House Speaker Chris Welch and Senate President Don Harmon have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money using politically connected outside lawyers, instead of lawyers on each staff or with the Illinois Attorney General’s office, records show.

As expected, former State Senator and 2022 GOP nominee for Governor Darren Bailey is inching closer to announcing a challenge to Congressman Mike Bost (R-Murphysboro) for the heavily Republican southern Illinois district next year.

Progressives aren’t saying much publicly yet, but we’re hearing there’s a lot of frustration among both Latino caucus and progressive members of the General Assembly after an announcement the Pritzker administration will freeze enrollment in a Medicaid-style health insurance plan for undocumented immigrants.

A hastily introduced, debated, and passed bill allowing downstate energy providers Ameren and Mid-American Energy exclusive rights to build transmission lines has been criticized by environmentalists and consumer advocates alike, but proponents say the legislation will help speed up the timeline for utilities to bring energy into the state.

Governor JB Pritzker appeared to defend legislative and executive official Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) pay raises included in the state budget, though misrepresented previous changes to politician paychecks.

A new report from the Illinois Auditor General shows Governor JB Pritzker’s Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) failed in oversight of hundreds of millions of dollars in pandemic grants for small businesses.

Friends and colleagues of Illinois Chamber of Commerce President & CEO Todd Maisch are remembering the business leader as a “giant” in Illinois politics and government.

Under state law, members of the Illinois House and Senate are entitled to a Cost of Living Adjustment, or COLA, each year.

House Republicans pointed out what they believe to be a $700 million cut to the money local governments and schools receive in the Personal Property Replacement Tax.

As expected, Democrats in the Illinois House advanced a Fiscal Year 2024 state budget to Governor JB Pritzker’s desk early Saturday morning.

Some 32 hours after Governor JB Pritzker, House Speaker Chris Welch, and Senate President Don Harmon announced a deal on a new state budget, the Senate finally passed a spending plan late last night, teeing up the House for final action early Saturday morning.

House Republican Leader Tony McCombie (R-Savanna) has spent her first session leading her caucus on the outside looking in of most meaningful debate under the Capitol dome.

As the General Assembly prepares to return to Springfield this week in an effort to pass a budget and leave town for the summer, how they intend to do so has left many, Democrats included, in the dark.

We reported a few weeks ago the Illinois GOP was considering reversing its decades-old policy of refusing to endorse in statewide Republican primaries.

The legislature adjourned for the weekend without passing a new budget for the 2024 Fiscal Year, blowing their self-imposed adjournment deadline and assuring lawmakers will return to Springfield next week.

Despite mountains of speculation, rumors, and projections under the dome Springfield, lawmakers adjourned Thursday without advancing the first steps of a state budget, assuring the two chamber would not be able to advance a spending plan before the scheduled adjournment Friday or even Saturday.

If you didn’t think the Illinois Supreme Court was a political animal, arguments over Illinois’ controversial assault weapons ban Tuesday removed all doubt.

An effort to oust Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy failed at a State Central Committee meeting Saturday in Edwardsville.