Posts Tagged ‘Springfield’
Illinois’ soil conservation funding stagnates amid recent high-profile dust storms
Capitol News Illinois
SPRINGFIELD —– Three main factors contribute to the formation of Midwest dust storms: strong winds, dry soil in farm fields and large amounts of loose soil.
That’s according to Andy Taylor, the Science and Operations officer at the National Weather Service’s office in Lincoln. He said these are key ingredients that meteorologists, farmers and experts in the agricultural community have found cause dust storms when they converge.
On May 16, Chicago saw its first major dust storm since the Dust Bowl, which stretched from Texas to New York in the early 1930s and deposited 300 million tons of soil across the nation – 12 million tons of which settled in the Chicago region, according to the Bill of Rights Institute. The storm in May dropped visibility in the city to near zero as wind gusts blew over 60 mph at times, according to the National Weather Service.
Taylor said the atmospheric environment that day was more characteristic of the dry environments in the High Plains or Southwest U.S., not the Midwest. As rain began to fall near Bloomington, it quickly evaporated and cooled the atmosphere, creating strong pockets of wind that began to move North. And as winds sped up, the storm began to pick up and move dry and loose soil from fields it passed over, which created the dust storm.
“The type of dust storm event that we had that affected the Chicago area, I wouldn’t necessarily take that occurrence as saying we’re going to see an increase in those type of events from this point on,” he said. “Although, anytime you see all those ingredients come together, we certainly could see that again.”
Soil conservation funding ‘deprioritized’
While there were no deaths due to the storm in Chicago, a major dust storm that occurred in central Illinois on a portion of I-55 resulted in a multi-car pileup that took the lives of eight people and injured dozens more in May 2023.
That dust storm also dropped visibility to zero on the stretch of the interstate between Farmersville and Divernon, and was again caused by dry, loose soil being picked up and moved by winds.
Although Taylor said dust storms are not new to Illinois – as his office has documented events back to the 80s – most of the storms don’t move across vast expanses of the state. Instead, he said they often occur in more localized areas, like the storm near Divernon in 2023.
“When we’re seeing the right weather-related factors coming together and the ground is fairly dry, which matches up with loose soil so we know we’re going to be more prone to blowing dust, we coordinate with partners in the agricultural community to determine when we might anticipate those blowing dusts events,” Taylor said.
The Association of Illinois Soil and Water Conservation Districts has been lobbying for increased funding for additional district employees. This year’s state budget allows for each district to staff one full-time employee, which AISWCD Executive Director Eliot Clay called “wildly inadequate” as he said each district needs at least two.
“I really, honestly think conservation funding has been deprioritized,” he said.
What do soil and water conservation districts do?
Soil and water conservation districts began to crop up across the U.S. in the late 1930s as a response to the Dust Bowl and Congress’ subsequent declaration of soil and water conservation as a national priority. According to the Association of Illinois Soil and Water Conservation Districts, that declaration prompted then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt to recommend legislation to state lawmakers that would enact districts in every state.
Illinois has 97 districts, or nearly one district for every county in the state. Employees of the districts are responsible for a variety of tasks – including assessing farmland, educating farmers about conservation practices and connecting farmers with grants from the state and federal government. These all play a key role in the association’s mission of protecting Illinois’ natural resources.
“Unlike a group like the Department of Natural Resources or the EPA or even the Department of Agriculture, SWCDs are not a regulatory body,” Clay said. “We are not going out there and enforcing rules and laws on people, we’re just trying to help farmers do better. And that’s the reason why a lot of farmers rely on SWCDs, is because they do not see us as like, the ‘government’ coming in and telling them, ‘this is how you’re going to do your operation.’”
Soil conservation funding stagnates
The fiscal year 2026 budget signed by Gov. JB Pritzker last week allots $7.5 million to the state’s SWCDs – which Clay said is the same amount the association received in the previous fiscal year. However, he said that number was a $1 million cut from the FY24 budget allocation.
Read more: Pritzker signs $55.1B state budget reliant on $700M of new taxes | New taxes on sports bets, nicotine products as Democrats pass $55.2B budget
Of that $7.5 million, $3 million will go to cost-share grants, which act as reimbursements to farmers for the costs of implementing both state and federal conservation policies, such as cover crops. The remaining $4.5 million will go to administrative costs.
Clay said the breakdown of that $4.5 million provides $40,000 to each Soil and Water Conservation district – meaning that every district will have enough funds to pay one full-time employee. He called the salary “wildly inadequate” for the district employees, most of whom have college degrees.
“$40,000 – and that’s supposed to include benefits, so their take-home is less than that – is barely enough, I mean I would say it’s not enough even for one person” Clay said. “And it’s hard to keep people and incentivize people to come to work when there’s not the kind of money there that there should be.”
In addition, Clay said each district needs two full-time employees to be fully-staffed – one to make on-site visits to farms and one to coordinate schedules, receive phone calls and emails, and staff the office.
He said in recent years, the association was told by both the Department of Agriculture and the governor’s office that if they wanted more funding, they would have to advocate for the money to individual lawmakers outside of budget negotiations.
“I don’t know of any other agency or subsect of an agency that has to, on their own, go to the Capitol and get money,” he said. “That’s very peculiar to me and is something I’ve been trying to wrap my head around, and I have not gotten a good explanation from anybody.”
The governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Over the past two years, Clay said the association unsuccessfully lobbied for $10.5 million in annual funding.
“The bigger question I’m left with after being the executive director over the past six months and witnessing it from this angle is, what does the legislature and the administration value?” Clay said. “It really gets to bigger questions about how the state has dealt with conservation funding in general for the last 20-plus years.”
Soil conservation efforts and farming practices
Kevin Brooks, a commercial agriculture educator at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, said the agriculture community has identified practices farmers can use to reduce the amount of dry, loose topsoil in their fields.
“Measuring the humidity level as a cause is not the issue,” Brooks said in an interview with Capitol News Illinois. “I won’t say it’s not 100% not about the weather, but this is primarily about tillage.”
One suggestion he made was for farmers to till their fields less frequently and instead resort to strip-tilling or using no-till strategies whenever possible to reduce the amount of loose topsoil in fields.
Strip-till is a tilling practice where only narrow rows of a field where seeds will be planted are tilled, leaving the rest of the field untouched. While there are many short- and long-term benefits to strip-tilling, no-till practices often don’t seem to benefit farmers right away but do often have long-term advantages, Brooks said.
Rep. Charles Meier, R-Okawville, farms 1,500 acres in southern Illinois with his family, including corn, wheat, beans, hay, and beef cattle. He said most crops are already minimally tilled by farmers.
State Rep. Charlie Meier, R-Okawville, shows clover growing in a field on his Washington County farm in 2022. In 2009, Meier was awarded the State of Illinois Conservation Farm Family of the Year. (Capitol News Illinois file photo by Beth Hundsdorfer)
“I’m 66 years old and we never no-tilled when I was a kid,” he told Capitol News Illinois. “All of our conventional soybeans are no-tilled now, all of our wheat is done by minimal-till, and our corn is all by minimal-till now.”
He said he’s in frequent contact with his SWCD, including a call on Monday with his district’s employee, and criticized Democratic leadership’s funding priorities, such as subsidies for renewable energy.
“They’re not funding the nuts and bolts of Illinois conservation,” Meier said. “I’m not against wind and solar but they don’t pay for themselves and they’re making us taxpayers pay for them.”
Another main practice Brooks recommended farmers employ was planting cover crops, which are crops planted after harvest not for their produce, but for their benefits to the soil. Cover crops can be planted after a fall harvest for a variety of benefits, including to preserve topsoil through the winter, increase organic matter in the soil and dry the field earlier in the spring.
Brooks also attributed recent dust storms to the invention of high-speed discs – a tillage attachment with many more disks than normal tillage attachments, which tills at faster rates. He said these disks have taken tillage speeds from around 4 mph to over 10, and that farmers in Illinois quickly amassed these machines during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the pandemic relief funds they received.
“In theory, they’re supposed to be a kind of conservation because they don’t go into the ground very deep,” Brooks said. “But they literally turn the top several inches of a farm field into powder.”
Dust storm driving tips
Andy Taylor, from the National Weather Service, recommended safety tips for drivers who find themselves caught in a dust storm.
“If you’re caught in dust with extremely low visibility, the advice is to pull completely off the road, turn off your heads and take your foot off the brake,” he said. “Which may sound kind of counterintuitive in a way, but the reason for doing that is because if you have your lights on, people coming into the dust may think you’re moving. They may see your taillights and think ‘Oh look, someone I can follow’ and that may exacerbate accidents and pileups.”
