Rich Miller

Rich Miller: Madigan came up through a city ward system that was fed by patronage.

Rich Miller: Why has it taken so long for the state to act? The governor told reporters the state hadn’t had the financial resources to do enough about the problem.

Poll of 1,000 Illinoisans conducted in January found that 11% strongly favor, “the fighting, yelling, or other contention at school board meetings that has been happening around the country.”

Rich Miller: The political environment out there is hot right now, with national activists such as Charlie Kirk holding local events and stirring up passions.

Rich Miller: Even if their revenue projections are wrong, “We’ve cut budgets before,” one Gov. JB Pritzker administration official said.

Rich Miller: Widening the revenue base while narrowing the spending base makes fiscal sense on paper. But the report ignores the decades of all too real state underfunding of services for people with dire needs.

Rich Miller; State records show Dan Proft’s People Who Play by the Rules PAC spent almost $36 million during the second half of 2022, mostly on advertising boosting state Sen. Darren Bailey’s gubernatorial bid.

Rich Miller: Law enforcement discretion is a long-accepted policy. But sheriffs issuing written statements flatly declaring that they will not enforce a state law no matter what, sure does appear to go well beyond that.

Rich Miller: When the Democrats get their act together during a legislative lame duck session, they can really pass a lot of stuff in short order.

Rich Miller: When asked by reporters last week, Gov. JB Pritzker said he expected the Illinois Supreme Court to decide what to do about the state’s cashless bail law “sometime in the next few months.”

State Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth on the SAFE-T Act: “We knew that we put together a strong body of work that we could stand behind, stand on and not run from."

Rich Miller: There’s been sort of an unwritten rule the past several years in Springfield to stay away from doing things like ban assault weapons.

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

Rich Miller: Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch said he’s never seen Democratic numbers like this before, calling the onetime Republican bastion of DuPage County, “BluePage.”

Rich Miller: Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration recently used its annual Economic and Fiscal Policy Report to outline three new budget proposals.