Illinois lawmakers have just returned to the state capitol to start the 2026 legislative session.

What can we expect during this election year and what impacts could we see in The Cities?

[lively music] [music ends] Illinois lawmakers are back in Springfield.

There will be several new bills presented, though many lawmakers are waiting for February 19th.

That's the day governor J.B.

Pritzke delivers his State of the State address and lays out his agenda for the coming year.

So today, we're taking a closer look at the new laws, which went into effect at the start of this year and what you might expect from lawmakers in the coming year.

In a moment we'll talk with Illinois House Minority Leader Tony McCombie, Republican from Savannah.

But first, we're joined by Democratic state Senator Mike Halpin of Rock Island.

Thanks for joining us.

It is the second year of a two year session.

Oftentimes, so muc gets done in the first session because the next yea is more politics and people are getting ready to run.

What do you expect from Illinois lawmakers in this upcoming session?

You know, I expect we're going to focus a lot, as always, on the budget.

Right.

We're going to have significant, challenges.

You know, something we can talk about later, I think, but I think it' really going to be in response to what we've heard from from folks back home.

It's about affordability.

It's about being able to buy groceries, you know, for their rent and their mortgage.

We're going to tr to take those steps to, to try to help ease that pain as much as we can.

But honestly, we are facing a very difficult situation from the federal government, and it is going to, affect our ability to, to deliver some of those results, I think.

It is kind of what you're saying is almost the same thing that we heard last year, when Illinois approved an $800 million tax increase, almost billion dollars in new taxes.

I mean, is that that that's a tough amount to swallow.

Are you anticipating it's going to be just as big of a tax increase in this coming session?

No.

So what I and what I would mention is that the type of revenue that we brought in, you know, our voluntary, voluntary revenue, voluntary tax, a lot of if you're a big sports bettor, other, you know, you know, cigarets, things like that, vaping, you know, if you're participating in those activities, presumably you have that disposable income to do that.

We avoided any kind of broad based tax.

No.

Increase the sales tax, no increase to income taxes.

We didn't you know, we still refuse, rightfully so, to tax retirement here in the state.

You know, all those things I believe are off the table.

That what we're going to try to have to do is, is balance that budget on the folks that, in my opinion, can afford to pay.

Large corporations, you know, people that are taking advantage of what we have to offer here in Illinois but aren't paying back that fair share.

As you well know, Illinois Republicans are eager to point out that you're becoming very anti-business as a state.

Theyre always eager to say that.

Is that a concern?

Is that is stopping some of the growth that Illinois could see?

We are continually ranked as a as places for business to, to locate.

It's and this message is out there seemingly in perpetuity every year.

But we see tha business magazine site locators all talk about how Illinois has so many positive attributes and ends up high at the list.

Republicans, Republicans are gonna Republican.

They're going to say we're not business friendly.

Reality is, we have more business startups here in the state than we have in the in the recent past.

And I believe that trend is going to continue.

I'm curious about, being in the super majority.

Democrats have so much power in the state legislature.

To what extent do you liste to the voices of the minority, when it comes to crafting of bills?

And you know, the criticism all the time in regards to, the budget being laid out at the last moment, that there isn't rea input from the minority party.

The reality is, throughout the spring, the Republican members have a lot of input on a significant number of bills.

At the same time, once we get into those big ticket partisan type, bills, they're not offering constructive assistance.

For your run of the mill bills, you know, you know, ten out of the bills, ten of the 15 bills or whatever that I'll file.

There's going to be some great Republican back and forth, with the Democrats, and we'r going to get to a good product.

But there are certain bills that they're just not willing to engage with us in good faith.

And then that in that situation, we have to go it alone.

What do you expect from the governor, this year?

He, of course, running for a third term.

Politically, this is such a critical year, 2026.

Are you expecting a wid ranging agenda for this session?

It's hard to say.

You know, in all of his, budge addresses, state of the state, speeches in the past, he has proposed some, very important measures, many of which we've adopted.

And, that's probably goin to be the case again this year, but we'll have to wait and see.

