Latest news with #R-Savanna
CBS News
19-02-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Gov. JB Pritzker's budget plan includes no new taxes, would cut healthcare for immigrant adults without legal status
Gov. JB Pritzker on Wednesday unveiled his $55.2 billion state budget plan 2026. The spending plan would be the largest in Illinois history, but comes with no new taxes. Under his budget plan, Pritzker wants to launch a program banning cell phones during classroom instruction in Illinois, while ending a controversial $420 million dollar program providing health coverage for undocumented immigrants. "I have made difficult decisions, including to programs that I have championed," Pritzker said of his budget proposal. The governor's budget plan would eliminate a program to provide health care to immigrants in Illinois without legal status between ages 42 and 64. The program would end July 1st, a belt-tightening maneuver welcomed by Pritzker's critics "That was a positive move, because our focus ought to be on taking care of our own families," Illinois state Sen. Dave Syverson (R-Cherry Valley) said. Speaking of families, parents will need to have a talk with school-aged kids with cell phones if the governor has his way. "I'll move forward with legislation requiring all school districts in Illinois to adopt a cell phone policy that bans the use of phones during classroom instruction," Pritzker said. Right now, approximately 10 school districts statewide have a ban already on the books The proposed budget, a $2 billion increase over the 2025 state budget, is a starting point that Illinois House Minority Leader Tony McCombie (R-Savanna) called "dead on arrival." "It will look very different by the time Illinois Democrats add all of their bells and whistles," McCombie said. While not mentioning Mike Madigan by name, Pritzker linked the federal court system that found the former Illinois house speaker guilty of bribery charges to the courts built to keep even a President in check. "If you applauded that decision as I did, then I expect you to defend and applaud those same federal courts as they check this president in his quest for unrestrained power," Pritzker said. The governor, long a vocal critic of President Trump, said the new administration will hurt Illinoisians -from seniors to farmers – and ended his 35-minute speech this way: "If you think I'm overreacting and sounding the alarm too soon, consider this: It took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours, and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic. And all I'm saying is that when the five-alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control," he said. The governor's budget would increase funding for elementary and high schools by $300 million, and would lower tuition for community colleges. Pritzker did not address the more than $700 million fiscal cliff facing the Chicago area's public transit agencies. All will be worked through before this budget is voted on. It must be approved by the Illinois General Assembly by May 31 in order to be approved by a simple majority. After that, it would require a three-fifths majority vote to pass his budget plan, which takes effect at the start of the state's new fiscal year on July 1.
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
House Republicans ask state Supreme Court to toss out legislative map
SPRINGFIELD — Democrats continue to hold a supermajority in the Illinois House thanks to illegally gerrymandered House districts, House Republicans allege in a new lawsuit filed with the Illinois Supreme Court Tuesday. The lawsuit alleges the current House map fails to meet state constitutional requirements that districts be compact and allow elections to be 'free and equal.' The outcome is elections that are 'rigged' to favor Democratic candidates. Republicans want the court to invalidate the maps and appoint a special master to draw new district boundaries. Republicans are targeting this lawsuit to state courts after previously failing to block the maps in federal court. New data and a key expert witness, they say, make their state case more likely to succeed. 'Illinois House Republicans refuse to stand by while Democrats rig elections and manipulate the system to maintain their grip on power,' House Minority Leader Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, said at a news conference Tuesday. The lawsuit comes after House Republicans failed to gain seats in the two election cycles since a new map was drawn in 2021 following the census and implemented for the 2022 election. Republicans lost five seats in 2022 and failed to win any back in 2024, leaving House Democrats with 78 members in the 118-member House. The first question Republicans want the Supreme Court to weigh in on is whether the districts are 'compact.' Compactness is not defined in the state constitution, though dozens of mathematical formulas exist to measure whether the residents in a district are spaced appropriately. Republicans point to the Illinois Supreme Court's decision to invalidate a district in 1981, which found the central Illinois district was not considered compact. Using two mathematical formulas, the lawsuit alleges 52 of the current House districts are less compact based on at least one formula than the unconstitutional 89th House District was in 1981. The 89th House District in that year included several square-shaped sections from Peoria to Springfield. The court ruled it was not compact based on a visual examination. The lawsuit argues existing districts that feature odd shapes snaking around communities or extending away from the heart of a district would fail the same eye test. The Princeton Gerrymandering Project, which assesses legislative maps around the country on several metrics, gave the current Illinois House map an 'F' grade for its compactness metric. The districts are also politically gerrymandered to elect more Democrats, according to the lawsuit. Republicans argue Rep. Lisa Hernandez, D-Cicero, who chaired the House Redistricting Committee, admitted to partisan gerrymandering during a floor debate in August 2021 when she was asked by then-Rep. Avery Bourne, R-Morrisonville, whether 'partisan advantage' was considered in drawing the map. 