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Illinois lawmakers finalize $53.1 billion budget

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After a near-derailment and an all-nighter to wrap up the General Assembly’s spring session, supermajority Democrats in the Illinois House gave final legislative approval to the state budget as the sun rose Wednesday morning.Despite holding 78 seats in the chamber, it took Democrats three tries to reach the 60 votes needed to approve more than $1.1 billion in revenue increases, including a tax hike on sportsbooks and businesses, to balance the $53.1 billion spending plan for fiscal year 2025.The spending plan passed 65-45, with seven Democrats joining Republicans in opposition.The revenue plan that capped the voting on the budget-related bills was more of a challenge. House Bill 4951 fell one vote short of passage twice after 4 a.m. due to attendance issues. On the third try – after about an hour of procedural maneuvering by Republicans that left Democrats reeling – the bill passed at 4:43 a.m. with the minimum 60 votes necessary.

Jerry Nowicki

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Capitol News IllinoisRep. Norine Hammond, R-Macomb, tells Democrats in the General Assembly they should include a line item in the fiscal year 2026 budget for treating their “spending addiction.”

“You – you passed these rules,” Rep. Patrick Windhorst, R-Metropolis, scolded Democrats after the majority party voted to suspend the House rules in order to bring the revenue plan up for a vote a third and final time.“I think it should be clear to everyone in the state what this supermajority is willing to do to ram a tax increase down the throats of the citizens of Illinois at 4:30 in the morning,” he added.Democrats had earlier highlighted that despite a tight fiscal year, the budget would send $198 million to the state’s “rainy day” fund and make the full payment into the state’s pension systems that is required by law.Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth, a Peoria Democrat and the lead budget negotiator in the House, pointed to the state’s nine credit upgrades of the past four years. And she noted a backlog of unpaid bills that reached nearly $17 billion seven years ago under Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner has shrunk to a bill payment cycle that lasts “mere days.”“Democrats have set this state on a fiscally responsible course, one that will continue with today’s state budget,” she said.

Jerry Nowicki

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Capitol News IllinoisState Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth, D-Peoria, introduces the state’s operating budget in the early hours of Wednesday morning at the Capitol. The budget passed after 1 a.m., with Gordon-Booth calling it “balanced, responsible and fair.”

Gov. JB Pritzker says he’ll sign the plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1, which spends about $400 million more than what he requested in his February budget address. In a statement after its passage, the governor claimed investments made in the budget will grow Illinois’ economy and continue a “track record of fiscal responsibility” while prioritizing working families.“From expectant mothers and their newborn babies to people with disabilities to veterans to seniors who need our care, we’re keeping our promises to all Illinoisans and the most vulnerable among us,” Pritzker said.The budget cleared the General Assembly five days after lawmakers had scheduled their spring session’s adjournment, although the May 24 “deadline” was a largely arbitrary date that left a week on the calendar as a contingency plan. Negotiations were complicated by inflation and other spending pressures driving up the expected cost of government, while economists predict the state’s economy will slow in the upcoming fiscal year.Still, Democrats approved the spending plan with several votes to spare but no Republican support – as they’ve done every year in Pritzker’s tenure except the first in 2019.Republicans argued the pace of spending growth – and the fact that some of the revenues raised to pay for it are temporary – set the state on pace for an even tighter fiscal year 2026.Overall, state spending grew by about 5 percent from last year’s enacted plan, or about 1.6 percent above expected end-of-year expenditures following a supplemental spending plan’s inclusion in the budget package this week.Democrats highlighted a $50 million appropriation for a child tax credit for children under 12 if their household qualifies for the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit. The plan contains $200 million for after-school and summer youth programs and $45 million for grants through the Reimagine Public Safety Act aimed at violence reduction.But Republicans accused Democrats of having misplaced priorities, pointing to hundreds of millions of dollars for programs serving noncitizens.The budget includes $182 million to provide shelter, health care and other services for recently arrived migrants, many of whom have been bused to the state from Texas. And it includes $440 million from the GRF for two programs providing state-funded Medicaid-like benefits to noncitizens, with $189 million from other state funds as well.New revenuesMore than $1.1 billion in added revenue was needed to balance the books, so lawmakers extended an expiring cap on corporate net operating losses to ensure that $526 million in tax dollars wouldn’t disappear in FY25. Another $25 million will be raised by subjecting “re-renters” of hotel rooms to an existing state hotel tax.Sportsbooks will see their current 15 percent tax rate on profits increase via a new graduated structure that will tax between 20 and 40 percent, based on profits. The change is projected to bring in about $200 million to the state’s General Revenue Fund. A 1 percentage point increase to the tax on the state’s video gambling industry would generate an additional $35 million for infrastructure projects next year.The revenue plan also caps a tax discount claimed by retailers at $1,000 monthly, generating $101 million for state coffers and about $85 million for municipalities.To appease retailers, lawmakers included a prohibition on financial institutions and credit card companies charging fees on the sales tax and gratuity portion of electronic transactions beginning July 1, 2025.The Illinois Retail Merchants Association was also given a $5 million line item for workforce grants.