He also advised drivers who know there is risk of a potential dust storm to travel ahead of the storm or to delay travel until later in the day, if possible.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
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Pritzker OKs changes to Prisoner Review Board following years of controversy
Capitol News Illinois
Gov. JB Pritzker signed a new law Friday to make a series of changes to the Prisoner Review Board after it released a man who would go on to commit murder, leading to intense scrutiny in Springfield.
Pritzker signed Senate Bill 19, which contains changes designed to include victims’ participation in Prisoner Review Board decisions and ensure more board members have relevant law enforcement or judicial experience.
The law gives victims the right to file impact statements ahead of hearings, provides them with additional notice when their offender is granted early release, and allows them to seek an order of protection against an offender who is incarcerated.
It also creates the Office of the Director of Victim and Witness Services within the PRB, which would ensure the board complies with victims’ rights. The measure also mandates the board provide victims with contact information for the State Victim Assistance Hotline.
“The bulk of this bill is focused on … making sure that victims, survivors, are more engaged in the process at PRB because unfortunately, too often, we’ve heard from victims and family members that they simply haven’t been given a voice in this process,” bill sponsor Rep. Will Guzzardi, D-Chicago, said when the bill passed the House last month.
Read more: Prisoner Review Board reform bill clears Senate
The bill was approved by the Senate in April on a 33-22 vote, with some Democrats opposing it. The House voted 74-37 along party lines to send the bill to Pritzker’s desk in May. Republicans, who had for months been calling for broader reforms, criticized the bill.
Pritzker’s signature comes just two weeks after a man released by the PRB was found guilty of murdering 11-year-old Jayden Perkins at his Chicago home in March 2024.
Crosetti Brand was released from prison in 2023 after serving a sentence for a domestic violence conviction. After his release, Brand began threatening a former partner, Laterria Smith, and showed up to her home in February 2024, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Brand was sent back to prison for violating the conditions of his release, and Smith filed for an order of protection. But a Cook County judge denied the order because Brand was behind bars.
On March 12, 2024, the PRB voted to release Brand citing a lack of evidence to keep him behind bars, the Sun-Times reported. The next day, Brand confronted Smith at her home and stabbed her and her son, Perkins, multiple times. Smith survived but Perkins did not. Brand was found guilty of first-degree murder and 16 other counts earlier this month.
Two board members, including the chair, resigned after Perkins’ death. Smith sued the board for negligence in March.
Read more: Prisoner Review Board sued for negligence a year after released prisoner killed Chicago boy
The case put even more scrutiny on the board, which was already in the spotlight over other controversial decisions to release people from prison.
In May 2024, the Senate unanimously passed a bill that would have made a series of reforms to the board, including requiring that certain meetings be livestreamed and board members receive additional training. The bill appeared ready to pass the House with 76 members signing on as cosponsors. But the bill was never called for a vote in the final hours of session after Pritzker had concerns about the feasibility of the livestreaming requirements and lack of funding for the board.
Read more: Stalled bills: ‘Dignity in Pay Act,’ Prisoner Review Board changes fail to move
Instead, lawmakers moved forward with the legislation signed by Pritzker on Friday, which Republicans opposed saying it doesn’t go far enough to meaningfully reform the board.
“After the Governor ignored our consistent and clear warnings, a horrible murder was triggered by a terrible decision by the Prisoner Review Board,” Sens. Jason Plummer, R-Edwardsville, and Steve McClure, R-Springfield, said in a statement. “Now, instead of listening to a bipartisan coalition at the capitol, he and his far-left allies pushed through a bill that makes it more difficult for the PRB to keep violent criminals off the streets.”
The new law also attempts to make the board more professional, Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, the Senate sponsor of the bill, said in April. It gives board members eight-year terms instead of six so they can be more focused on their decisions rather than their reappointment, he said. It also changes qualifications for board members, requiring seven out of the 15 board members have at least five years of experience as a law enforcement officer, parole officer, prosecutor, criminal defense attorney or judge.
Republicans opposed creating longer terms for board members, saying it reduces Senate oversight of the board and fails to hold board members accountable for decisions. The Senate is responsible for confirming the governor’s appointments to the board.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
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Advocates await action on bill protecting rights of immigrant students in Illinois
Capitol News Illinois
SPRINGFIELD — Immigration rights advocates in Illinois are anxiously awaiting the governor’s signature on legislation aimed at protecting K-12 students who may be in the country without legal authorization from being denied access to a free public education.
House Bill 3247, known as the “Safe Schools for All Act,” passed both chambers of the General Assembly in the final days of the spring session. It would prohibit schools from denying any child access to a free public education based on their actual or perceived immigration status, or that of their parents.
It would also prohibit schools from disclosing, or threatening to disclose, information about a student’s immigration status or the status of a person associated with the child. And it would require schools to develop procedures for reviewing and authorizing requests from law enforcement agents attempting to enter a school or school facility.
The bill is intended to buffer K-12 students in Illinois from efforts by the Trump administration to launch mass deportations of noncitizens living in the United States without legal authorization.
Speaking at a May 7 rally outside the Statehouse, where Democratic lawmakers and immigration rights advocates protested an appearance in Springfield that day of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, state Sen. Karina Villa, D-West Chicago, the chief Senate sponsor of the bill, vowed that Illinois would remain defiant of Trump’s political agenda.
“We are also going to protect our children,” she told the crowd gathered around a statue of Abraham Lincoln. “We’re going to make them feel safe in our schools by passing HB 3247. We are going to unite and we are going to get that done.”
On Jan. 20, the first day of the new administration, the Department of Homeland Security rescinded a Biden-era policy that prevented federal agents from conducting immigration enforcement actions in certain “sensitive” areas, including schools, churches and hospitals.
Immigrant rights advocates demonstrate outside the Illinois Statehouse for legislation protecting rights of noncitizens, including a bill meant to ensure the right of a free public K-12 education, regardless of a child’s immigration status. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Peter Hancock)
Fred Tsao, an attorney for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said during an interview that the policy change has had a chilling effect on the immigrant community, making many afraid to even show up in school.
“We have seen a decline in student participation, particularly among heavily Latino schools after this inauguration,” he said. “So we want to make sure that schools are prepared in the events that federal agents, or for that matter other law enforcement, come to their door in a nonemergency situation.”
Tsao said advocates have also been concerned about possible changes in other legal protections for immigrant students that so far have only been expressed in judicial opinions.
In 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Texas statute that authorized local school districts to either deny enrollment to children who had not been “legally admitted” to the United States, or to charge them tuition, holding the law violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment.
Tsao, however, said there have been attempts in other state legislatures, including earlier this year in Tennessee, to pass legislation that would challenge that 43-year-old ruling. And while the effort in the Tennessee legislature fell short this year, he said advocates in Illinois wanted to act now to make sure the rights of immigrant students are protected in state law, should the Supreme Court precedent ever be overturned.
“Fortunately, our counterparts in Tennessee, the immigrant advocacy organizations and community leaders, bombarded the General Assembly with advocacy work and were able to persuade a number of legislators to vote against this legislation when it came down to it,” he said. “But you know, that’s not to say that folks in Tennessee or folks in other states won’t try again.”
As of Wednesday, June 18, HB 3247 had not yet been sent to Gov. JB Pritzker.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
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GOP lawsuit seeks to end ‘gut-and-replace’ legislation
Capitol News Illinois
SPRINGFIELD — A group of Republican lawmakers filed a lawsuit this week that seeks to nullify legislation they say would indelibly alter both the business and legal landscape of Illinois.
Senate Bill 328 would amend a key provision of Illinois civil law by allowing, in certain kinds of cases, any company authorized to do business in the state to be sued in Illinois courts, even if the underlying claims and the parties have no connection to the state.
As written, the bill would apply only in cases filed under the Uniform Hazardous Substances Act in which the plaintiff claims an injury or illness resulting from exposure to a toxic substance.
What is unique about the GOP lawsuit, however, is that it doesn’t just seek to nullify the legislation before Gov. JB Pritzker signs it. It also asks the court to bar the legislature from using a procedure that has become common in the General Assembly known as “gut-and-replace.” This effectively allows lawmakers to sidestep the Illinois Constitution’s requirement that every bill be read, by title, three times on three different days in each chamber before it is passed because amendments are not required to be read on three different days in each chamber.
That procedure is used frequently for major legislation passed in the final days of a legislative session, including budget bills.
“Illinois’ reputation as one of the most corrupt states in the nation and one of the worst states in the nation for business go hand in hand,” Senate Republican Leader John Curran, R-Downers Grove, said during a virtual news conference Wednesday. “Allowing legislators to disregard the Constitution and good government transparency processes to make laws that are bad for our state is the root cause of both narratives.”
