[MUSIC] >> Welcome to Capitol View on WSIU I'm Jeff Williams sitting in this week as we take a look at what's making news around the state.

In Illinois politics.

It is once again been a busy week.

At the top of the news feed, longtime Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, convicted on federal corruption charges, reports to prison Ice enforcement and protests continue in Chicago, and the fall veto session is underway.

Those topics, and probably more this week on Capitol View.

And to help lead our discussion or our Peter Hancock, statehouse reporter for Capitol News, Illinois, and Jason Piscia, director of the public affairs reporting program at the University of Illinois, Springfield.

Gentlemen, welcome back to the program.

>> Good to be here.

Thanks.

>> Well, as we mentioned at the at the top, former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan reported to federal prison camp in Morgantown, West Virginia, this week to begin serving a seven and a half year sentence on his federal corruption conviction.

We we've talked about this before on on the program, but maybe to provide some some context as to how significant of an event this is in in Illinois politics and Illinois history.

>> Well, Jeff, I think unfortunately, it's a scene that's become all too familiar for people in Illinois to see either a state legislator or a governor or some other high ranking public official reporting to federal prison.

Um, what I kind of sense, uh, and I hope that I'm right on this is that maybe, uh, this will be one of the last that we ever see, uh, that the politics of Illinois have been changing.

Uh, new generation has been coming of age and taking office and this old, um, sort of the transactional politics that, uh, Michael Madigan represented.

Uh, you know, it was sort of devoid of any real ideology, just more of a you scratch my back, I scratch yours, uh, kind of transactional way of dealing with politics, uh, is hopefully over.

And, uh, so, you know, we'll see.

But, you know, it's certainly sad to see someone who, uh, spent that much time in the public eye and that much time, uh, ostensibly serving the public, uh, to be going to federal prison at the age of, what, 82 or 83 years old, uh, to serve a seven and a half year sentence.

So, uh, it is sad, but hopefully marks a turning point in Illinois history.

>> Yeah, yeah.

>> Jason.

>> Yeah.

Uh, I agree with Peter.

I think this may be an end of an era.

I hope we're not being too optimistic on that.

But but yeah, the transactional politics Peter was talking about was just so ingrained in the culture of Illinois government and just how it worked.

And I, you know, I there's probably still several people out there who think that Madigan didn't do anything wrong.

He was just, you know, everyday business of how Illinois government works.

Uh, but yeah, this is a big, monumental, uh, development in this, uh, many people thought Madigan was untouchable, uh, especially, you know, people who worked around him in the state Capitol that, you know, he could press all the levers and do whatever he wanted.

Uh, and this definitely, uh, breaks down that facade.

So, uh, we're waiting.

You know, he he has appealed his conviction.

Uh, he tried to get the judge to let him stay out of prison.

While that appeal worked its way through the court.

The judge ruled against that.

So he, uh, reported to prison, as you said, in West Virginia on Monday, that's farther away from Illinois that I think many of us were expecting.

Uh, a lot of our Illinois politicians tend to go to Terre Haute, Indiana, or somewhere much closer.

So, uh, this is, uh, we'll see how it goes.

>> All right.

>> And again, as you mentioned, uh, Madigan is appealing that conviction.

And I believe if I read the reporting correctly, those briefs will start seeing those in, in in early November.

Um, the Department of Homeland Security's operation midway Blitz continues in Chicago.

I think now it's, what, more than a month into this immigration enforcement operation.

I think the latest statistics indicate that more than a thousand arrests have been made.

There have been numerous legal challenges raised by the state and others.

There are, I guess, daily protests and rallies happening.

Uh, Peter, the one that's at the what do you think is at the forefront this week, as you see, as this story continues to as developments continue to to unravel and unroll, so to speak.

>> Yeah, I think, you know, a federal appeals court this week ruled that, you know, the National Guard troops can be federalized.

Uh, however, they sort of put a stop at this point to actually deploying them in Illinois.