Jerry Nowicki

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Capitol News Illinois Rep. Fred Crespo, D-Hoffman Estates, watches as a revenue bill needed to enact the budget fall one vote short of passage early Wednesday morning. Ultimately, the bill would pass once recalled for a vote.

Rep. Fred Crespo, D-Hoffman Estates, voted for the budget, but during debate over the revenue proposal, he said he was disappointed that leadership didn’t consider hiring freezes, changes to weight loss drugs covered by state insurance or other spending controls he suggested.“There’s really only one place you can look at getting these revenues, and that’s taxpayers,” he said before voting against the bill. “And at this rate, ladies and gentlemen, we’re gonna run out of taxpayer dollars to spend.”The budget package also freed up about $200 million in revenue by redirecting $150 million from the Road Fund and $50 million from the Leaking Underground Storage Fund to public transit. The move was opposed by organized labor because it diverts Road Fund money to the state’s discretionary spending fund, but Democrats promised it would only happen in the upcoming fiscal year.“I can go through this list of tax increases that you’re using to say that you’re being good fiscal stewards of the state’s money,” Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer, R-Jacksonville, said in a committee hearing Tuesday evening before the early morning vote. “Meanwhile, I’m hearing about making sure that there’s Democrat pork projects, to make sure that you can get the votes for your budget.”Davidsmeyer contended Democratic senators were each given the authority to request $3 million in district-specific infrastructure projects in the budget, while Democratic members of the House got about $1.5 million each. Republicans were shut out of requesting their own member initiatives.District-specific projects have been used time and again to incentivize members to vote for the budget, with the Chicago Tribune tracking at least $150 million in infrastructure spending for lawmaker-led initiatives in the current-year budget. No spokespeople would confirm or deny the amount allocated for lawmaker initiatives.The final roughly 80 pages of the budget bill contain a long list of projects, most of them ranging from $50,000 to $1 million sums to various specifically named businesses, local governments and other entities.Infrastructure and moreDespite the diversion of money from the Road Fund, the budget includes $3.5 billion for infrastructure – about $500 million more than what Pritzker had outlined in his February budget proposal.That includes $500 million to support the development of a regional quantum information science and technology campus, allocated from a specific economic-development focused bond fund known as Build Illinois.Another bill allowing the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to designate “quantum campuses” also lays out infrastructure and business incentives to lure developers of new-age higher-speed computing technology to the state. That measure also expands and extends several other popular tax credit programs, such as the Reimagining Energy and Vehicles Act and the Economic Development for a Growing Economy, or EDGE, program.The state’s municipalities, meanwhile, will get another $400 million for local road projects, a measure that helped neutralize their opposition to a part of the budget plan that eliminates one of their sources of revenue – the statewide 1 percent grocery tax.But the grocery tax repeal won’t happen until 2026, and local governments will be given authority to enact their own grocery tax up to 1 percent without a referendum. Home rule jurisdictions will be able to increase their sales tax by up to 1 percent without a referendum as well.Other spending items include:Funding for a 5 percent pay hike for lawmakers’ base salary to $93,712. State law sets lawmakers’ pay to increase annually with inflation, and lawmakers took no action to stop it from occurring in FY25.The annual $350 million increase in K-12 education funding, called for by a 2017 law that overhauled Illinois’ school funding formula.A 2 percent – or $30 million – increase for community colleges and public universities. A $10 million increase to Monetary Award Program grants for lower-income college students.Full funding for Pritzker’s “Smart Start” plan aimed at adding 5,000 preschool seats across the state and providing workforce grants.$14 million to launch the newly created Department of Early Childhood, which Pritzker has promised would streamline services currently provided by three different state agencies. $45 million for a teacher vacancy pilot program to help underserved districts with teacher retention.A $1 hourly increase for direct service professionals who serve individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities in community-based settings. An increase totaling $70 million for Community Care Program workers serving older adults who can’t live independently.$5 million for a tax credit program for news outlets beginning in 2025 and claimable the following year. $10 million for the governor’s plan to erase $100 million in total medical debt for Illinoisans through a partnership with the nonprofit Undue Medical Debt. House Bill 5290 laid out that applicants must earn 400 percent of the federal poverty level or less.$900 million for renovation at state prisons, including a possible tear down and rebuild of Stateville and Logan Correctional Centers.$4 million to create a statewide maternal health plan and distribute grants to community-based reproductive health care providers.$155 million for safety net hospitals. A $90 million increase for Home Illinois, a program created last year to address homelessness, bringing total funding to $290 million.Hannah Meisel contributed to this report.Capitol News Illinoisis a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of print and broadcast outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association. 