'It is one of the factors included,' Hernandez said at the time. The court filing also points to testimony in previous challenges to the maps in which a House Democratic staff member acknowledges lawmakers considered creating political advantages in certain districts as they discussed how to draw the map. As part of their case, House Republicans enlisted the help of national redistricting expert Jowei Chen, from the University of Michigan. Chen has served as an expert witness on similar lawsuits in other states. House Republicans said Chen ran 10,000 computer simulations on different map outcomes at their request, with the only requirement being that the maps were compliant with the federal Voting Rights Act. None of the simulations produced a map similar to the current House map. 'That outcome is only possible with partisan gerrymandering designed to disenfranchise voters,' Rep. Ryan Spain, R-Peoria, said in an interview. The current 78-40 split between Democrats and Republicans isn't proportional to ballots cast in recent elections, the GOP argues. The 78-40 split would make sense in a world where Republicans were receiving roughly 40% of votes cast in a general election. But in 2022, Republicans received 51% of votes case in House races, and the party should expect to receive 47-48% of the votes cast in House races in a normal election year, per the simulation. Thus, the GOP believes they'd have a larger share of House seats if maps were drawn fairly. 'We're not supposed to be depriving voters of their individual vote,' Rep. Dan Ugaste, R-Geneva, said in an interview. 'It's supposed to have the same meaning as every other voter in the state, and when you do that on a partisan basis, it always skews that one individual's vote.' The Princeton Gerrymandering Project, using a different methodology, gave Illinois' House map an 'A' grade for partisan fairness, meaning the current map doesn't give an advantage to either party. The filing notes courts in North Carolina and Pennsylvania have previously stuck down maps based on similar accusations and language in those states' constitutions similar to Illinois'. Republicans hope the Illinois Supreme Court will agree the maps are unfair and force new House maps to be redrawn by an independent commission that would not consider partisan benefits. The lawsuit focuses on the House maps, but a favorable ruling for Republicans could be extended to Senate maps, as each Senate district is comprised of two House districts. 'I have high hopes for the court in doing the right thing,' Spain said. 'I think the compactness claim is a slam dunk. They've already ruled on that one before.' 'Leader McCombie can't justify her party leader's unlawful attempt to slash services working families need to access healthcare, afford rent, and put food on the table, so she is choosing to distract people by relitigating a matter that courts decided years ago,' said Jon Maxson, a spokesperson for House Speaker Chris Welch, D-Hillside, in an email. This is not the first time Republicans have asked courts to toss out maps. Republicans and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, or MALDEF, sued in the summer of 2021 after the General Assembly passed an initial set of maps using American Community Survey data in order to meet statutory deadlines for redistricting after census data was delayed by the pandemic. Lawmakers returned later that summer to pass the current set of maps based on census data. Republicans and MALDEF sued again to try to stop the maps, arguing the latest version reduced the number of Latino-majority districts in the Chicago area. A separate case was filed by the East St. Louis Branch of the NAACP and other civil rights groups that argued the maps broke up the Metro East's Black voting population. A three-judge panel of federal judges rejected those challenges in December 2021, leaving the current maps in place. Republican lawmakers said their reason for challenging the map wasn't based on whether it would lead to more Republicans winning legislative seats in future elections. Ugaste said he believes an independently drawn map could make his reelection more difficult in his west suburban district. 'I'm willing to do it because that is what is right for the voters. It's not about me hanging on to my seat,' Ugaste said. The plaintiffs also argue it's not too late to challenge the maps, as there are three more elections before the General Assembly is required to redraw the maps after the 2030 Census. Fourteen other states also have pending cases challenging legislative maps. 'Other states continue to work on this; we shouldn't forfeit our ability to do so in Illinois,' Spain 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. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