Uh, and I think the earliest that that decision can come down on whether they can be deployed is not till next week.

Uh, so we're still in a sort of a limbo state here of of how what the National Guard's role will be in Chicago.

Um, you know, traditionally, National Guard cannot be used for, uh, sort of regular, everyday law enforcement duties.

Um, the federal government, however, is arguing that Chicago is in a state of rebellion and that necessitates the need of National Guard troops.

Uh, the judge and the state obviously disagree with that.

So, uh, we'll see where this takes us in a week.

Uh, until then, um, as you mentioned, people are getting arrested.

Uh, there are still protests every single day, especially at that Broad View facility west of the city of Chicago, where there is an Ice detention facility.

Uh, so, uh, the emotions remain high, the action remains high.

And, um, it's it's a very high stress situation.

>> Yeah.

>> Peter, I think you reported on fact.

There's also been trying efforts to seek protections for those of us who are reporters covering it, as well as as well as protesters that are there on the scene to try and help keep the peace, so to speak.

>> Yeah, there was a fairly significant First Amendment lawsuit that had a lot of plaintiffs, uh, many media outlets, uh, that were complaining about how, uh, journalists covering the protests have been targeted, uh, have been, you know, hit with pepper balls and tear gas and, uh, otherwise just sort of harassed, asked.

Um, for the crime of doing their job.

Uh, also, uh, individual protesters, as well as some clergy, uh, who've been holding daily prayer vigils, uh, and they've all been, uh, complaining of the way they're treated, uh, and attempts to suppress the protests as well as the news coverage of them.

Uh, so they want a pretty significant victory at the early level.

They, uh, secured a temporary restraining order.

That's pretty specific.

That tells the federal agents that, um, you cannot arrest or threaten to arrest or harass people, uh, for being in a place that they otherwise have a constitutional right to be, uh, and for doing things that they have a right to do.

Uh, so that was, uh, fairly significant.

But at the same time, uh, you have to be cognizant of the fact that these, um, The administration has not been entirely respectful of court orders and court decrees.

They, um.

Yeah.

You know, I'm not on the scene.

I can't tell you, you know, the experience that reporters are going through right now.

Uh, but, you know, from all indications, uh, the protests have not died down.

And the actions of, uh, federal officers, whether they be National Guard or Ice or Customs and Border Patrol or, you know, whatever federal agencies are out there, uh, it still appears to be a pretty aggressive, intense situation.

>> Yeah, yeah.

Reporters we've all covered.

I mean, I've covered coal mine strikes in West Virginia and even Halloween in Carbondale back in, back in the day.

But have you seen anything, either one of you, have you seen anything quite as as intense as, as these situations that we're seeing related to these Ice enforcement efforts.

>> You know, for me, you would have to go all the way back to the 1960s and I'll date myself a little bit.

I was a small child.

Um, I do remember seeing, uh, National Guard and, uh, you know, paramilitary forces on the streets of Kansas City and other major cities around the country, uh, in the aftermath of the Martin Luther King assassination.

Um, as well as the antiwar protests of that era.

So you really have I think you have to go back at least that far, uh, to see anything like, you know, the use of military force on American streets, uh, against American citizens.

>> Jason, one thing I think is kind of interesting about this as, as an educator of political reporters and public affairs reporters.

What what kind of a teachable moment is this for for your students?

>> Yeah, I think it, uh, there's two directions I take with it.

Obviously, there's the.

What rights do you have as a reporter when you're on the scene of a of an incident?

Um, you know, and I think especially for young reporters who are just getting started, it's and even for veteran reporters, it's easy to get intimidated by, uh, police and military yelling at you and telling you to move and, uh, you know, shooting pepper balls at you.

Um, but, you know, we drill into them, you know, you have a right to be there.

Um, and if someone gives you trouble about it, there's, you know, legal issues and that you can take immediately to, to get relief.

Um, obviously, down here in Springfield, we're not dealing with the type of, uh, adversity that the reporters are dealing with in Chicago.

