Three of Governor JB Pritzker’s appointees to the Illinois Commerce Commission have not yet been confirmed by the Illinois Senate, including the chair, Doug Scott. All three unconfirmed appointees have recently voted against the stated interests of trade unions. Senate President Don Harmon has assiduously courted trade-union support and has raised millions of campaign dollars from them.

A group of ultra-conservative Illinois House members, known as the Eastern Bloc, has been stirring up trouble with the establishment in both parties for years. The Republican districts they represent stretch from north of Decatur, over to Tuscola, and down to Mattoon, Shelbyville, Effingham, and Vandalia. They are the fellas (they’re all men) who demanded that Chicago be kicked out of Illinois.

Imagine a lobbyist approaching a legislator and promising that if the member voted for a specific bill, the lobbyist would contribute to their campaign committee. Lobbyists have been convicted here for doing just that, going back to at least 1982. Legislators would be violating state law if they made that deal. The statute prohibits legislators, candidates, and others from promising “anything of value related to State government,” including any “action or inaction on any legislative or regulatory matter, in consideration for a contribution to a political committee, political party, or other entity that has as one of its purposes the financial support of a candidate for elective office.”

The Governor’s Office of Management and Budget (GOMB) released a revised state revenue and spending forecast last month for the current fiscal year and it’s pretty good. Its projections for next fiscal year, however, was not nearly as strong. Projected Fiscal Year 2024 revenues have been revised upward by $1.4 billion, according to GOMB. However, “most of this fiscal year 2024 revenue forecast revision is assumed to be one-time in nature,” the budget office warned.

I don’t know whether or not the legislative Democratic leadership would’ve allowed a vote, but it is puzzling to me that the people behind the extension of the state’s Invest in Kids Act program didn’t at least try to run a bill that would’ve wound the program down over a period of years.

Last Tuesday, November 7, Chicago Teachers Union lobbyist Kurt Hilgendorf told the Illinois Senate Executive Committee that the union had only “one problem” with Senate President Don Harmon’s elected Chicago school board bill. Hilgendorf praised much of the bill during his testimony. But the Chicago Teachers Union has claimed for years that it wants a fully-elected school board, just like every other school district in the state. Right now, all board members are appointed by the mayor.

I told you back in January that if Governor JB Pritzker managed to help convince Stellantis to reopen the Belvidere auto-assembly plant and even expand, “He’ll have overcome some gargantuan hurdles.”

Back in May of 2017, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson traveled to Springfield and promised a House committee that passing a criminal penalty-enhancement bill he favored would drastically reduce gun crimes in his city.

With his latest comments last Thursday, Governor JB Pritzker has taken almost every possible position imaginable on the Invest in Kids Act. During his first run for governor, Governor Pritzker agreed with the teachers’ unions and progressive activists by calling the program “a really bad idea,” and said he opposed keeping the law on the books.

Governor JB Pritzker and House Speaker Chris Welch both threw cold water on the idea of a veto session supplemental-appropriations bill to help Chicago handle the increasing influx of asylum-seekers from Venezuela. Speaker Welch told reporters last Thursday he had “made it clear” to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson that “we were not expecting to do a supplemental budget in the veto session,” while the governor told reporters the week before that he hadn’t heard about any plans for a supplemental. Governors always know about supplementals because their office writes them.

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