I know the governor and his agency directors are, very busy this time of year putting those proposals together.

And we'll find out middle of February.

I know one of the big victories that you want to point out was during the veto session, as far as the transportation bill and bringing passenger rail more steps closer to, going from, Chicago to the Quad Cities.

Is this now a reality, that you see, or are there more snags that lie ahead?

So m my position is to kind of temper those temper expectation because this is a long process.

It's been a lon and frustrating process for me.

I've been in office now, ten years and it's been very difficult, to move the ball.

Not so much with the state support, but on other aspects of it.

Are, you know, particularly because it's a private railroad line.

Yes.

Negotiate.

Yeah.

Negotiating with the private companies is, is, can be difficult.

But now we are in a positio where we can put that money in, get the agreement, signed to to move that track, upgrade that track, I should say.

And and really move it forward.

I feel better than I felt about it in a long time, but I try not to get, overexcited.

It's going to be a long process and still take a lot of work.

What is what is the next step?

I mean, because my understanding is the rail line is fine from Chicago to Joliet.

Wyanet basically.

Wyanet.

Okay.

Thank you.

So we're moving from Wyanet to the Quad City, Moline, basically.

Yup.

So is it going to be incrementally, progress that needs more budget request as we go along?

I don't think so.

With this bill, we are getting, I think, 95% of the way to where we need, on the money front, assuming costs don't continue to rise... And that's where I was gonna get to next.

...and outpace.

But the the essential agreement as to what needs to be done to the track, I think is already there.

It's just the, negotiating those final details and getting that operating agreement or that, engineering an construction agreement signed.

Because it is budgeted at $900 million basically right now.

Yeah, a little bit shy of that.

Yeah.

And let's be honest, it's no going to end up that way, is it?

I it's hard to say the estimate that we originally had is from two years ago.

Now final construction is still, you know, would be several years away.

So it could potentially increase.

But we'll have to work that out when it comes.

A lot of new, laws that went into effect at the beginning of January.

I want to touch on a couple of them.

First state in the Midwest right now, Illinois allowing, medically assisted suicide, with six month that terminal prognosis, you approved that?

You voted for that?

It's such a personal issue.

And a number of states are doing it.

Why do you thin that's important for Illinois?

What I heard from the people I represent in the community is that they would like to have this option.

They've seen, a loved one go through, a death, you know, I've experienced that with my my mother and father in law not too long ago.

And there's a solac and a peace of mind that comes with knowing that if you get to a poin where that pain is intolerable and you and your, you know, your death is imminent, you want to at least have that in the back of your mind as an option.

When it comes down to it, a very small percentage of people actually, historically in state that have had this for a while, very low number of people actually, take that prescription and, and go through with it.

But it's having that option is very important to the people that I talked to here, you know, worried about I hate to say abuse of that, but, I'll jus say that, that it'll be misused.

You always have to worry about that.

And and anything any la that we pass, there's a chance that someone is going to try to abuse, abuse the system.

But it's a balancing act at the end of the day and providing that peace of mind for people that truly do need it and desire it, I think outweighs the risk.

The small risk, I think of that abuse also going into effect on January 1st was the Safe Gun Storage Act, strengthening firearm storage requirement in homes.

You voted against that?

Yeah.

And it did pass, of course.

What were your concerns?

I certainly support educating people and making sure that, you are safely, storing your firearm and keeping it out of the hands where, it could result in a tragic situation.

At the same time, we have to be careful what kind of mandates and what kind of penalties that we put on people for the failure, especially in communitie like downstate Illinois, where, where some of this isn't as common and we have a very long tradition of, of of voluntarily states, safely storing our firearms.

So, again, on the balance, I thought it was important to, protect that, individual ability to, t make that decision for yourself.

And you did vote for the safe schools for all, which protects immigrants at, at the school level, that they, I guess, are we at that point in society that you are worried about the immigrant population in Illinois?

I'm worried about the entire population of Illinois.

And it seems to me it's counterproductive to the society we want to have to allow masked federal agents come into schools and essentially terrorize people.