The proposal stems from a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court case, Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co., in which the court upheld a Pennsylvania law that requires out-of-state corporations to agree to allow Pennsylvania courts to exercise “general personal jurisdiction” over them, just as those courts exercise over domestic corporations.
“This is legalized litigation tourism,” said Sen. Jason Plummer, R-Edwardsville. “And it further damages Illinois’ reputation as a state that’s hostile to businesses and job creators.”
SB 328 began as what’s known in the General Assembly as a “shell bill” — one that has a title and a bill number but no substantive content. In this case, the original language called for making a technical change in one sentence in the Code of Civil Procedure, deleting the word “and” and replacing it with the word “and.”
Each session, lawmakers in both chambers introduce hundreds of such bills, most of which are never acted upon. But they are often amended into substantive legislation later in the session, especially after deadlines for introducing new bills or passing bills out of committees have passed.
That is what happened with SB 328, which began as a shell bill but was amended in the Senate to make a technical change to the way court clerks handle electronically filed documents. It passed out of the Senate on April 10 by a vote of 56-0 and was sent to the House.
In the House, it was read for the first time on April 11 and was assigned to a committee, which voted April 30 to recommend it be passed. It was read a second time on May 13.
On May 30, the next-to-last day of the session, Rep. Jay Hoffman, D-Swansea, introduced a “gut-and-replace” amendment that removed the language about electronic court filings and replaced it with the new language allowing out-of-state corporations to be sued in Illinois courts over acts that may have occurred elsewhere.
House Republican Leader Tony McCombie, left, and Senate GOP Leader John Curran speak to reporters about their lawsuit challenging passage of a controversial bill regarding corporate liability during a virtual news conference Wednesday, June 18. (Credit: Zoom.us)
That amendment was never sent to a substantive committee but instead was debated on the floor of the House where it passed the night of May 31 by a partisan vote of 77-40. That vote also counted as the third reading of the bill in the House, meaning the bill number had now been read on three different days in each chamber. It was then sent back to the Senate, which voted 37-19 shortly after midnight on June 1 to concur in the House amendment.
“We have long discussed with our partners, members and constituents filing suit on this issue, even prior to me being in leadership this year,” House Republican Leader Tony McCombie, of Savanna, said during the news conference. “The caucus members brought forward this egregious example of SB 328, and said let’s move forward.”
The lawsuit was filed in circuit court in Sangamon County. It lists 47 Republican lawmakers as plaintiffs. House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch and Senate President Don Harmon are named as defendants.
Harmon, D-Oak Park, who sponsored the amended bill in the Senate, did not immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment.
Separately, the Illinois Freedom Caucus has also filed a lawsuit in Sangamon County alleging the state’s budget bill did not satisfy the three readings requirement for similar reasons. A hearing in the case is scheduled for July 3.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
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Parents of 10-year-old girl file federal lawsuit against Taylorville School District for alleged assault
Capitol News Illinois
SPRINGFIELD — The parents of a 10-year-old girl who allegedly was assaulted repeatedly by a 14-year-old student in the Taylorville School District have filed a federal lawsuit against the school district and the school bus company.
The lawsuit, filed by a Chicago law firm, contains five counts against the Taylorville School District and Durham School Services, including violations of the victim’s Title IX rights, of her right to bodily integrity under the 14th Amendment, willful and wanton negligence, and infliction of emotional distress.
The victim is identified in the suit as Jane Doe, a minor. Her parents are named in the suit, but Capitol News Illinois is not using their names because it would identify the girl.
The victim’s mother said that over the course of a week between late January and early February 2024, her daughter was sexually assaulted by an older student on her daughter’s school bus and at her bus stop. The court filing alleges that the assaults ranged in severity from fondling to digital penetration, most often taking place on the school bus where the perpetrator cornered the girl.
On three separate instances, the perpetrator chased the girl away from a bus stop, held her down, and covered her mouth while he sexually assaulted her, according to the suit.
The lawsuit also alleged that the perpetrator told the girl that he would harm her and her family if she reported the abuse, and that “the perpetrator admitted that he did not even know (her) name when he repeatedly assaulted her.”
The girl is a special needs student living with autism and ADHD, according to the suit.
“We are talking about one of the most vulnerable members of our society — a young, 10-year-old, special needs girl,” the lead attorney on the case, Cass Casper, said during a news conference about the lawsuit Tuesday. “This young child was so confused and distraught by what was occurring that she did not even understand what was occurring.”A spokesman for the school district did not respond to a request for comment by CNI.
After reporting the incident, the mother said she obtained an emergency order of protection for her daughter and brought it to the principal of Taylorville Junior High School, who made a “safety plan” for her daughter. She said the plan prohibited the accused student from coming into contact with her daughter at school, which the order of protection already called for, and simply relocated him to another part of the school building.
“This safety plan was shared with the bus company, my daughter’s fifth grade teacher and office staff,” the mother said during a news conference in the Statehouse in January. “No one else knew of the assaults. No one else knew of the safety plan.”
During that news conference, Peden also said that after several meetings with the school board and multiple court orders, the student was removed from her daughter’s school and sent to an alternative school for the rest of the spring semester. However, in August, she received a phone call about the student’s reentry into her daughter’s school and again asked the school to remove her daughter’s perpetrator.
“We have laws where a student gets expelled for bringing a weapon on school grounds, but what about cases like this, when the student’s body is the weapon?” the mother said.
Casper said the school district conducted what he called a “radically deficient” Title IX investigation. He alleged the school district was “more concerned with absolving the school district of responsibility” than of fleshing out what events took place when and where.
Title IX is a federal law enacted in 1972 that prohibits sexual discrimination in any education program or activity.
The court filing alleged that once the assaults were reported, the parents were informed about several other young victims in the community that the perpetrator had previously inappropriately touched.
“We do have specific information from three other sources that there were similar, not the same, but similar acts that should have raised questions within the community and within the school officials,” Casper said.
The lawsuits also mentions a previous Illinois court case decision, which ruled that a school district is responsible for child abuse occurring on a school bus, alongside the section in the Taylorville School District’s Student Disciple Code that says student conduct on school buses, at extra-curricular activities, on any property within 1,000 feet of school grounds, and “prohibited conduct that is plainly visible to a person situated on school grounds even if the misconduct occurs off of school property” is enforceable.
The lawsuit also seeks compensatory damages for the cost of the girl’s psychological treatment and for her emotional distress, as well as the implementation of new policies that will “prevent future harassment and abuse.”
“Most of what the family has pursued in Taylorville has fallen on deaf ears,” Casper said.
During the news conference, Sen. Steve McClure, R-Springfield, spoke about the failure of a bill he sponsored seeking to expel students who sexually assault another student at school. That bill had 31 co-sponsors in the Senate, 13 of whom were Democrats.
“There are legislators that do not believe that there should be any expulsion or even suspension for any student at all,” McClure said. “There’s a focus too much with some legislators on the perpetrator, we got to look after the perpetrator. What about the victim who can’t even go to school without seeing someone that attacked them on a daily basis?”
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
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Inside Illinois’ efforts to court the emerging quantum technology industry
Capitol News Illinois
CHICAGO — Just over one year ago, the Illinois legislature approved spending more than $700 million to attract and support a new industry: quantum technology.
Now, representatives of other countries, federal research labs and a network of private organizations with ties to the state are beginning to ink deals and make agreements to bring specific quantum companies to Illinois — and boost the startups that are already here.
Illinois state officials are interested in attracting the nascent industry because of its potential for economic growth and positioning Illinois as a high-tech leader in the coming decades.
Quantum technology is an emerging field of research and business that creates specialized machinery and computers that use the laws of quantum mechanics to solve problems and behave in ways that would be out of reach for traditional machines.
Last week, two events in Chicagoland offered a glimpse inside the world of quantum businesses and the layers of public and private funding going into the industry.
The Japan External Trade Organization — an economic development organization affiliated with the government of Japan — sponsored a two-day “delegation” of business representatives to Chicago.
At an early meeting of the delegation, representatives of the state and economic development agencies pitched the region — and Illinois’ state backing — as unique in the world.
“This is not a state government that is following trends but really setting the trends,” Intersect Illinois Chief Quantum Officer Preeti Chalsani told the delegation. “When I go to conferences, I hear about other states and countries who are thinking of doing something like Illinois. That really makes me proud.”
