In this issue:
- No new taxes this year!
- Deficit currently stands at $2.2 billion
- DOC to adopt permanent rules for scanning inmate mail
- Illinois headlines
No new taxes this year!
On Tuesday we returned to Springfield to start the 2026 spring session of the House of Representatives. We have a lot of important issues to work on during this spring’s session, but every year our top priority is to pass a state budget. It must be balanced, and it should not include any tax increases.
But that has not been the case for the last several years.
Back in 2019, the state budget was just under $40 billion. Every year since then, the budget has gotten bigger. Each year has brought more programs and more spending – and higher taxes to pay for them.
Last year, Illinois set a record for the biggest spending bill ever passed in its history. We are now up to $55 billion in spending. That’s a 37% increase in spending in just seven years. I have to ask: who has seen a 37% increase in their home budget?
All that new money has to come from somewhere – and it’s been coming out of the pockets of hardworking Illinoisans like you. Each of the last three years, Democrats have found a way to raise taxes.
If we could focus on enacting pro-growth policies instead of coming up with new ways to tax people, Illinois would be a booming state – open for business.
This year we can turn it around. We must turn it around. This year we need to change our focus from taxing and spending and instead concentrate on job creation and expansion. We need to provide real tax relief for Illinoisans and get our budget under control.
These are things we can do – if both parties are willing to do so. We will find out over the next few months. It is going to be an interesting year.
Deficit currently stands at $2.2 billion
The consequence of all this overspending is that the state’s revenues cannot keep up with the ever-increasing flow of money going out the door.
The Governor’s Office of Management and Budget is currently projecting that based on estimated revenues and expenditures, the state will be $2.2 billion short in the upcoming fiscal year which begins on July 1. The state Constitution requires that the budget be balanced every year. I mentioned above the trend toward raising more taxes each year – all of which I have opposed. Rather than increasing taxes again, or employing sleight-of-hand or other budget gimmicks, we need to get spending under control this year.
The House is adjourned until mid-February when we will return to hear the Governor’s proposed budget as part of his State of the State address. That will give us a good idea of where we are headed this spring.
DOC to adopt permanent rules for scanning inmate mail
Over the past couple of years more and more attention has been called to a serious risk coming from mail being sent into facilities operated by the Illinois Department of Corrections (DOC). Staff at these facilities have been exposed to dangerous substances found on some of these pieces of mail.
As an emergency measure, last summer DOC put in place a system of scanning all inmate mail and making technology available for inmates to read the mail. This reduces the number of hands which possibly tainted mail has to pass through, while still ensuring inmates receive their letters.
This month, the Joint Commission on Administrative Rules gave DOC the go-ahead to make the emergency rule permanent. Scans of photocopies of mail must be clear, concise and legible, and DOC will be banned from storing any biometric identifiers on the tablets which will be used to read the mail.
Our current bill backlog
When a vendor provides the state with goods and services, they submit the bill to the Illinois Comptroller for payment. The Comptroller processes the paperwork and pays the bill when funds are available in the state’s checking account. Currently the total amount of unpaid bills is $1,849,766,400. This figure changes daily. Last year at this time the state had $2.4 billion in bills awaiting payment. This only includes bills submitted to the Comptroller for payment, not unfunded debts like the state’s pension liability, which is well over $100 billion.
Illinois headlines
Illinois expands hours to obtain REAL ID before TSA deadline for $45 fee
‘Put politics aside’ to support no tax on tips, Illinois Democrat says
Illinois sees fewer in-person sports bets since start of new tax, data shows
Ford County Soil & Water Conservation District Scholarship 2026
Benefit updates from the Grundy Veterans Assistance Commission