Do it the right way, get a warrant, proceed with law enforcement.

Just like, every police department here in Rockland Count and throughout western Illinois does.

They do it by the book?

They do it the way they're supposed to.

They don't do it for public relations, and they don't do it to instill fear in people.

One last area, I don't know which your allegiance is, when it comes to the NFL, but, I mean, you've heard that, the Bears are looking to leave Illinois and and perhaps set up a stadium in Indiana.

Is there somethin that you think the legislature is going to step in, or are lawmakers just tired of being held at gunpoint, so to speak, by some of these, NFL owners?

Well, honestly, it's hard for me to tell what the real story is.

Are they going to Indiana?

Are they going to Arlington Heights, or are they wanting to stay in Chicago?

At the end of the day, we've, across the country, we've seen these sports team that are just looking to squeeze every dollar of taxpayer money out that they possibly can.

And someone from, downstate Illinois, I'm not exactly interested in having our taxpayer dollars go to a team that i worth several billion dollars.

At the end of the day, the state should be prepared to help with infrastructure like we would with any other big employer, big business that comes into an area.

But we shouldn't be subsidizing, these teams that are, frankly, making lots of money at our expense.

Well, put on your political hat, as 2026 is a year of elections.

The governor is, once again running against Darren Bailey, it appears.

What do you think of the strengths of the Democratic Party, for this coming year?

I'm very optimistic about, our chances.

We've put in a lot of work over the past several years to get, fiscal house in order in Illinois, to really, protect the most vulnerable here in the state, support housing support, small business, incentives.

And I think that combined with the, dysfunction in Washington that we can la at the feet of the Republicans, I think it's, it translates into good prospects for Democrats in November.

And you bring up the it seems to be the key word right now is affordability.

I'm hearing it from Democrats.

I mean, is that the rallying cry?

I think it is.

We've we see big corporations, big tent companies, billionaires, multimillionaires, really are doing better than they ever have before.

But the people on the street in my community that I talk to, they're not feeling that.

And all they're seeing is their prices go up, their revenues are not going up, their prices are going up.

And the Democratic Part has traditionally been the party that is trying to address those concerns.

It's something I'm committed to, and that's what we're gonna continue in in my own campaign.

And I believe you hear that from a lot of other Democratic campaigns going forward.

Our thanks to Democratic state Senator Mike Halpin of Rock Island.

In a moment, we're joined by Illinois Hous Minority Leader Tony McCombie.

But first, we're already halfway through the winter season.

But don't let the chill get you down.

Here's a look at some great events you might want to consider for yourself, your friends, and your family.

Thanks to Visit Quad Cities.

Check out the things to do this week in the Quad Cities.

Discover handcrafted goods, products, accessories, and so much mor from more than 40 local vendors.

Next, watch a silly murder mystery that will surely make you laugh out loud at the Circa 21 Dinner Playhouse.

Next, enjoy a performance of “Dorothy Goes to Oz” a tale of friendship and teamwork performed by Ballet Quad Cities.

Then get ready for an outdoor winter bash filled with hot cocktails, music, games, contests, and prizes.

Then get ready to craft.

Sign up for Paint Night a Jenny's Boxcar in East Moline.

Enjoy great food and great vibes.

For more events like these check out our events calendar at VisitQuadCities.com.

Democrats have supermajorities in the Illinois legislature, so they generally don't need any help from Republicans to pass legislation.

Nonetheless, the minority party is often a vocal opponent to bill they deem unnecessary, wasteful, and sometimes downright harmful to the state.

With the 2026 session no under way, we're joined by House Minority Leader Tony McCombie, Republican from Savannah.

Thank you for joining us.

Of course.

Second yea of basically a two year session.

And so much gets accomplished in the first year.

And the second year of the session usually is a little quieter, especially in an election year because of an election year.

What do you expect in this session?

Well, we actually start o January 20th only in a few days, in January, again in February and then March, with the election on St.

Patty's Day.

After that, you'll start seeing progressively more, certainly April and May.