Intersect Illinois is a private nonprofit organization with ties to the state. It’s led by Christy George, a former Pritzker administration official who helped plan the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last summer. The organization also plays a prominent role in the state Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity’s five-year plan for attracting business to Illinois.
“This is a state that is constantly on a mission to constantly build and expand our business environment,” George said at the event.
What is quantum tech?
Researchers and entrepreneurs are developing computers and other systems using the principles of quantum mechanics to achieve things that would be impossible with traditional computers. Current quantum computers can perform benchmark tests more than 1 billion times faster than traditional computers. Quantum technology can also be used to decode encrypted messages, posing serious questions for the cybersecurity industry. Other applications include simulations, sensor technology and communications.
World Business Chicago, an economic development organization backed by the city of Chicago, estimates the industry could generate tens of billions of dollars in Chicagoland and create more than 100,000 jobs.
Representatives of the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, World Business Chicago and the University of Chicago also participated in the event.
The visit mirrored Gov. JB Pritzker’s and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s visits to Japan where both men, along with sizable entourages of economic development leaders and businesspeople, met with Japanese officials.
Read more: Federal agency opposes new state law; Pritzker to lead trade mission to Japan
Both visits, and especially Pritzker’s in October 2024, built hype in the Asian nation about Illinois’ role in the developing quantum technology sector. Pritzker is a self-professed “quantum geek” and his personal interest in the emerging industry contributes to the state’s interest in it.
Over the two days the Japanese delegation was in Chicago, they toured several local quantum businesses, including qBraid, InfleQtion, and EeroQ among other locations around the city. The DCEO and Intersect Illinois also hosted a reception for the Japanese delegation.
The efforts from state and industry boosters appear to be interesting to at least a few in the cutting-edge industry.
At a pitch and networking event capping off the Japanese visit last week, several Chicago-based and Japan-based companies discussed their business models and strategies.
One of the Japanese delegation members who pitched at the event, Quantumdata founder Yuki Nagasako, told Capitol News Illinois the quantum industry in Chicago is “very hot,” especially compared to artificial intelligence tech hubs in California.
“When I say I work in quantum technology in the Bay area? Nobody knows. Nothing,” Nagasako said. “But in Chicago, here? Everybody.”
Nagasako, whose company has offices in California and is currently in a fundraising round, said he’s seriously considering expanding in Chicago.
That event also featured a closed-door meetings between Japanese companies and officials at PsiQuantum as well as other local companies.
State quantum park
PsiQuantum is one of the jewels of the state’s quantum crown. It is the “anchor tenant” of the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park, or IQMP, a research park set to break ground later this year on Chicago’s South Side.
The California-based quantum computing company was raising $750 million at a $6 billion valuation earlier this year, according to reporting from Reuters. Its last official valuation was $3.1 billion in 2021.
Read more: Quantum business park coming to Chicago, backed by $700M from state of Illinois
That park is being built with $500 million in state funding, on top of $200 million in tax breaks and other incentives going to PsiQuantum directly.
Harley Johnson, the University of Illinois professor who took over as the head of the IQMP late last year, said the “singular focus” of the research facility is to help scale up quantum computing technology.
“In some cases, it takes really specialized, industrial-scale infrastructure,” Johnson said last week.
Johnson was speaking at an event at Argonne National Lab where federal researchers and state-level quantum advocates discussed the state’s future as the “Quantum Prairie” — a riff on California’s Silicon Valley.
There, he also laid the groundwork for what is expected to be a busy few months at the state’s quantum research park.
“There are a lot of exciting announcements,” Johnson said. “We’re going to break ground very soon.”
In addition to PsiQuantum, several other major groups have said they’ll set up shop at the research park. Six months ago, IBM announced it would build a quantum computer and research center at the park. About a year ago, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, announced it would base a quantum testing program at the park.
Two weeks ago, the IQMP also announced that Australian tech and quantum company Diraq intends to open a facility at the park.
“Diraq building and scaling their quantum operation at the IQMP is a testament to Illinois attracting the tech and security sectors,” Pritzker said in a statement at the time. “Diraq’s commitment further cements Illinois’ position as a global quantum leader and reflects the state’s commitment to fostering innovation and economic growth.”
Diraq is one of nearly 20 companies that is participating in the first stage of DARPA’s quantum testing program.
“We’ve got others that will be coming on board soon,” Johnson said in his speech last week.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
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Pritzker signs $55.1B state budget reliant on $700M of new taxes
Capitol News Illinois
Gov. JB Pritzker signed Illinois’ fiscal year 2026 budget into law Monday, taking shots at President Donald Trump’s budget management to defend hard choices state lawmakers were forced to make this year.
The $55.1 billion spending plan set to take effect July 1 is the largest in state history and is supported by $55.3 billion in anticipated revenue, including more than $700 million in new taxes and more than $500 million in one-time revenues.
Democrats approved the budget shortly before midnight on May 31 with only a handful of Democrats opposing it and all Republicans unanimously voting against it.
The budget’s passage came after months of discussion about closing an initially projected $3 billion deficit and growing concerns about Trump’s treatment of state funding in Washington. Pritzker, a possible 2028 presidential candidate, used Monday’s budget signing ceremony in Chicago as an opportunity to draw a contrast between his and Trump’s budgets.
“While the Trump administration goes on Fox News lying about being fiscally responsible, Illinois is showing a better way: Balancing the budget while maintaining the programs that most people rely on,” Pritzker said.
“Congress is about to pass a federal budget that has one of the largest budget deficits ever in a year without a war or a pandemic. By contrast, Illinois is balancing its budget and prudently improving its fiscal condition,” he said.
Pritzker and other Democratic leaders acknowledged that crafting the FY26 budget was challenging but continues to make investments Democrats believe are priorities. Discretionary spending will increase by less than 1% in FY26, Pritzker said. Despite the minimal increase, the FY26 budget still spends about $2 billion more than FY25.
Democrats “ace the challenges and uncertainty head on, and the result is a budget that is truly balanced with no gimmicks,” House Speaker Chris Welch, D-Hillside, said.
But that’s not how Republicans view the budget’s fund sweeps and delayed transfers that free up hundreds of millions of dollars that can be used in FY26.
“This approach sets Illinois up for failure by FY27 and continues a pattern of short-term thinking,” House Minority Leader Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, said in a statement.
Senate Minority Leader John Curran, R-Downers Grove, condemned lawmakers for failing to deliver significant tax cuts since Pritzker took office in 2019 when Illinois’ budget totaled about $40 billion.
“You know it’s a bad budget when it’s based on nearly $1 billion in tax increases and enhancements,” he said in a statement.
The governor also used his broad authority to reduce a pair of technical errors in the budget. The changes lower spending by $161.2 million from what lawmakers passed.
Tax increases on tobacco and vape products, businesses
The tax plan will raise $709 million in new revenue through what House Majority Leader Robyn Gabel, D-Evanston, characterized as “smart new sources of revenue.” They include new taxes on businesses, sports betting and tobacco and vape products, according to a list provided by the Senate Democratic caucus.
The budget will not raise personal income, corporate income or sales taxes after Pritzker told reporters that he will veto any budget containing “broad-based” tax increases just days before the bill passed.
Sen. Elgie Sims, D-Chicago, discusses the state budget at a June 16 signing ceremony. Sims is the chief budget negotiator in the Senate. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Andrew Adams)
The largest sum of new taxes – $336 million – are on businesses outside of Illinois that lawmakers call “leveling the playing field” and will require businesses to pay more income tax to the state on their profits.
Consumers will face new taxes on specific items, including taxes on tobacco, vaping and other nicotine products, which are increasing to 45% to raise $50 million. An existing telecommunications tax will also rise from 7% to 8.65% and raise $49 million to fund the statewide 988 hotline.
A new tax on sports bets will charge betting sites 25 cents for the first 20 million wagers and 50 cents for each bet following that. It’s projected to raise $36 million. Sports betting sites FanDuel and DraftKings have both announced they will implement 50-cent transaction fees on Illinois customers in response to the tax.
Short-term rentals will have to begin paying the state’s hotel operator’s tax. The charge is already applied to hotels in the state, and Airbnb already pays it voluntarily, but more companies like Vrbo will now be required to pay the tax expected to raise an additional $10 million.
A pair of tax amnesty programs are expected to raise $228 million. Those programs are meant to incentivize taxpayers to pay overdue taxes.
Fund sweeps, delayed transfers free up more for spending
The budget deploys a series of tactics designed to free up more money for spending in the general fund in FY26 without repeating as a revenue source for the following year’s budget.