But, you know, our reporters will get, uh, you know, try to insert themselves into meetings, state related meetings where people don't want them in there.

Uh, but we have to, you know, let them know their rights and let them know how they can, uh, you know, get some relief from that.

Uh, and then the other side of it is just, you know, basic common sense and personal safety stuff that we unfortunately have to talk to our reporters about now.

Again, nothing like in Springfield that we're dealing seeing in Chicago.

But, you know, when there are huge rallies that come to Springfield, uh, dealing with very contentious issues, uh, some of the protesters can get, uh, some of the protests can get a little, you know, uh, you know, problematic at times in terms of safety issues.

So, you know, we talk to our reporters about, you know, making sure you keep yourself in a safe situation, have a ability to, like, get out of an area very quickly if something happens, uh, you know, stick together, be in contact with your bosses about where you're going, what you're doing.

Uh, and these are all conversations we need to have with our reporters these days.

>> Yeah, absolutely.

>> Well, if that's not enough, the fall veto session is underway as as we speak.

It is the first week of the session.

There are several key issues.

Key issues that seem like they will occupy lawmakers time, including implementing implications from the federal budget reconciliation package or the so-called big beautiful bill that seems to be playing havoc with some of the revenue projections for the state this fiscal year.

Also, I think proposals again related to the Ice on new limitations on immigration enforcement in Illinois.

And then I think there's also transit funding and energy affordability.

A lot to unpack.

Um, either one of you, what do you expect to be kind of the top of the list for this, for this veto session?

>> Yeah.

I don't when we talk about the top of the list, it seems like it's a Christmas list where all the kids have a very long ideas of what they want to accomplish.

And we have to remember that veto sessions only six days.

And by the time people watch this, uh, three of the days will be over.

So, um, the lawmakers practical ability to get anything huge accomplished is, uh, kind of small.

Uh, so, uh, you know, I think there's been a lot of talk about what the state could do, uh, to, you know, deal with the Ice and National Guard situations in Chicago.

Um, reminds me a lot of, you know, a year ago at the veto session where after President Trump was reelected, there's talk about what we can do to so-called Trump proof Illinois.

Uh, and really, not much came of it during the veto session.

We'll see what happens this time with, uh, you know, what what they can do to to keep ice away from certain areas.

There's been talk of, you know, putting in some legislation about keeping ice out of hospitals and courtrooms, which would, uh, you know, keep, you know, people who are seeking medical help or have to go to a court date, you know, prevent them from worrying about getting, uh, you know, taken off the street by by an Ice agent.

Um, but, yeah, that's that's I think that's one of the big issues that get talked about.

But again, I'm not sure if anything will come of it.

>> Yeah.

Um I just from talking to a handful of legislators here and there.

Uh, one issue that many would like to deal with is, uh, the fiscal cliff that the Chicago Area Transit system is facing.

Uh, the cliff is not quite as steep and high as people thought it was going to be.

Uh, and the deadline maybe has been pushed back.

So there's not quite the sense of urgency that there was maybe 6 or 8 months ago.

Uh, but still, there's a very serious situation about, you know, keeping the trains rolling and the buses running in the Chicago metropolitan area.

And some people would like to do that.

It may just end up being teeing up, uh, solutions to be dealt with next year.

Uh, the other issue that I'm kind of keeping my eye on is the that November 1st is the start of open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act marketplace.

Illinois is launching its own state based insurance exchange.

Uh, it actually kind of got underway last year, but now it's, uh, going to be fully operational.

And this is kind of at the center of the federal government shutdown.

Uh, the debate over whether or not the, uh, tax subsidies, the tax credits that people can get for buying insurance on the exchange, uh, are going to remain in place.

The fear is that premiums are going to go up significantly, and that a lot of people could fall off of the rolls of the insured, uh, unless the federal government resolves its budget situation and extends those tax credits.

Uh, so that's going to be something interesting to watch.

Not really sure that the legislature has that much of a role to play at this point.