I always say it's kind of scar when you see us in Springfield, because that usually comes.

You say you do a lot.

Yeah, absolutely.

Last year was about $1 billion in tax increases.

So, I'm not a big fan if we're going to be going down there for that.

But we have a lot of work.

As you know, the veto session was extremely busy and extremely expensive.

Probably one of the worst in history is even compared to a end of session, just alone.

And I know we'll probably get to it in $8 billion.

So-called energy bill, should be pretty terrifying for a lot of people.

Let's start with that.

I mean, why does that in particular?

You highlight that as being egregious?

Yeah.

Well, it's so much so becaus it was done during veto session.

So that's that's a big piece of it and certainly wasn't necessary.

Here.

we're going to invest, over the next decade, $8 billion that that doesn't come off the trees, unfortunately.

And it's, will come out of ratepayers for really, the advancement of battery storage.

And it's a technology that has still not been, certainly perfected.

A lot of safety concerns.

How are you goin to get rid of it after the fact?

So we're considering.

Well, we are going to spend $8 billion on something that's still kind of unknown for us.

That's not going to actually generate, energy.

And some will argue and say, well, no, we removed the moratorium for nuclear, which is true and is a good thing on that.

But with something like this, as well as the other anti-business policies you're not going to see Clinton, who has the ability to build another reactor.

They're the only ones that are actively able to do that right now.

They're not going to spen millions and millions of dollars and go through the hoops that would be required to build a new reactor.

The other big issue from the veto session was, of course, the transportation, bill, which is going to greatly fund Quad City passenger rail, which is, you know, has been, on the docket or at least on drawings for the last ten, 15 years.

Did you see that as a win, or are you worried about the cost dow the line of supporting passenger rail between, Quad Cities and Chicago?

Yeah, know, unfortunately, that is a myth.

And that's funny.

Money.

That's $475 million for all, transit improvements or expansions.

So right now, today, already lines goin to Saint Louis or Springfield.

All throughout Chicagoland area already need advancements for $475 million.

Isn't going to go that far.

And then you look at, the that also includes the Chicago to Rockford system.

Which is far more advanced as far as reality than this one is.

Absolutely.

And as I stated on the floor, because representatives from the quad Cities and I've always been passionate about this as well, since this is where I represented my first six years of, of my time here.

I said, this is not real.

You don't you can't you can't make the private rail sell, upgrade, do this.

And that's still the problem.

It's not it's not our land.

So until you can come up with an agreement there.

Federal money has long since gone.

And like you said, we're working on, two decade now that this has been going on.

So for me, that was just a thing to get the representatives here to vote for the bill.

You are pointing out some of the other new laws in 2026.

First state in the Midwest are now allowing medically assisted suicide, wit six month, terminal prognosis.

You voted against that.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, what' the heart of the matter for you?

Well, unfortunately, we all a lot of people who are going to be watching this have a personal story, and I have one myself, and I. And I stated as well on the floor.

My mom wouldn't have done that for her.

She would have done tha because she would have thought it would have been for my pain.

And that's not the right reason.

Also, it obviously goes too far.

They didn't bring coroners in there.

You're going to see probably some issues there on the cause of death.

You can make this decision when you're 18 years old, but I can't buy you can't buy alcohol or, tobacco at 18.

So, I mean, for you to mak that decision to end your life.

Also, the, disability, folks have some real concerns, with the bill.

It just wasn't.

It just wasn't the right way to do it.

I'm very sympathetic and understand, personally, how personal that is.

But this was not the bill.

It goes too far.

And we will see an increase, I think, in, some areas in Oregon and, maybe Washington.

You're already seeing an increase.

It's in Canada.

I it's I think it's the third cause of of death.

So you're just going to see this being used in a way that it's not meant for.

The other new law that I highlighted was the safe gun storage Act.

Stressing firear storage requirements in homes.

And you voted against that as well?

Yeah.

How are you going to how are yo going to police that for sure?

So, I mean, a law abiding gun owner is going to do everything they can to make their gun safe in their home or out of their home.