It suspends the monthly transfer to the “rainy day” fund for one year, freeing up $45 million for general fund use. Pritzker has taken pride in the fund’s increase in recent years as it’s grown to a balance of $2.3 billion, up from less than $60,000 when he took office. The fund is still estimated to grow by $161 million from interest and contributions from other funds in FY26.
Read more: Illinois’ $55.2B budget ‘incomplete,’ Civic Federation president says
The state will also pause the final transfer of motor fuel sales tax revenue to the road fund in order to free up $171 million. That scheduled transfer was set in motion by the state’s 2019 infrastructure plan, with the sales tax supporting bond debt taken out to complete road and bridge projects. This year was to be the final year of incremental transfers that took place over the past five years.
Gov. JB Pritzker speaks before signing Illinois’ fiscal year 2026 budget on June 16. Also pictured, from left to right: Sen. Elgie Sims, D-Chicago; Rep. Will Guzzardi, D-Chicago; Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton; Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Chicago; House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside. Rep. Eva-Dina Delgado, D-Chicago, is not shown.
The budget package also establishes a new $100 million BRIDGE fund that the governor can tap into “in the event of unanticipated delays in or failures of revenues.” The measure, an apparent nod to the uncertainty of federal funding amid ongoing congressional budget negotiations, will come from money swept from 57 different funds.
When combined with the tax amnesty program, the fund sweeps and delayed transfers add up to at least $544 million of one-time revenue in this year’s state budget that will not be available in FY27.
Health and Human Services
The most notable change to health care funding is the elimination of the Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults, or HBIA, program that provided certain low-income noncitizens between ages 42 and 64 with state health care benefits akin to Medicaid. Eliminating the program saves the state $330 million, but the $110 million Health Benefits for Immigrant Seniors, or HBIS, remains in place.
“This was part of the challenge that we had to address,” Pritzker said. “It was a program that had been growing significantly in cost. I do believe that everybody should have health care. I also know that we have to live within our means in the state of Illinois.”
HBIA’s elimination comes after a recent audit found the two programs have cost the state at least $1.6 billion since their inception, far exceeding original estimates for the program. Last year, the state put new guardrails in place to limit enrollment into the programs and reduce costs through co-pays and other measures.
Read more: Audit finds Illinois’ noncitizen health care programs far outstripped original cost estimates
Gov. JB Pritzker speaks before signing Illinois’ fiscal year 2026 budget on June 16. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Andrew Adams)
HBIA’s elimination also comes as Congress debates a domestic policy plan that could reduce reimbursements to states that provide health care benefits to noncitizens.
In anticipation of broader reductions to health care and Medicaid reimbursements to the state, Illinois lawmakers also increased spending on other health care and social service programs:
$40 million for Federally Qualified Health Centers. These centers could provide care for people who lose coverage under HBIA turn.
$18 million from the General Revenue Fund for five safety-net hospitals in the state’s Medicaid managed care program. Another $100 million from Fund for Illinois’ Future will go to support the Medicaid managed care program at 12 other safety net hospitals.
$60 million for administrative expenses for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. That’s a $20 million increase from FY25 as Congress has proposed requiring states to cover half of administrative costs.
$263.7 million for HOME Illinois, a program created to reduce homelessness in Illinois. Housing advocates calculated that between Home Illinois and other housing line items, the budget includes $354 million in funding. That’s about a $14.6 million decrease from a year ago, which marks about double of what Pritzker proposed cutting in homelessness funding in February.
An 80-cent hourly wage increase for direct service professionals who service individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities in community care settings. However, overall flat funding for the program means 305 positions in the program will be eliminated, according to the They Deserve More coalition. Community Care Program workers at the Illinois Department on Aging will receive a 75-cent hourly wage increase.
A new $25 million Prescription Drug Affordability Fund to support certain pharmacies in Illinois in competition against larger pharmacy benefit managers.
$15 million for the Medical Debt Relief Pilot Program that purchases medical debt from patients at a fraction of the total debt.
A $4 million increase for the Department of Children and Family Services aimed at hiring 100 additional staff members.
A child tax credit created in 2024 at 20% of the Earned Income Tax Credit will double to 40%.
Education
The state’s evidence-based funding model for K-12 schools calls for $350 million in additional funding each year, with a portion of that going to a property tax relief fund and the rest directly to schools. The proposed budget fully funds the K-12 education increase at $307 million but does not add $43 million in property tax relief funds.
Funding for higher education operational expenses is only going up 1%. Pritzker had proposed 3%. Democrat budget leaders have said the spending plan includes ways to increase funding by an additional 2% if there are significant cuts in federal funding for higher education, however.
Read more: Despite victories, major higher education policy bills stall in General Assembly
The budget also includes:
A $10 million increase to the Monetary Award Program grants for lower-income college students.
$8 million for a minority teacher scholarship program.
$2.9 million for the state’s Common App initiative to make it easier for high school students to apply to Illinois colleges and universities at one time.
$212 million for Pritzker’s Smart Start early childhood education program.
$21.7 million for the newly created Department of Early Childhood
Others spending areas
Part of the budget package created a new Tier 2 reserve fund that can be accessed if there are violations of what’s known as the federal “safe harbor” law. Lawmakers appropriated $75 million for the fund this year, in line with Pritzker’s proposal. Broader reform to Tier 2 was not considered this spring.
“With this fix going into effect, we’re protecting our taxpayers and state workers from future shortfalls that could cost the state much more,” Pritzker said.
Read more: ‘This issue isn’t going away’: Illinois lawmakers delay pension reform again
Lt. Gov. Juliana Statton, who is also running for U.S. Senate, speaks at a June 16 signing ceremony where Gov. JB Pritzker formally approved the state’s fiscal year 2026 budget. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Andrew Adams)
Attorney General Kwame Raoul is receiving a $15.7 million general fund increase as his office engages in a growing number of lawsuits against the Trump administration. Raoul told lawmakers he needs more attorneys to handle the cases and a generally growing workload in his office. However, because of declining revenue in other funds, total funding for the office largely remains flat in FY26.
Read more: Raoul’s office to receive $15.7M budget increase for operations
The budget sent to Pritzker included a 5% pay raise for state lawmakers, to $98,304. State law sets the pay for legislators to increase annually with inflation, and lawmakers took no action to stop it from occurring in FY26.
The budget also includes:
$500 million for the Department of Central Management Services and Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity for the Surplus to Success program to prepare idle state properties for economic development.
$17.9 million for the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation to implement a new licensing system
$40 million for immigrant Welcoming Centers
$6.2 billion for Department of Transportation construction projects, including $4.5 billion for roads and bridges.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
The post Pritzker signs $55.1B state budget reliant on $700M of new taxes appeared first on Capitol News Illinois.
Ex-Speaker Madigan sentenced to 7 ½ years in prison for bribery, corruption
Capitol News Illinois
UPDATED: This story has been updated with a historical overview of Illinois corruption cases, new character letter details, and photos.
CHICAGO — The number of years former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan spent in Springfield has often been used as shorthand to explain his outsized impact on state government and politics. His political career spanned 50 years in the General Assembly, 23 years chairing the Democratic Party of Illinois, and 36 years as House speaker — the longest tenure of any state or federal legislative leader in U.S. history.
But on Friday, a new term was added to the former speaker’s list of legacy-defining terms when U.S. District Judge John Blakey sentenced Madigan to 90 months, or 7 ½ years, in federal prison.
The sentence, which also includes three years’ probation after his prison term and a $2.5 million fine, follows a jury’s split verdict in February. After a marathon two weeks of deliberation, jurors convicted him on 10 of 23 corruption charges, including bribery, but acquitted him on seven and deadlocked over another six.
Read more: Madigan guilty of bribery as split verdict punctuates ex-speaker’s fall | Madigan Trial in Review | Michael Madigan: The Rise and Fall
As Friday afternoon’s hearing passed the three-hour mark, Madigan accepted Blakey’s invitation to make a statement to the court. After taking a drink of water, putting on his glasses and blowing his nose as he approached the bench, the former speaker addressed the judge for less than two minutes, reading from a prepared script.
“I’m truly sorry for putting the people of the state of Illinois through this,” he began, noting that he “tried my best” to serve the people of Illinois. “I am not perfect.”
Later, when explaining how he was weighing Madigan’s continued insistence in his innocence, Blakey repeated Madigan’s words.
“The defendant says he’s sorry for putting the people of Illinois through this,” the judge said. “I guess that’s as close as we’ll get to remorse.”
Blakey spent a long time audibly weighing what he called “a tale of two different Mike Madigans,” calling the former speaker “a dedicated public servant” and “a good and decent person.”
“He had no reason to commit these crimes,” the judge said. “But he chose to do so.”