Uh, you know, they can't.

It's kind of in the hands of Congress right now.

Uh, but they are watching it because the state is operating this exchange.

And, uh, we'll be watching, you know, if people lose their insurance in Illinois as a result of it.

>> Yeah.>> Uh, Peter, what role?

The governor's Office of Budget and Management was out with this new revised projections.

I think they're predicting now about a $267 million deficit for fiscal for this fiscal year, for FY, FY 26.

Does that does that cloud or influence what discussions are going on?

And we you know, we mentioned the Chicago area transit funding that are going on during the during the veto session.

>> Yeah.

It does.

Uh, we saw recently the governor issue an executive order sort of telling state agencies in the executive branch to, uh, make plans for a 4% reduction, uh, you No holding back.

He didn't exactly order a 4% reduction.

A lot of this is very squishy because we don't know exactly what's going to happen.

Uh, but we can sort of expect that the tariffs on products coming in from China, for example, which is a big part of the economy, uh, tariffs are going to have an impact on consumer spending.

They're going to have an impact on the gross state product.

Uh, you know, we don't know exactly how far that's going to extend.

Uh, but there is the possibility that state revenues could take a significant hit, uh, as a result of a lot of things happening at the federal level.

Uh, so, yeah, I think everybody's nervous about it, but there's not a whole lot they can do besides, you know, get ready to tighten their belts, uh, and hold back on spending.

>> And that's something that's kind of new for this, uh, class of of lawmakers.

>> Yeah, it's kind of interesting is that there are a lot of people in the legislature who have never been through a really bad time when you have to tell people no a lot.

Uh, the so far, you know, during Pritzker's administration, especially his first term, the economy was pretty good.

Revenues were coming in.

Okay.

Uh, the state finances were in a pretty bad condition, but there was a lot of low hanging fruit, uh, things that were fairly easy to fix.

Uh, to get back on the right track.

Uh, now we're looking at, you know, some, uh, you know, really serious economic situations.

We don't know exactly what's lurking around the corner.

Uh, but it you know, lawmakers may have to start saying no.

And there are some young lawmakers there, people who haven't been in office very long who've never really been put in that position before.

>> Um, as you we mentioned, the session is only six days long and half of it will be over by the time this programme airs because of the um.

And this may be a little inside the inside the weeds, but because of the of the, um, requirements for bill passage, especially those that would take effect immediately, you have to have a supermajority.

Do you is it realistic to think that most of the work of this session is going to get pushed off until the start of the year, where they can use just a simple majority in both houses?

Or is there something that may actually get get through, uh, this veto session, do you think?

>> Yeah.

I'm not big on prognosticating what the legislature is going to do, because they could always change on a dime.

But, um, but yeah, I agree that, uh, there's probably not much that will happen, but I think this is setting the stage.

Give us a good to do list, give us a good priority list for what is going to get tackled when they all come back in January and have, you know, five full months to, to to push things through.

Um, you know, and I think, you know, one of those things that we haven't talked about yet is the bears.

We've talked about it in other in other, in other shows, I'm sure.

But, uh, you know, the bears are still out there hoping beyond hope that, uh, the state will want to help invest some money.

Uh, I think they've gotten over the fact that the state's not giving them any money to build an actual stadium in the suburbs, but, uh, they are looking at, you know, $850 million or so in infrastructure improvements, uh, to train stations and highway exits and things like that to help people get to the games.

Uh, the the big question is, you know, there's still a lot of obviously, Chicago based lawmakers in the General Assembly, uh, and all of them are not thrilled about the idea of the bears moving out of the city.

Uh, so it'll be interesting to see how they fall on an issue if the vote happens now or later.

Um, but I do know, you know, I think the best thing the bears can do at this point is just keep winning games like they did this week on Monday Night Football.

I think everyone feels a lot better about giving money to bears and supporting the bears if they're putting wins on the record.

So we'll see.

>> All right.

>> Uh, Peter, something I wanted to touch base on.

