

Published by admin on Sat, 12/21/2024 - 3:33pm

We’re less than nine months from when candidates can begin circulating petitions for the 2026 election, so we’re rapidly approaching the time when major figures will need to decide whether to run or not.
Because of that, a lot of people are polling.
The state’s two big dogs, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and Gov. JB Pritzker, are still not saying what they plan to do, although Durbin has said he’ll make his plans known after the start of the new year.

A big pile of state money just sitting there

Published by admin on Sat, 12/14/2024 - 1:34pm

The Democratic legislative leaders and the governor agreed to squirrel away $260 million in lump-sum appropriations to various state agencies last spring. But now some groups are figuring out that a big pile of state money is just sitting there and they are trying to stake their claims.

Madigan should have known to walk away

Published by admin on Sat, 12/07/2024 - 12:40pm

Whenever someone assures you that another person you’re both dealing with “understands” the “quid pro quo,” you’d be wise to run away as fast as you can and never look back.
But that’s exactly how then Ald. Daniel Solis assured then House Speaker Michael Madigan in late June of 2017 that their mark – the developers of a West Loop apartment complex – would eventually be convinced to retain Madigan’s property tax appeals law firm.