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Poll: Support for Missouri abortion rights amendment growing

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A proposed constitutional amendment legalizing abortion in Missouri received support from more than half of respondents in a new poll from St. Louis University and YouGov.That’s a boost from a poll earlier this year, which could mean what’s known as Amendment 3 is in a solid position to pass in November.SLU/YouGov’s poll of 900 likely Missouri voters from Aug. 8-16 found that 52% of respondents would vote for Amendment 3, which would place constitutional protections for abortion up to fetal viability. Thirty-four percent would vote against the measure, while 14% aren’t sure.By comparison, the SLU/YouGov poll from February found that 44% of voters would back the abortion legalization amendment.St. Louis University political science professor Steven Rogers said 32% of Republicans and 53% of independents would vote for the amendment. That’s in addition to nearly 80% of Democratic respondents who would approve the measure. In the previous poll, 24% of Republicans supported the amendment.Rogers noted that neither Amendment 3 nor a separate ballot item raising the state’s minimum wage is helping Democratic candidates. GOP contenders for U.S. Senate, governor, lieutenant governor, treasurer and secretary of state all hold comfortable leads.“We are seeing this kind of crossover voting, a little bit, where there are voters who are basically saying, ‘I am going to the polls and I’m going to support a Republican candidate, but I’m also going to go to the polls and then I’m also going to try to expand abortion access and then raise the minimum wage,’” Rogers said.Republican gubernatorial nominee Mike Kehoe has a 51%-41% lead over Democrat Crystal Quade. And U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley is leading Democrat Lucas Kunce by 53% to 42%. Some GOP candidates for attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer have even larger leads over their Democratic rivals.

Brian Munoz

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St. Louis Public RadioHundreds of demonstrators pack into a parking lot at Planned Parenthood of St. Louis and Southwest Missouri on June 24, 2022, during a demonstration following the Supreme Court’s reversal of a case that guaranteed the constitutional right to an abortion.

One of the biggest challenges for foes of Amendment 3 could be financial.Typically, Missouri ballot initiatives with well-funded and well-organized campaigns have a better chance of passing — especially if the opposition is underfunded and disorganized. Since the end of July, the campaign committee formed to pass Amendment 3 received more than $3 million in donations of $5,000 or more.That money could be used for television advertisements to improve the proposal’s standing further, Rogers said, as well as point out that Missouri’s current abortion ban doesn’t allow the procedure in the case of rape or incest.“Meanwhile, the anti side won’t have those resources to kind of try to make that counter argument as strongly, and they don’t have public opinion as strongly on their side,” Rogers said.There is precedent of a well-funded initiative almost failing due to opposition from socially conservative voters.In 2006, a measure providing constitutional protections for embryonic stem cell research nearly failed — even though a campaign committee aimed at passing it had a commanding financial advantage.Former state Sen. Bob Onder was part of the opposition campaign to that measure. He said earlier this month it is possible to create a similar dynamic in 2024 against Amendment 3, if social conservatives who oppose abortion rights can band together.“This is not about reproductive rights or care for miscarriages or IVF or anything else,” said Onder, the GOP nominee for Missouri’s 3rd Congressional District seat. “Missourians will learn that out-of-state special interests and dark money from out of state is lying to them and they will reject this amendment.”Quade said earlier this month that Missourians of all political ideologies are ready to roll back the state’s abortion ban.“Regardless of political party, we hear from folks who are tired of politicians being in their doctor’s offices,” Quade said. “They want politicians to mind their own business. So this is going to excite folks all across the political spectrum.”