You reported this week on advance Illinois biennial report on education in the state is out.

And how are we doing in educating students in Illinois?

>> Yeah.

Uh, the short answer to that is it's kind of a mixed bag.

Um, Advance Illinois is one of these nonpartisan or bipartisan organizations, uh, that does a lot of research and a lot of, uh, policy analysis and policy recommendations in the area of education across the whole spectrum from early childhood through, uh, you know, college and career.

Uh, so, uh, what we saw was that, uh, it's been about 15 years, but Illinois, what's called the P-20 Council, uh, which is another advisory council that, uh, makes policy recommendations.

Kind of set this ambitious goal that 60% of the adult population in Illinois, by this time in 2025, should have either a college degree or some sort of professional certificate.

Uh, industry recognized certificate.

We got really close to meeting that goal.

We're not quite there yet.

Uh, and the report from Advanced Illinois did identify a lot of barriers.

Uh, the cost of higher education being number one.

Uh, Illinois ranks very low in the states for its public support of higher education.

On the K-12, uh, sector, Illinois has made a lot of progress.

Uh, we've moved up in the rankings in terms of state support.

Uh, the evidence based funding formula that lawmakers passed in 2017 has pumped in a lot of new money.

that has been very beneficial.

But oddly, um, proficiency rates have kind of stagnated.

The additional money has not translated into kids scoring better on reading and math tests.

Oddly, um, that's been true nationwide.

Uh, test scores have flattened out since the pandemic, and even going back even before then, test scores have flattened out and people are scratching their heads trying to figure out what is behind that.

Um, but, uh, the pandemic, it also identified that the pandemic had a significant impact, and it continues to have a lingering impact on K through 12 education.

Um, but at the same time, the additional money that, uh, they're putting into it seems to have had, uh, really beneficial effect, uh, especially in the districts that were the least funded, uh, prior to 2017.

>> All right.

>> In the in the couple of minutes we have left or so, gentlemen.

What what's something each of you are watching to see what will develop over the next week or weeks ahead.

Jason, we'll start with you.

>> Um, yeah, I was I saw a report yesterday, actually, by one of your colleagues, Peter, uh, about, uh, about half of cities in Illinois have, uh, reinstituted the 1% grocery tax.

As you remember, Pritzker signed a bill that, uh, got rid of the 1% grocery tax as a tax that benefit local governments anyway.

So all the local governments were losing that money, but they gave individual cities the ability to to reinstall it on their own.

And about half the municipalities in Illinois, representing about 57 or 58% of the population, have voted to put that tax back in.

Notably, Chicago and Springfield have not.

I'm sort of wondering if once they see this report and or maybe once they see their budgets come ahead in the year ahead, if that's something that they'll want to tackle once again.

But, uh, but yeah, that's what I've been watching.

>> All right.

Peter?

>> Well, I mentioned earlier that open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act marketplace is coming up on November 1st.

So we're going to be watching to see what happens, uh, to consumers in that space.

Uh, how many, uh, end up losing their insurance at the same time?

Uh, part of the big, beautiful bill, uh, many of the federal changes coming down affect Medicaid, uh, new work requirements.

Uh, there are also new requirements, uh, for Snap benefits.

So, um, going to be watching, uh, to see whether or not the safety net in society still holds together, uh, whether or not, uh, people are going to lose health insurance, either through the marketplace or through Medicaid.

Uh, and whether or not, you know, they're going to, uh, keep getting, uh, nutritional support that they've been getting up until now.

>> Um.

>> And we will continue to watch, uh, watch all those stories and more on on Capitol View.

Peter, let you have the last word.

Thank you very much for for joining us, Peter Hancock, Capitol News, Illinois, and Jason Piscia with the public affairs reporting program at the University of Illinois, Springfield and the new president of the Illinois News Broadcasters Association.

Thank you both for joining us this week.

>> Thank you.

>> Thank you.

>> And I'm Jeff Williams.

Thank you for tuning in for Capitol View.

Have a good week.

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