Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch didn’t sound all that enthused about passing any new ethics reforms during an interview last week.

Governor 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 January 30.

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 tax-payers almost $30 billion through the year 2045.

Every now and then, you get a story that helps explain the Statehouse power dynamic. The saga of the “intoxicating hemp” regulation bill is one of those stories.