Blakey took particular umbrage with Madigan’s performance on the witness stand in January after he made the stunning decision to testify in his own defense. In siding with the government’s argument that the former speaker’s sentence should take into account his perjury on the witness stand, Blakey cited several examples of times Madigan’s statements conflicted with either evidence, the sworn testimony of others, or even his own testimony.
Read more: Madigan takes witness stand, denying he traded ‘public office’ for ‘private gain’
“The defendant’s testimony was littered with obstruction of justice and it was hard to watch,” Blakey said. “To put it bluntly, it was a nauseating display. … You lied, sir. You lied. You did not have to.”
Madigan, who was described by many witnesses throughout his four-month trial as difficult to read — and who attempted to explain the familial origins of his reserved personality as a defense while on the witness stand — was characteristically stoic as Blakey handed down his sentence.
After conferring with his attorney, he hugged and kissed his adult children in the front row of the courtroom gallery. A few minutes later, he and his entourage of lawyers and family quickly made their way out of the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, trailed by cameras.
True to form, the former speaker also made no statement to reporters, though he smiled slightly before getting on the elevator down to the courthouse lobby. Across the street, a man yelled to Madigan and his group, “You going to jail, buddy?”
Madigan was ordered to report to a yet-to-be-named federal prison on Oct. 13.
Madigan’s attorneys told the court he would seek a bond pending his appeal, which would allow him to remain free pending resolution of the appeal.
Prosecutors had urged a 12 ½-year sentence and a $1.5 million fine, while Madigan’s lawyers asked for five years’ probation, the first on home detention. After hearing arguments from attorneys earlier in the week, Blakey calculated the sentencing guidelines for Madigan’s convictions and other factors would dictate a prison term of 105 years, but the judge was under no obligation to follow that directive.
Read more: Prosecutors ask judge to sentence ex-Speaker Madigan to 12 ½ years in prison
‘I’m not a target of anything”
One of the last times the famously media-averse Madigan ever deigned to answer questions from journalists was in the fall of 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic afforded the speaker an even larger buffer than usual from those outside his closed circle of staff and advisors.
The previous several months had yielded near-weekly developments in the public’s understanding of an unfolding federal corruption probe, including revelations about FBI searches executed on the homes of close Madigan allies. The intrigue only intensified after the indictment and midday FBI raids on two different Democratic state senators and the arrest of a member of Madigan’s own House Democratic leadership team on a charge that he bribed another Democratic senator, who happened to be cooperating with the feds.
Despite his name showing up on subpoenas for some of those search warrants, Madigan made a bold declaration that he was not in the feds’ crosshairs.
“No, I’m not a target of anything,” he told a gaggle of reporters in a crowded and noisy hallway of the state Capitol in Springfield in late October 2019.
Within the year, however, Madigan would be proven wrong as prosecutors filed the first in a series of bombshell charges alleging the longtime speaker had been the beneficiary of a yearslong bribery scheme from electric utility Commonwealth Edison. Prosecutors alleged ComEd officials agreed to hire Madigan allies, including a handful on no-work contracts, to grease the wheels at key times when the company was pushing for big and ultimately lucrative legislation in Springfield.
Read more: Madigan Trial in Review
In that July 2020 filing, Madigan’s status as a target of the feds’ widespread corruption investigation was marked by a new moniker: “Public Official A.”
But it wasn’t until March 2022 — more than a year after Madigan resigned from his biggest public roles after pressure from within the Democratic power structures he’d built over decades — that the former speaker was indicted.
Receiving top billing among the original 22 counts in the indictment, which was later bumped to 23, was racketeering. Prosecutors accused Madigan of using his positions as House speaker, chair of the state’s Democratic Party and as partner in his real estate law firm as a “criminal enterprise” meant to maintain and increase his power while enriching his allies.
Read more: ‘The Madigan Enterprise:’ Inside the federal indictment of the state’s former speaker
The indictment rehashed what had been already made public in July 2020 and again several months later when four former ComEd executives and lobbyists were charged with orchestrating the utility’s bribery scheme aimed at Madigan.
But it also revealed that former Chicago Ald. Danny Solis had worn a wire on the speaker and alleged the speaker had agreed to get him appointed to a lucrative state board position in exchange for introductions to real estate developers to woo them as potential clients of Madigan’s firm.
A final charge added later in 2022 alleged a tacit bribery agreement between Madigan and telecommunications giant AT&T Illinois like the ComEd scheme, albeit smaller — involving one no-work contractor hired in the months before AT&T-backed legislation passed in Springfield.
Jury delivers a split verdict
On the witness stand, Madigan repeatedly claimed that he was ignorant of the fact that the collective $1.3 million his allies earned from their ComEd contracts was for performing no work. Instead, the former speaker and his lawyers framed those contracts as the result of mere job recommendations, which they argued was a component of Madigan’s job as speaker.
Read more: ‘They were being paid as a favor to Mike Madigan’: Feds’ star witness takes stand | ‘Make it a federal court suit’: Jurors hear wiretap of McClain describing subcontracts alleged to be bribes | Madigan ally testifies he was rewarded with no-work contracts as ‘good soldier’ for speaker
Madigan’s attorneys, along with some of the government’s own witnesses, argued the ComEd-backed legislation passed after years of strategic and expensive lobbying efforts, and not because the speaker’s allies had gotten jobs and contracts with the utility.
But after a slew of witnesses, including a ComEd exec-turned-FBI cooperator and one of the former contractors, in addition to secretly recorded videos and wiretapped phone calls shown at trial, the jury was ultimately convinced on most ComEd-related charges. Madigan was convicted on seven of those charges, including four counts of bribery and conspiracy, though he was acquitted on two charges related to an effort to get his ally appointed to the utility’s board.
Watch/listen: View key secretly recorded videos admitted as evidence in Madigan’s trial | Listen to key wiretapped phone calls from the Madigan trial
The so-called “ComEd Four” were convicted in their own trial in 2023 and are scheduled to be sentenced this summer. They include Madigan’s formerly close friend and longtime Springfield lobbyist Mike McClain, who was also the speaker’s codefendant in the most recent trial. But after roughly 65 hours of deliberations over two weeks beginning in late January, the jury deadlocked on all six charges that named both the former speaker and McClain, including the feds’ marquee racketeering allegation.
The jury also deadlocked on the single count alleging Madigan’s participation in the alleged bribery scheme with AT&T, forcing Blakey to declare a mistrial on that count.
It was the second time in five months that charges alleging a bribe between AT&T and Madigan resulted in a hung jury; weeks before Madigan’s trial began, former AT&T Illinois President Paul La Schiazza’s bribery case ended in a mistrial on all five counts against him. He faces retrial in January 2026.
Read more: Jury deadlocks, mistrial declared in case of ex-AT&T boss accused of bribing Madigan | Judge won’t acquit former AT&T Illinois boss in Madigan bribery case after hung jury
Charges involving Solis, the former Chicago alderman, ended in a mix of convictions, acquittals and deadlock from the jury. While jurors convicted the former speaker on wire fraud and Travel Act violation counts related to the alleged scheme to help get Solis appointed to a state board, they acquitted him of the bribery charge pertaining to the same alleged scheme. As laid out in trial, Madigan never ended up recommending Solis to newly elected Gov. JB Pritzker.
The former speaker was also acquitted of attempted extortion and three related counts related to a real estate developer to whom Madigan wanted an introduction from Solis, who served as chair of the Chicago City Council’s powerful Zoning Board. Prosecutors alleged Madigan understood and tacitly approved of Solis’ made-up story that he’d condition the approval of a zoning change sought by the developer on whether it agreed to hire the speaker’s law firm.
At the FBI’s direction, Solis told the speaker ahead of the July 2017 introduction meeting that the developer understood “how this works, you know, the quid pro quo” — insinuating the company was under the impression that it would not get the zoning approvals it needed unless it hired the speaker’s law firm, though it wasn’t true.
A few weeks later, Madigan admonished Solis before the developer meeting, telling the alderman, “You shouldn’t be talking like that.”
The feds argued Madigan was urging Solis to not speak so brazenly about their alleged bribery agreement. But on the witness stand, the former speaker said the alderman’s use of the term “quid pro quo” caused him “a great deal of surprise and concern” to the point that he decided he needed to confront Solis about it face-to-face.
In Madigan’s contentious cross-examination, the lead prosecutor attempted to poke holes in the former speaker’s explanation of that key moment, but Madigan maintained Solis seemed to have recognized he’d “made a serious mistake” and that he considered the matter settled because “I was not going to connect a request for an introduction with anything else.”
