Capital Facts

Here’s why carmakers are leaving Illinois

Published by admin on Sun, 01/29/2023 - 11:20am

The Rockford Register-Star reported last week that the state of Illinois “has submitted what could be its best offer to keep the Belvidere Assembly Plant operating and save what could be thousands of jobs.”
Stellantis announced in December it would idle its Jeep Cherokee assembly plant in February. So, there appears to be a glimmer of hope that the state can finally notch a victory with a carmaker after years of trying.

Lawmakers fired up over sheriffs’ dissent to assault weapons ban

Published by admin on Sun, 01/22/2023 - 10:07am

“All they are saying,” claimed Illinois Sheriff’s Association executive director Jim Kaitschuk about dozens of his members, “is ‘We’re not going to knock on people's doors to ask whether they have registered their firearms. And if they're arrested solely on that charge, we will not house them in our jails until ordered to do so by a competent authority.”

Illinois lawmakers spend extra cash

Published by admin on Sat, 01/14/2023 - 11:11am

When the Democrats get their act together during a legislative lame duck session, they can really pass a lot of stuff in short order.
We’ve seen it before. Two years ago, the Democrats passed a huge amount of important legislation, including the SAFE-T Act, in just a few days.
Except maybe for the assault weapons ban, which is proving unpopular with county sheriffs who believe they have the right to personally interpret the Constitution, nothing quite that intensely controversial passed during this year’s lame duck session.

It will be months for court to decide on SAFE-T Act

Published by admin on Sat, 01/07/2023 - 12:36pm

Kankakee County Judge Thomas Cunnington set off a chaotic chain reaction Dec. 29 with his ruling that the General Assembly over-stepped its constitutional grounds when it voted to eliminate cash bail. Cunnington essentially said that a cash bail requirement, even though not specifically mentioned in the constitution, could be inferred; and that the General Assembly had exercised powers that properly belonged to the judicial branch.

SAFE-T Act update will allow the arrest of trespassers

Published by admin on Sat, 12/17/2022 - 11:01am

Illinois House Deputy Majority Leader Jehan Gordon-Booth (D-Peoria) headed up her chamber’s efforts to amend the controversial SAFE-T Act this year. The day before the bill came up for a vote, I asked her what were, in her opinion, the largest misconceptions about the 2021 social justice reform law.
Gordon-Booth pointed to the trespassing issue. “I don't care if you live in rural, urban, suburban. The trespassing [issue] was one that just made a lot of folks incredibly uncomfortable.”

Expect a big push to ban assault rifles in Illinois

Published by admin on Sat, 12/10/2022 - 11:09am

There’s been sort of an unwritten rule the past several years in Springfield to stay away from doing things like ban assault weapons.
The votes to pass one have seemingly been there in both chambers, but the will of past Democratic leadership seemed to be to not overtly poke any big, cash-rich bears, like the National Rifle Association, or to alienate or electorally imperil conservative members of their Democratic caucuses.

Respect needed between Illinois Democrats, Republicans

Published by admin on Sat, 12/03/2022 - 2:23pm

The state legislative debate last week over amending the Pre-Trial Fairness Act provisions within the controversial SAFE-T Act featured many of the same obfuscations and outright misinformation that characterized the fall campaign by Republicans and many of the same insufficient answers by Democrats.

Overturning Roe v. Wade changed outcome of recent election

Published by admin on Sat, 11/26/2022 - 12:26pm

The Illinois Senate Republicans’ new leader John Curran told Capitol News Illinois the other day that there was nothing left to do on the abortion topic in Illinois.
“The reality is, what else can we do here in Illinois?” Sen. Curran said. “The laws of Illinois are more weighted towards guarantees of the rights to have an abortion than any other state in the nation. There's no further to go.”
However, House Speaker Chris Welch strongly indicated recently that a state constitutional amendment guaranteeing reproductive rights was a very likely prospect.

What will Illinois do with extra cash?

Published by admin on Sat, 11/19/2022 - 3:27pm

Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration recently used its annual Economic and Fiscal Policy Report to outline three new budget proposals. The report revised projected revenues upward by $3.69 billion for this fiscal year, but noted that most of the projected increase was from one-time sources, like an unexpected spike in the state’s Income Tax Refund Fund of $1.28 billion.

Illinois Republicans’ problem is lack of money

Published by admin on Sat, 11/12/2022 - 10:12am

Rep. Tim Ozinga (R-Mokena) made the classic blunder of not focusing on one election at a time. But, his flub does give us an excuse to look at a few fundraising issues.
It’s been no secret that Ozinga wanted to be the next House Republican Leader. But he hasn’t really been involved in many House Republican races this year and then, the day before election day, all of a sudden reported giving his own campaign fund a million dollars.