THE ILLINOIZE: Monday Free for All...State paying migrants to leave...Pritzker's tax plans...Bost and Bailey differ on a gun issue
February 26, 2024
Good morning, Illinois.
22 days to primary day. Lots and lots and lots coming for you this week.
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Governor Pritzker discusses maternal health at 10 and multi-cultural districts at noon today.
Let’s get to it.
YOUR MONDAY FREE FOR ALL
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State picks up travel tab for migrants who want to leave Chicago (Chicago Tribune)
On a recent Tuesday morning, a family of three packed up their duffel bags outside a migrant shelter on the Lower West Side en route to El Paso, Texas, where they said they had relatives waiting. They had been in Chicago for four months.
Moises Sanchez, 24, came to the U.S. through Laredo, Texas, with his wife and 2-year-old daughter for economic opportunity. The family was given bus tickets by Texas state officials to go to Chicago, but he struggled to find work the entire time he was here, he said.
“From the minute I arrived here, I wanted to leave. I didn’t want to stay in Chicago. It’s freezing,” Sanchez said Feb. 13. “I can’t stand the cold.”
At least 3,194 individuals have received financial support from the state of Illinois to reunite with friends and family in other states and U.S. cities since mid-November, according to state data provided to the Tribune on Feb. 14. The state has spent over $620,000 on travel tickets and taxi fares to airports, trains or bus stations to connect with family and friends, which city and state officials call “diversion and outmigration.”
The state could not provide specific information about migrants’ final destinations.
With budget proposal and fiery address, Pritzker paints himself as progressive pragmatist (Capitol News Illinois)
In delivering his annual State of the State and budget address on Wednesday, Gov. JB Pritzker cast his administration as both progressive and pragmatic – a balance he’s worked to strike as his national profile has grown.
Some of the proposed spending plan, like $10 million in state funds to eliminate $1 billion worth of Illinoisans’ medical debt, are hardline progressive ideas. Others, including a goal to achieve “universal preschool” by 2027, fit in a more traditional liberal platform.
As Illinois faces an influx of migrants from the southern U.S. border Pritzker has leaned into a leadership style that prioritizes progressive ideals while projecting an image of fiscal responsibility.
“We didn’t ask for this manufactured crisis,” Pritzker said Wednesday in making good on his promise to propose another $182 million toward the state’s migrant response. “But we must deal with it all the same.”
The governor, who’d been discussed by national media as a potential presidential candidate in 2024 – and is still mentioned as an option for 2028 – broadened the scope of his speech Wednesday to national politics when talking about the state’s migrant response.
Pritzker called out congressional Republicans who suddenly walked away from negotiations on federal immigration reform earlier this month, accusing the GOP of backing out “because Donald Trump told them to, and they’re afraid of him.”
He further criticized Republicans who “find it hard to put country over party” and predicted GOP members would be “looking for a microphone” after his speech “so they can start yelling about sanctuary cities and immigrants taking our tax dollars.”
Related: Gov. JB Pritzker wants to increase a state tax credit, but Republicans say it’s not enough (WBEZ)
Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s budget proposal offers mixed bag on taxes (Chicago Tribune)
Editorial: Gov. Pritzker’s proposed budget has some good bets, but also some question marks (Chicago Sun-Times)
Editorial: Pritzker's proposed budget does not go down well (Champaign News-Gazette)
Mike Bost, Darren Bailey disagree on federal gun issue headed to Supreme Court (Belleville News-Democrat)
In southern Illinois’ conservative 12th Congressional District, many residents want their elected officials to support gun ownership.
And in the 2024 Republican primary, voters will choose between two candidates who both say they would stand up for residents’ legal right to possess firearms: incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, and former state senator Darren Bailey, R-Xenia.
Bost and Bailey each opposed assault weapon bans proposed at the state and federal level, for example.
But a federal rule that is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court shows where the candidates disagree on guns.
Wednesday, Supreme Court justices are scheduled to hear arguments about a ban on bump stocks, a firearm attachment that uses the gun’s recoil to continuously fire the weapon after someone has pulled the trigger as long as they don’t remove their finger.
At the direction of former President Donald Trump, the Justice Department banned the devices in 2018 because they were used in a mass shooting that killed 60 people and injured hundreds more in Las Vegas a year earlier.
Bost supported the ban. Bailey opposed it.
Related: How Johnson wooed Trump to back a GOP congressman targeted by Gaetz (CNN) [note: I believe we had that.]
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POLITICAL POTPOURRI
Flawed state oversight lets doctors accused of abuse continue to see patients (Chicago Tribune)
Former state Sen. Terry Link asks judge for probation after wearing wire on fellow lawmaker (Chicago Sun-Times)
Wife, son of Calumet City Mayor [and State Representative] Thaddeus Jones made six figures working with city (Chicago Tribune)
Bill would permit supervised use, decriminalize magic mushrooms in Illinois (State Journal-Register)
Pritzker backs down on General Iron, signs deal to toughen environmental oversight in low-income areas (Chicago Sun-Times)
After Alabama ruling, Duckworth moves to protect in vitro fertilization (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Is Illinois’ film tax credit luring Hollywood to the heartland? (Daily Herald)
U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García faces a Democratic primary challenge from the right (WBEZ)
Democratic congressional candidates want to abolish Electoral College (Daily Herald)
Judge invalidates ‘Bring Chicago Home’ referendum on March 19 ballot (Chicago Tribune)
Editorial: Chicago’s proposed real estate tax increase, always a bad idea, enters legal limbo (Chicago Tribune)
Editorial: For a mayor in need of a win, here's a potential playbook (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Chesney: Some public safety bills do little to make Illinois communities safer (Rockford Register Star)
Opinion: The White Sox chairman's plan to bail out...himself (Champaign News-Gazette)
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