It is perhaps a telling personality trait to find glee in scrolling deep into the latest monthly report from the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, but what’s the fun in only focusing on the headline?
(That headline, for the record, from a July 4 Capitol News Illinois story: “State ends fiscal 2025 with record revenue; attention turns to volatile fiscal 2026 forecast as uncertainty continues”)
COGFA is independent, but political considerations abound with the information it provides. It seems notable that the General Assembly enacted a budget in May 2024 that allocated spending $717 million less than what was ultimately connected, but chances are the readers’ reaction to those numbers is informed by many more factors than raw math.
Deeper into the report are things like charts and tables tracking cannabis excise taxes, and one table titled “Indicators of Illinois Economic Activity.” These numbers show the average unemployment rate for May as 4.8%. That’s the same as April, but better than 5.1% in May 2024. It also reports that new car and truck registrations hit 41,602, which was down 5.9% from April but up 7.1% from May 2024. Single-family housing permits are a different story, with 976 representing a 3.3% drop from last month and an 8% decline from last year. Exports checked in at $7.58 billion in April, down 2.1% from March but up 12.9% from April 2024.
The final 17 pages are a breakdown of all pension legislation from the recently concluded spring session from COGFA Pension Unit Manager Dan Hankiewicz. Each section includes bill and public act numbers and the vote totals in the House and Senate.
The capsules include a concurrence vote, a useful tool for things like the first example, House Bill 1075 (now Public Act 104-0002), which passed the House 103-0, but only cleared the Senate 32-23 and returned to the House for a 74-41 concurrence vote. This is the fiscal 2026 budget implication act (BIMP) and not, as it was when the House voted unanimously, statewide recognition of Diwali Day.
The reading material is definitely dense, especially for anyone wholly unfamiliar with things like the Downstate Firefighter Article of the Illinois Pension Code or the subpoena powers of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Retirement Fund. But as is often the case with understanding state government, taxpayers benefit from trying to understand the systems’ complexities.
If nothing else, going through these and other reports can generate a list of questions suitable for presentation to General Assembly members. These bills can affect millions of public dollars, and any functional elected official ought to be able to either help decipher or find a source to provide helpful information.
Knowledge is power, and you have to start somewhere.
• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.
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