Read more: In contentious cross-examination, prosecutor accuses Madigan of not telling ‘the whole truth’ | Madigan leaves witness stand expressing regret for ‘any time spent with Danny Solis’
The jury also deadlocked on four other bribery, wire fraud and Travel Act charges concerning a plan to get state-owned land in Chicago’s Chinatown neighborhood transferred to the city for eventual development into a mixed-use apartment building.
Read more: ‘There’s something fishy here, don’t you think?’: Wiretapped calls detail Madigan confidant’s confoundment over land deal
Prosecutors alleged Madigan intended to have his firm contract with the Chinatown developer in accordance with hints Solis had dropped on secret recordings. But Madigan’s former law partner and testimony from two former top lawyers in the speaker’s office indicated the law firm had strict conflict-of-interest rules that would have prohibited the developer from ever becoming a client.
Read more: Former Madigan aide testifies speaker had conflict of interest protocols
Sentencing factors
In the four months post-verdict, a period nearly as long as the grueling trial itself, Madigan turned 83 — a mitigating factor his defense attorneys noted in a pre-sentencing memo late last month, which asked for five years’ probation, including one on home confinement.
In another filing last week, Madigan’s lawyers painted a bleak picture of the sentence sought by prosecutors, accusing them of arguing in bad faith that ComEd’s investor profits should be considered as part of sentencing.
“The government seeks to condemn an 83-year-old man to die behind bars for crimes that enriched him not one penny,” defense attorneys wrote. “They demand that Mike Madigan spend his final years in a cell, though he spent decades as the consumers’ shield against ComEd’s predations.”
But much more emphasized was his role as caretaker to his wife, Shirley, who suffers from “a severe lung disease,” per a letter filed with the court last month from Madigan’s daughter, former Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.
Instead of writing a letter, Shirley Madigan recorded a video pleading for leniency in sentencing. Clad in purple latex gloves with a medical mask hanging from her neck, Shirley praised her husband’s character as a father and grandfather but also detailed how Madigan has become her caretaker, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“I really don’t exist without him,” she told the camera as B-roll of Madigan helping her up from a couch played over her testimonial. “I don’t know what I would do without Michael. I would probably have to find some place to live, and I’d probably have to find care.”
The former speaker and his lawyers echoed Shirley’s pleas Friday, with attorney Dan Collins telling Blakey that for Madigan, “mercy is justice,” and Madigan himself asking the judge that “you let me take care of Shirley and that you let me spend my final days with my family.”
Blakey said Madigan’s age was a factor, but said arguments that “any sentence” for an older defendant is tantamount to a life sentence are “not particularly helpful.”
But the judge said he carefully considered the nearly 250 character reference letters filed on Madigan’s behalf late last month, saying he “placed significant weight” on the support of the former speaker’s family and friends.
He even got emotional when discussing Madigan’s role as a husband, father and grandfather.
“Whatever his crimes — and he did do things wrong — but his relationship to his family? He got that right,” Blakey said, echoing words the former speaker told Solis during a secretly recorded meeting between the two in 2018.
Aside from family, faith leaders, longtime constituents and 40 former staffers, other notable letter-writers on Madigan’s behalf included prominent labor leaders and three dozen former elected officials, among them several Republicans like former Gov. Jim Edgar. Attorneys also included an op-ed in support of Madigan penned by former GOP Gov. Jim Thompson before his death in 2020.
Aside from family, other notable letter-writers on Madigan’s behalf included former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun; former Illinois Supreme Court Justice Tom Kilbride; Democratic mega-fundraisers Michael Sacks and Fred Eychaner, and Chicago Bulls and White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf. While many former Democratic allies of Madigan penned appeals to Judge Blakey, only a few currently hold office — among them state Reps. Marcus Evans, D-Chicago, and Curtis Tarver, D-Chicago, along with Auditor General Frank Mautino.
In determining sentencing guidelines, Blakey agreed with prosecutors’ contention that the value of the ComEd bribes should be based on testimony from utility leader Scott Vogt during trial. Vogt cited projections that the continuation of the “formula rate” contained in the first piece of ComEd-backed legislation passed during the eight-year bribery scheme was worth $400 million in increased shareholder value for the company.
The judge also agreed with smaller sentencing enhancements, for defendants who orchestrate bribery schemes, and for lying under oath while testifying in their own defense.
Blakey gave several examples of times in which Madigan perjured himself during his four days on the witness stand, including the former speaker’s attempt to “falsely minimize the close and regular relationship he had with McClain.”
Read more: McClain lawyer calls star witnesses liars as trial nears conclusion
“Other witnesses testified to their unique and close relationship, which spanned decades,” Blakey said. “In short, the evidence produced at trial showed McClain was one of Madigan’s most-trusted operatives, not merely one of many, as he falsely testified.”
Ultimately, though, the judge’s ruling in favor of sentencing enhancements for perjury and other factors is mostly symbolic, as the parties already agreed to a sentence far below the complicated calculation that would advise a 105-year prison sentence.
Sentences handed down to other convicted politicians in Illinois’ long history of elected officials caught up in corruption have varied widely.
Last year, a federal judge sentenced Madigan’s pseudo-counterpart in the Chicago City Council, five-decade Ald. Ed Burke, to two years in prison after his bribery conviction that also involved Solis’ FBI cooperation in bringing potential clients to Burke’s real estate law firm. The judge noted the number of character letters she received on the former alderman’s behalf were a strong mitigating factor in her sentencing decision.
On the other end of the spectrum, Gov. Rod Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years in prison after his 2011 bribery convictions related to attempting to sell then-President-elect Barack Obama’s soon-to-be-vacated U.S. Senate seat in 2008. President Donald Trump commuted his sentence in 2020, and in February pardoned him completely — just two days before Madigan’s conviction.
Read more: Trump pardons Blagojevich 5 years after commutation cut prison time short | Little support in Springfield for Trump’s Blagojevich commutation
Illinois’ history of corruption
The long list of Illinois political figures who’ve been convicted on corruption charges in the last century was referenced more than once during Friday’s sentencing hearing, but Blagojevich was the only politician mentioned by name.
Blakey pointed to the former governor’s case when explaining his authority to enhance Madigan’s sentence for a bribe that wasn’t fully carried out. In Blagojevich’s case, “no one turned out to be willing or able to pay a bribe the defendant demanded,” the judge said of the U.S. Senate seat sale. In Madigan’s case, the former speaker never ended up recommending Solis for a state board position, but he and Solis discussed the $93,000-per-year pay for some of the appointments.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Streicker’s reference to Blagojevich in her sentencing arguments went beyond pointing to legal precedent, making a direct — and deeply unflattering — comparison between the ex-governor and Madigan. During Blagojevich’s six years in office, he and Madigan were constantly at war with one another.
Streicker quoted the late U.S. District Judge James Zagel as he sentenced Blagojevich in 2011: “When it is the governor who goes bad, the fabric of Illinois is torn, disfigured and not easily repaired,” Zagel said. “You did that damage.”
The prosecutor posited that the damage from Madigan’s crimes may have been worse due to his longevity at the “highest levels of power” in state government.
“Governors? They came and went over the years,” Streicker said. “But Madigan? He stayed. His power and his presence remained constant. He had every opportunity to set the standard for honest government in this state. Instead, he fit right into the mold of yet another corrupt leader in Illinois.”
But while Blakey cited deterrence as a factor in deciding Madigan’s punishment, he said the former speaker “can only be sentenced for his crimes, not anyone else’s.”
“You can’t sentence a social problem and there’s no point in trying to do that,” the judge said. “Defendant is responsible for his public corruption, not public corruption in the state of Illinois.”
Blakey also responded to Collins’ arguments that the judge base his sentence not on the “myth” of Madigan — which he said included the feds’ contention that the former speaker was driven by greed — but on “the reality of Mike,” who has “lived a frugal life” and “takes care of his wife.”
The judge assured Collins he didn’t buy into the myth of Madigan as “The Velvet Hammer” or the “Wizard of Springfield,” references to a decades-old nickname for the former speaker and a sign that once sat on the desk of Madigan’s longtime chief of staff, who is himself serving prison time on convictions related to his ex-boss.
Read more: Ex-Madigan aide sentenced to 30 months in prison for obstruction of justice attempt, perjury | Jury convicts Madigan’s longtime chief of staff on perjury, obstruction of justice charges
“Working in the legal sausage factory in Springfield is a full-contact sport and people lie about you all the time,” Blakey said, promising he wasn’t taking into account “all that nonsense.”
