Politics
Pritzker allocates $160M for immigrant response in Illinois
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CHICAGO – As winter quickly approaches, Gov. JB Pritzker on Thursday announced plans for the state to spend an additional $160 million to aid and house a sustained influx of migrants sent to Chicago from the nation’s southern border.The administration sold the plan as a three-phase approach: “welcome, shelter, independence” – aimed at meeting the needs of migrants based on how long they’ve been in Chicago and whether they’re planning to stay.The state will spend $65 million to create a winterized “soft shelter site” to address severe shortages in the city’s shelter system, and another $65 million to assist with legal and housing assistance to resettle the migrants. Another $30 million would go to launch in intake center.“With Congress likely unwilling to act and with lives of innocent people at stake, the hurdles we face seem far beyond the scope of any one state and yet everything we can do, we must do,” Pritzker said at a news conference announcing the plans.Thursday’s announcement was made easier by the fact that the state is running a budget surplus.In an updated five-year economic forecast published Wednesday, the governor’s budgeting agency increased current-year revenue estimates by more than $1.4 billion.That created leeway for the state, which has already spent $470 million on the response to asylum seekers since the wave of new arrivals to Chicago began 15 months ago, according to the administration’s breakdown of state agency spending. The city is on track to spend more than $500 million of its own money to address the influx by the end of next year.But Pritzker emphasized the state isn’t handing over the $160 million directly to the city of Chicago, instead characterizing the plan as offering the types of “wraparound” services state agencies otherwise provide to Illinois residents. He chided the city for an intake and resettlement process that he said was moving too slowly and said Thursday’s action plan was spurred by his administration’s analysis of data regarding the influx of migrants.“We’re stepping in here to try to help and accelerate this process,” the governor said. “It isn’t moving fast enough. That’s why you’re seeing people still on the street…We cannot have people freezing on the streets of Chicago as we head into very cold weather.”’Welcome’ and ‘shelter’In the last 15 months, Chicago has seen more than 24,000 migrants arrive — the vast majority coming by bus at the direction of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott — according to city data.In late September, the number of weekly arrivals to Chicago began surging, reaching nearly 3,000 the first week of October. But since then, the numbers have once again leveled off, averaging about 700 asylum seekers weekly for the last three weeks.Read more: Pritzker urges Biden to intervene amid ‘untenable’ pace of migrant arrivalsWith federal coordination of migrant relocation efforts lacking, the Pritzker administration said it was critical to create an intake center to coordinate the new arrivals. That includes identifying which migrants are hoping to go somewhere else in the U.S. from Chicago, and those who have sponsors in Illinois.The state will pay $30 million to launch the intake center, at a location in Chicago that is yet to be determined. The center will provide a centralized place for migrants to get assistance fromcommunity-based organizations already working with the asylum seekers. It would also likely serve as the new de facto location for buses to drop asylum seekers, an administration official said.Pritzker on Thursday estimated having a centralized intake center would also help reduce the number of new arrivals going to city shelters by 10 percent. If that projection bears out, it would be a weight off Chicago’s already overloaded system.According to city data, nearly 12,300 migrants were staying in city shelters as of Thursday morning. But another 2,400 were awaiting placement in those shelters – the majority of whom have been sleeping in police stations, with hundreds more taking up temporary residence at O’Hare Airport.As the pace of migrant arrivals picked up in September, Pritzker was critical of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposal to build tent encampments for migrants, telling reporters he didn’t think it was “the only option.”But on Thursday, Pritzker said the state would spend $65 million on a similar endeavor – “dependent on the city turning over a property to us.”Asked why he’d softened to the idea, the governor pointed to the quickly approaching cold weather. In just a week, on Thanksgiving, the high temperature in Chicago is forecasted to be 24 degrees – more than 40 degrees below Thursday’s mild temperatures.“That is a reflection again of the fact that we are heading into winter very shortly,” Pritzker said. “And that not enough shelter space has been created between the last couple of months when I said that and now.”Johnson on Wednesday announced a new policy limiting shelter stays to 60 days, although no one will be forced out if they’re able to prove they’ve made progress securing permanent housing.The winterized shelter site would house as many as 2,000 people at any given time, and the Pritzker administration estimates it would be up and running for as long as six months.‘Independence’The final $65 million chunk of Pritzker’s migrant aid plan will be spent on programs for asylum seekers, including legal help, workforce training and rental assistance, all with the aim of getting new arrivals out of shelters and into more permanent housing.Pritzker, along with other political and business leaders, spent months urging President Joe Biden’s administration to speed up the application process for asylum – a prerequisite to applying for work permits.The governor on Thursday said those immigration application processing times have decreased in the last few months, and that some migrants have either already been authorized to work legally in the U.S. or are on their way to doing so.Through a series of pro-bono legal aid workshops, the state aims to assist 11,000 shelter residents with submitting asylum or work permit applications by February. However, the Biden administration has not agreed to waive the fees associated with the paperwork.Those already living in city shelters by Friday will be eligible for three months’ worth of rental assistance – down from six months that had been offered previously.Kirstin Chernawsky, Illinois Department of Human Services associate secretary for early childhood family and community, said cutting the rental assistance time in half allowed the state to reach all current shelter residents and would also send a message.“This allows us to tell all new arrivals there is no more emergency rental assistance available, so that folks who are choosing to come to Chicago understand what it is that they are coming into,” Chernawsky said Thursday.$160 millionThe money comes from the IDHS budget, equaling about 1 percent of the department’s $13.7 billion all-funds budget for the current fiscal year.“So there are lines in the IDHS budget that are, you know, exactly for the purposes of providing services – wraparound services as we’re calling them – to people who are living in the state of Illinois, and those are the places that we’re pulling dollars from to assist these asylum seekers,” Pritzker said.The reallocation of funding is made easier, according to the administration, because of the anticipated surplus now projected by fiscal forecasters with one-third of the fiscal year in the books.The Governor’s Office of Management and Budget updated its general revenue estimate to just over $52 billion on Wednesday, driven in large part by corporate and personal income taxes and a one-time increase in federal funds. The state had only budgeted for about $50.6 billion in revenue.But the estimate from GOMB also identified about $1 billion in additional “budget pressures” for the current fiscal year, including asylum seeker response, caseloads at the Department on Aging, increased group health insurance costs and other factors.The administration noted a supplemental spending plan could be on the table when lawmakers return for their regular session in January to ensure that other IDHS services are not crowded out by the reallocation of funds to serve asylum seekers.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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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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