So certainly that to me is just another stretch to, you know, get government into your home.

Let's talk politics for a moment because, as we said, 2026, an election year, you have a governor that's going to be running for reelection.

What do you think are the Republican chances to strengthen their position in the state, which has been a blue state for years?

Yeah, absolutely.

And, you know, you just look at the past numbers with, President Trump getting about 46% of of the votes here in Illinois, which kind of shows you it's we're maybe not as blue as you think.

Obviously, Trump brings out a different group of voters, first time voters, especially people that are excited for change.

Midterms are typically tough.

And under this map, you know, I'll concentrate on the House side of it for this conversation.

It'll it will be tough.

We have to see where we're at with the economy.

I think, you know, those are.

That' going to be the biggest issue.

What is the cost of next summer?

What is the cost of gas?

Groceries?

Our energy costs?

Even if it's something that's because of policy here in Illinois.

It does affect on the federal side as well.

So we have to do a wait and see.

Obviously, the map is not conducive for balance in the state.

But we also have to wait on that one too.

What was the Republican messaging be for 2026?

It's certainly all about affordability because that's what's important to people.

And what does that mean?

Affordability.

Just so we were talking about being able to afford an electric bill and the polic that's passed here in Illinois, continued for the last two years, things that the House would be concentrating on passing $1 billion in tax increases over the last two years under Democrat control.

Are you in a better position?

Do you still have your job?

Are you still, able to afford what you you were able to before?

These are things that we hear about all of the time.

Also really in, the changes that could happen on the federal government that comes down to us, for example, our snap error rate SNAP is extremely important and affects affordability.

Our error rate today is over 11% under governor.

Or, yeah, under the governor today, Pritzker, that's gone from about a 6% to an 11%.

And the government wants to see that down.

The error rate is overpayments.

And underpayments.

We don't want that.

As you just saw in Minnesota the fraud a lot of that could be fraud.

And if we don't have an error rate that goes below that, the federal government is threatening to take away funding.

As always, Republicans are working under a super Democratic supermajorit in both houses of legislature, telling you stuff that you know very, very well.

Other than, speeches.

what can Republicans do, really, to influence the legislature in this coming session?

Well, I don't know if we can influence the legislature, but there are several members in my caucus and on the Senate side that still do, I want to say a dirty word, collaboration.

Still do talk and collaborate with colleagues on the other side of the aisle, because oftentimes our issues within our constituency is the same, agency mismanagement people not being able, like we were talking about beforehand the ease of getting a license, whether it's a nursing, a teaching, so many licenses, the government overreach for the hoops that people have to jump through, even businesses.

Businesses are either moving or not growing.

And that's, you know kind of the crux of the problem, especially when you have Iowa right there that's doing everything opposite of us and continuing to grow.

Our thanks to Illinois House Minority Leader Tony McCombie and Senator Mike Halpin, who talked with us earlier.

This year marks the 250th birthday of the Declaration of Independence, and WQPT is marking the countdown to July 4th with our America 250 initiative now.

That includes our ongoin messages from community leaders about their Civic Sparks.

What ignited their career choice and how it makes a difference in the cities?

We posed the question, what's your civic spark, to Felix Vallejo, Moline, historian and preservationist who is currently trying to renovate Molene's old Orpheum Theater.

[soft music] You work hard, you know.

So you get back to you know, what what brought you here.

Back in 2017,18, when I got this gas station, I just started, just natura to preserve something that meant so much to society.

You know, even today, you know?

Gas stations, you can't do witho stations.

You know that's just the way it is.

So.

And to have it back there, there's gonna be one day where, the kids might want to know what a gas station is.

Because everythings electric, right?

So hopefully it's still there.

You know, generations down the road.

And to be able to let people know this was a gas station.

Our thanks to Moline historian and preservationist Felix Vallejo.

Next week on the city's, we talk with Rock island's mayor about the state of the city seven months after he took office.

On the air, on the radio, on the web, on your mobile devic and streaming on your computer, thanks for taking some time to join us.

As we talk about the issues on The Cities.

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