In Springfield, Madigan’s name is still invoked during debates on the Illinois House floor, but the last 4 ½ years since his resignation from the legislature have seen significant turnover in the body he ruled over for all but one term, from 1983 to 2021. The political effectiveness tying Illinois Democrats to Madigan — a longtime tactic from Republicans who hold super minority status in the General Assembly — has also waned significantly since the former speaker’s departure from public office.
On one of the final days of the spring legislative session last month, a longtime GOP critic of Madigan even credited the former speaker as he was denouncing Madigan’s successor, Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, for his approach to big bills.
But U.S. Attorney Anthony Boutros still claimed Madigan’s sentence as a victory for cleaning up corruption in Springfield.
“Corruption at the highest level of the state legislature tears at the fabric of a vital governing body,” he said in a statement Friday evening.
Boutros credited former Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu for leading the yearslong investigation and criminal case against Madigan and others in his inner circle, which “allowed this case to reach a jury and send a clear message that the criminal conduct by former Speaker Madigan was unacceptable.”
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
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Public transit agencies begin planning for ‘doomsday’ funding scenario
Capitol News Illinois
CHICAGO — Transit agency officials in Chicagoland met this week and formally began the process of planning for next year’s budget, including drawing up plans for major service cuts and potential layoffs.
It’s the latest chapter in an ongoing fight between public transit officials and state lawmakers over funding. Public transportation agencies’ federal COVID-19 relief funds are set to run out in 2026. Despite the funding, ridership on buses and trains still hasn’t reached prepandemic levels.
Now, transit agencies running buses and trains in northern Illinois are facing a $771 million annual combined budget gap — and lawmakers did not pass funding reform legislation by a critical May 31 deadline.
While House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch told Capitol News Illinois last week that lawmakers “have time” to handle the situation, transit officials told a very different story at two meetings this week.
“We have told everyone they needed to act by May 31st or else,” Regional Transportation Authority board member Tom Kotarac said at a board meeting Thursday. “We are in the ‘or else’ phase.”
Officials at the RTA laid out a plan Thursday to handle the monetary uncertainty: create two budgets. In one scenario, budget planners assume the gap is filled, and agencies can move forward with the rough plan approved late last year.
“But we cannot operate on assumptions and pledges of good faith and promises. We just can’t, legally,” RTA government affairs director Rob Nash said.
Read more: Legislative leaders discuss next steps for failed transit reform push
The RTA board formally asked the agencies it oversees — the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra commuter rail and Pace Suburban Bus — to prepare a budget that assumes no new funding from Springfield before the end of the year. This means a roughly 20% reduction from what the agency expected.
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Multiple RTA officials called it the “doomsday” scenario. RTA Chief Financial Officer Kevin Bueso said it would require “catastrophic” cuts. CTA acting President Nora Leerhsen told the CTA board on Wednesday that it was “severe and sobering for all of us and hard to stomach.”
Under both plans, the RTA would institute fare increases in 2026 and administrative “efficiencies” to reduce costs in 2025. The RTA also plans to create an ad hoc task force to plan cuts and manage the year’s unusual budget process.
The austerity measures are not just a piece of political theater. The RTA, under state law, must tell service boards the amount of revenue that will be available to them by Sept. 15 each year and the boards must submit individual budgets based on that revenue. The oversight agency releases preliminary funding amounts for transit planners to use months earlier in July.
Leerhsen said the CTA will continue to operate with its current 2025 service plan, but that over the summer and into the fall, the agency will hold public hearings to “more specifically consider” the consequences of the fiscal cliff.
The September deadline is three weeks before the General Assembly’s fall session begins — the earliest that lawmakers are scheduled to meet.
But even if lawmakers meet in October and pass funding reform, officials said that missing their spring deadline has already guaranteed harmful effects.
“I don’t want to give anyone false hope that there is still any way to avoid some of these negative impacts,” RTA Executive Director Leanne Redden said. “The negative impacts are here, and now we’re going to have to all work together to mitigate the worst of those impacts for as long as possible while the legislature continues to do their work.”
Even if lawmakers pass a new funding mechanism, because of the time it takes to implement new policies, that money might not become available to transit agencies until next summer, either due to far off effective dates on any new laws or the delays of implementing new policies.
Delays in funding would, according to Nash, impose “costs, financial and otherwise, to the system and to riders.”
“We are likely to face a challenge in the first part of 2026 no matter what the General Assembly does at this point,” Nash said during the Thursday RTA board meeting.
What’s next in Springfield
Over the past year, several proposals have been pitched in Springfield to address problems in Chicagoland transit agencies.
Two major proposals came from a coalition of environmentalists and labor unions. On Thursday, representatives of the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition and Labor Alliance for Public Transportation, two groups that have occasionally disagreed on how to address transit agencies’ woes, released a joint statement.
The groups said the RTA’s Thursday meeting “unveiled the disastrous consequences of Springfield’s inaction” and called for lawmakers to meet this summer to address the problem.
“We cannot wait any longer — the General Assembly needs to avert further disaster and address the transit fiscal cliff with reforms and dedicated revenue, while working with existing agencies to ensure that we are investing in the future of our transit systems. The time to act is now,” the groups said.
Read more: Senate’s transit funding, delivery tax proposal stalls in House
While no proposal received close to the support it needed this spring, one bill made it through the Senate in the final hours of lawmakers’ legislative session.
That bill would have instituted several reforms that had been broadly agreed on, although not unanimous. Certain provisions laying out the balance of power on various boards were opposed by local governments.
Its funding mechanism, however, ignited quick controversy. The provision that sparked the greatest opposition would have instituted a $1.50 tax on package deliveries except on orders of groceries and medicine.
That provision drew near-immediate opposition from businesses and interest groups with influential networks of lobbyists. The major tech lobbying group TechNet, along with Uber, Instacart, DoorDash, Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce and several retail industry groups, registered their opposition.
That bill was not considered in the House, and no bill with a similar funding mechanism was proposed in that chamber.
Paula Worthington, an economist and senior lecturer at the University of Chicago, told Capitol News Illinois that imposing a new tax like the delivery fee would be difficult.
“That is a heavy lift, procedurally, legally,” Worthington said. “You can’t just wave a magic wand.”
Worthington pointed to other states’ systems of transit funding that typically include “some elements of shared burden.” Other states have implemented a “commuter transportation mobility” tax on certain businesses, taxes on road users, or expanding taxes on ride sharing companies. Worthington said Illinois could consider those or other taxes during discussions over the summer to identify a solution.
“But those discussions now need to be out in the public,” Worthington said.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
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Illinois license plate cameras used illegally by out-of-state police, Giannoulias says
Capitol News Illinois
CHICAGO — The state of Illinois is investigating an automatic license plate reader system used in a northwest suburb after a Texas sheriff accessed the system to look for a woman who recently had an abortion.
This and hundreds of other searches, according to Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, violated Illinois law.
Law enforcement agencies seeking to access license plate reader data collected in Illinois would first have to attest in writing that they wouldn’t use it to enforce other state’s laws relating to abortion or immigration.
“There is concern that other law enforcement agencies are breaking the law, whether they’re doing it maliciously or unintentionally — that’s almost irrelevant,” Giannoulias said at a Thursday news conference.
Police in Mount Prospect, a village in suburban Cook County, set up a license plate reader system in such a way that allowed other law enforcement agencies to access data without providing written attestations. In addition to the Texas case, Giannoulias’ office said Mount Prospect’s system had been searched 262 times for immigration-related reasons between mid-January and the end of April.
The Texas case came to light after a report from the tech outlet 404 Media found the search impacted more than 83,000 license plate reader cameras in multiple states.
Giannoulias also noted that 46 out-of-state law enforcement agencies conducted searches of Illinois records that violated state law.
In response, Giannoulias’ office — which generally handles policy surrounding license plate readers and data sharing — announced it had instructed Flock Safety, a company that operates license plate readers in Mount Prospect, to shut off access to the system to out-of-state agencies. Giannoulias said he is also working with the Illinois attorney general to investigate further.
The secretary of state’s office said it will also establish an auditing system and additional safeguards.
“Automatic license plate readers are there to prevent violent crime, to prevent carjacking, to find stolen vehicles and to help when there’s a kidnapping, right?” Giannoulias said. “That’s what they are used for. When this data is being used to track people getting abortions or for ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to use to track down individuals based on immigration policy. That is a very slippery slope.”
Advocates for immigration rights and reproductive rights applauded the state’s move.
“Our statewide policies are only as strong as the counties, cities and municipalities that implement these policies across Illinois,” Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights Executive Director Lawrence Benito said Thursday. “When we are not on the same page, the misalignment can harm those in Illinois who are merely seeking the dignity and respect not afforded to them elsewhere.”
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
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