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Democrat Mark Osmack makes his case for Missouri treasurer

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Mark Osmack has been out of the electoral fray for awhile, but he never completely abandoned his passion for Missouri politics.Osmack, a Valley Park native and U.S. Army veteran, previously ran for Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District seat and for state Senate. Now he’s the Democratic nominee for state treasurer after receiving a phone call from Missouri Democratic Party Chairman Russ Carnahan asking him to run.“There’s a lot of decision making and processing and evaluation that goes into it, which is something I am very passionate and interested in,” Osmack said this week on an episode of Politically Speaking.Osmack is squaring off against state Treasurer Vivek Malek, who was able to easily win a crowded GOP primary against several veteran lawmakers including House Budget Chairman Cody Smith and state Sen. Andrew Koenig.While Malek was able to attract big donations to his political action committee and pour his own money into the campaign, Osmack isn’t worried that he won’t be able to compete in November. Since Malek was appointed to his post, Osmack contends he hasn’t proven that he’s a formidable opponent in a general election.“His actions and his decision making so far in his roughly two year tenure in that office have been questionable,” Osmack said.Among other things, Osmack was critical of Malek for placing unclaimed property notices on video gaming machines which are usually found in gas stations or convenience stores. The legality of the machines has been questioned for some time.As Malek explained on his own episode of Politically Speaking, he wanted to make sure the unclaimed property program was as widely advertised as possible. But he acknowledged it was a mistake to put the decals close to the machines and ultimately decided to remove them.Osmack said: “This doesn’t even pass the common sense sniff test of, ‘Hey, should I put state stickers claiming you might have a billion dollars on a gambling machine that is not registered with the state of Missouri?’ If we’re gonna give kudos for him acknowledging the wrong thing, it never should have been done in the first place.”Osmack’s platform includes supporting programs providing school meals using Missouri agriculture products and making child care more accessible for the working class.He said the fact that Missouri has such a large surplus shows that it’s possible to create programs to make child care within reach for parents.“It is quite audacious for [Republicans] to brag about $8 billion, with a B, dollars in state surplus, while we offer next to no social services to include pre-K, daycare, or child care,” Osmack said.Here’s are some other topics Osmack discussed on the show:How he would handle managing the state’s pension systems and approving low-income housing tax credits. The state treasurer’s office is on boards overseeing both of those programs.Malek’s decision to cut off investments from Chinese companies. Osmack said that Missouri needs to be cautious about abandoning China as a business partner, especially since they’re a major consumer of the state’s agriculture products. “There’s a way to make this work where we are not supporting communist nations to the detriment of the United States or our allies, while also maintaining strong economic ties that benefit Missouri farmers,” he said.What it was like to witness the skirmish at the Missouri State Fair between U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley and Democratic challenger Lucas Kunce.Whether Kunce can get the support of influential groups like the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which often channels money and staff to states with competitive Senate elections.

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As Illinois receives praise for its cannabis equity efforts, stakeholders work on system’s flaws

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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, then legalized it for recreational use in 2020. While the 2020 law legalized cannabis use for any adult age 21 or older, it did not expand licensing for medical dispensaries.Patients can purchase marijuana as part of the medical cannabis program at dual-purpose dispensaries, which are licensed to serve both medical and recreational customers. But dual-purpose dispensaries are greatly outnumbered by dispensaries only licensed to sell recreationally, and there are no medical-only dispensaries in the state.As another part of the adult-use legalization law, lawmakers created a “craft grow” license category that was designed to give more opportunities to Illinoisans hoping to legally grow and sell marijuana. The smaller-scale grow operations were part of the 2020 law’s efforts to diversify the cannabis industry in Illinois.Prior to that, all cultivation centers in Illinois were large-scale operations dominated by large multi-state operators. The existing cultivators, mostly in operation since 2014, were allowed to grow recreational cannabis beginning in 2019.Until recently, dual-purpose dispensaries have been unsure as to whether craft-grown products, made by social equity licensees — those who have lived in a disproportionately impacted area or have been historically impacted by the war on drugs — can be sold medicinally as part of a patient’s medical allotment.Erin Johnson, the state’s cannabis regulation oversight officer, told Capitol News Illinois last month that her office has “been telling dispensaries, as they have been asking us” they can now sell craft-grown products to medical patients.“There was just a track and trace issue on our end, but never anything statutorily,” she said.

Dilpreet Raju

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Capitol News IllinoisThe graphic shows how cannabis grown in Illinois gets from cultivation centers to customers.

No notice has been posted, but Johnson’s verbal guidance comes almost two years after the first craft grow business went online in Illinois.It allows roughly 150,000 medical patients, who dispensary owners say are the most consistent purchasers of marijuana, to buy products made by social equity businesses without paying recreational taxes. However — even as more dispensaries open — the number available to medical patients has not increased since 2018, something the Cannabis Regulation Oversight Office “desperately” wants to see changed. Johnson said Illinois is a limited license state, meaning “there are caps on everything” to help control the relatively new market.Berwyn Thompkins, who operates two cannabis businesses, said the rules limited options for patients and small businesses.“It’s about access,” Thompkins said. “Why wouldn’t we want all the patients — which the (adult-use) program was initially built around — why wouldn’t we want them to have access? They should have access to any dispensary.”Customers with a medical marijuana card pay a 1% tax on all marijuana products, whereas recreational customers pay retail taxes between roughly 20 and 40% on a given cannabis product, when accounting for local taxes.While Illinois has received praise for its equity-focused cannabis law, including through an independent study that showed more people of color own cannabis licenses than in any other state, some industry operators say they’ve experienced many unnecessary hurdles getting their businesses up and running.The state, in fact, announced last month that it had opened its 100th social equity dispensary.But Steve Olson, purchasing manager at a pair of dispensaries (including one dual-purpose dispensary) near Rockford, said small specialty license holders have been left in the lurch since the first craft grower opened in October 2022.“You would think that this would be something they’re (the government) trying to help out these social equity companies with, but they’re putting handcuffs on them in so many different spots,” he said. “One of them being this medical thing.”Olson said he contacted state agencies, including the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, months ago about whether craft products can be sold to medical patients at their retail tax rate, but only heard one response: “They all say it was an oversight.”This potentially hurt social equity companies because they sell wholesale to dispensaries and may have been missing out on a consistent customer base through those medical dispensaries.Olson said the state’s attempts to provide licensees with a path to a successful business over the years, such as with corrective lotteries that granted more social equity licenses, have come up short.“It’s like they almost set up the social equity thing to fail so the big guys could come in and swoop up all these licenses,” Olson said. “I hate to feel like that but, if you look at it, it’s pretty black and white.”Olson said craft companies benefit from any type of retail sale.“If we sell it to medical patients or not, it’s a matter of, ‘Are we collecting the proper taxes?’ That’s all it is,” he said.State revenue from cannabis taxes, licensing costs and other fees goes into the Cannabis Regulation Fund, which is used to fund a host of programs, including cannabis offense expungement, the general revenue fund, and the R3 campaign aiming to uplift disinvested communities.For fiscal year 2024, nearly $256 million was paid out from Cannabis Regulation Fund for related initiatives, which includes almost $89 million transferred to the state’s general revenue fund and more than $20 million distributed to local governments, according to the Illinois Department of Revenue.Medical access still limitedThe state’s 55 medical dispensaries that predate the 2020 legalization law, mostly owned by publicly traded multistate operators that had been operating in Illinois since 2014 under the state’s medical marijuana program, were automatically granted a right to licenses to sell recreationally in January 2020. That gave them a dual-purpose license that no new entrants into the market can receive under current law.Since expanding their clientele in 2020, Illinois dispensaries have sold more than $6 billion worth of cannabis products through recreational transactions alone.Nearly two-thirds of dispensaries licensed to sell to medical patients are in the northeast counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake and Will. Dual-purpose dispensaries only represent about 20 percent of the state’s dispensaries.While the state began offering recreational dispensary licenses since the adult-use legalization law passed, it has not granted a new medical dispensary license since 2018. That has allowed the established players to continue to corner the market on the state’s nearly 150,000 medical marijuana patients.But social equity licensees and advocates say there are more ways to level the playing field, including expanding access to medical sales.Johnson, who became the state’s top cannabis regulator in late 2022, expressed hope for movement during the fall veto session on House Bill 2911, which would expand medical access to all Illinois dispensaries.“We would like every single dispensary in Illinois to be able to serve medical patients,” Johnson said. “It’s something that medical patients have been asking for, for years.”Johnson said the bill would benefit patients and small businesses.“It’s something we desperately want to happen as a state system, because we want to make sure that medical patients are able to easily access what they need,” she said. “We also think it’s good for our social equity dispensaries, as they’re opening, to be able to serve medical patients.”Rep. Bob Morgan, D-Deerfield, who was the first statewide project coordinator for Illinois’ medical cannabis program prior to joining the legislature, wrote in an email to Capitol News Illinois that the state needs to be doing more for its patients.“Illinois is failing the state’s 150,000 medical cannabis patients with debilitating conditions. Too many are still denied the patient protections they deserve, including access to their medicine,” Morgan wrote, adding he would continue to work with stakeholders on further legislation.Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of newspapers, radio and TV stations statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.

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