As always, it came down to the wire.

We'll take a closer look at what Democrats did in the final hours of the 202 legislative session in Illinois, and how it will impact all of us in The Cities.

[lively music] [music ends] The Democratic Supermajorities used every minute of the 2026 legislative session, as lawmakers tried to cobble together a $56 billion spending plan while also dealing with a Chicago Bears stadium project a digital tax on social media, questions about data cente projects in the state, and more.

Now, next week, we'll tal with a top Republican lawmaker to get the minority party's perspective on the session.

But this week, we start with the Democrats, who are the majority in the House and the Senate.

And we also have JD Pritzker as governor.

Joining us from East Moline is Democratic State Representative Greg Johnson.

Well, thank you for joining us.

Let's talk about this budget.

It's the largest budget in Illinois state history, 3900 pages, $56 billion.

Why did you support it?

I supported it.

First of all, I thin it's a very responsible budget.

I think it's a good budget.

I think when we start looking at this budget, the first thing we have to look at is the fact that, due to the actions that are being taken at the federal government level, we were we've been shorte anywhere from 8 to $10 billion in federal funding.

So when you look at the fact that we went from, I think over 53 to this $56 billion budget, I think the fact that we were able to get to the 56 to not impact every day Illinoisans, the taxes that went into place where, some of them are goin to be possibly future increases.

But, you know, unless you smoke cigars, you vape, cryptocurrency.

I think there's a fantasy sports, gambling as well.

I don't think that there wa anything that really took place to, to really affec most people's everyday things.

You know, obviously we don't like, eve raising taxes on, on anything.

But, you know, sometimes these are choices that people make.

And, you know, the, the, the tariffs, the rate of inflation that have gone on at the federal level.

I think we've done everything we could do to try to have a minimal impact on on making people's lives harder.

Well, and, and you pointed out some of the $800 million in new taxes, taxes on social media companies, digital assets, as you said, fantas sports, tobacco, sports betting, once again.

These are these are some areas that you found $800 million in new taxes.

You know, that Republicans point out you're just adding tax upon tax.

Yeah.

I also don't think it's fair Jim, to say that those are not all of those taxes are unrealized.

So the digital land ta is something that's really been brought u over the last couple of years.

And we've been very resistant, several members of our caucus in implementing that because it's being challenged, in a few other states.

So, you know, I want you to remember that if people would, that I worked in state government for many, many years.

And I remember the $15 billion, debt, the, 12 or 15 month backlog of bills, and I wa never going to support anything that's real money.

So the digital ad tax, if we and we believe that we're going to get that money that revenue is going to be is there's a placeholder place for that, because I just was not willing to to support that the last couple of years and then spend that money and then start out in a hole the next year.

So, yeah, we will have to see, what the revenue increase is, or how much, revenue this is really going to bring in for us.

One area that you're getting kind of a windfall right now is the gas tax, because, fuel costs more, of course, as you well know.

So then you get, a greater revenue stream.

The budget freezes the 1.3 cent gas tax increase that was slated July 1st.

It's pushed now to January.

You know, an optimist will say that's really nice that you push it off the Republicans point out that you're pushing it off until after the election.

Yeah, I would love to hav supported it for the whole year.

I wasn't in the room.

That decision was made.

I obviously would have no proble suspending for the whole year.

But, you know, I think it's kind of rich to hear Republicans make that claim when the reality is, at the same time, they're not railing against the actions of the Trump administration.

The real reason gas prices are, are really such a strain on people's budgets is because of what the Trump administration has done over, over in Iran and his inabilit to to get out of the situation that he got us into.

So, you know, fo for Republicans to claim that, you know [?]

on the gas taxes is what's really, creating hardship for families.

It's pretty rich, really is.

We were talking earlier is a 3900 page, budget bill once it was completed.

And it's all 11th, if not 12th and a half hour negotiations.

Isn't there a better way to come up with a budget?

I know every state.

It's the last thing that's generally on the agenda is the budget.

But it just seems to be that it all comes down to the last few minutes and then it's pushed through.

Yeah.

So, Jim, I'm not in leadership.

I would love to not have to go until five in the morning to to craft these budgets.

I wish we could get more things done.

You know, a lot of time though, you know, you have, after group that are involved in budgeting, Springfield, Des Moines, Washington, DC, you'll notice a lot of times we end up at these deadlines.

And I don't think it's so much, lack of sense of urgency within the legislators.

It's a collaborative process and the nature of the business of advocates, lobbyists, and sometimes even of leadership is, there's a procrastination that takes place that happens even around people in our daily lives.

Man I, I would love to be out at the end of March and have everything done and everything go forward.

But the reality is, you know, we we have a process.

We file legislation in January, then we pivot over to the budget in April.

And, and a lot of people really don't even come to the table and have discussions until we get back to those deadlines.

And it's for someone like me, it's very frustrating.

But, you know, once again, I really don't want to hear, Republican complaining too much about that because, you know, I, you know, it's it's always we could have gotten out 3, 4 or 5 hours earlier had they not also constantly wanted to caucus themselves, in order to go over things.

A lot of times they will call for caucus just to call for caucus to delay us another hour, hour so they can say, oh my God, we were here till five in the morning.

Well, if you hadn't called for a couple of caucuses, we would have gotten out of one in the morning.

And as someone my age good lord Jim, I'd lov to get to bed before 5:30 a.m.

One of the other issues that was down to the wire, of course, is the new Bears stadium.

And no agreement was reached.

It did pass the Senate after they made a number of changes, including a clause, having, basically what's called a sports stadium authority, which means that, cities would have owned the stadium and it would have bee pretty much more for the Bears if they go to Chicago or to Arlington Heights, that they wouldn't have to pay taxes.

It basically stalled.

There's no special session expected.

So basically, if you don't mind me using a metaphor, it's punted until November.

Dont let, you know, Jim, when we talk about the Bears, yes, it's true.

And I would have supporte that measure had it come over.

And it allowed municipalities of over 70,000 populations in Cook County to own a stadium [?]

authority and to negotiate.

But that would have not have solved this problem, there still would have been the issue of whether or not the state was going to pick up the burden on infrastructure.

And, and, you know, any conversation you're going to have, I'm not a big supporter of of whether it's a TIF district or property tax.

You know, I, I believe that these businesses need, need to, to pay taxes.

So I don't know that would have, I, I think it was a good fait effort to show the Bears that, look, there's not one legislator in Springfield that doesn't want the Chicago Bears to stay in Illinois.

However even with the megaprojects bill, I voted no on the megaprojects bill, in April because we start to pivot ove to a financial situations in May and I'm much more concerned about making sure that people have health care, that people are able to to feed their families and that the cost of living, housing, affordable housing.

And I simply was not going to allow the Bears or anybody else really to jump to the front of the line ahead of these groups, so... So do you think that the, the Hammond Bears are a reality, because it sounds like the Bear really want to make a decision this spring, if not early this summer.

And that's well before that special session would be held.

Yeah.

I don't know what the bears plans are.

I'm going to be honest with you.

I think the bears have done a horrible, horrible job of messaging from the beginning on this.

And I'm a legislator.

I'm only one of 78.

Do you know how many times the Bears and the organization has reached out to me on anything?

It's between 0 and 0.

I've had no conversations with the Bears or their lobbyists.

So, I mean, I would think if you really want to get something done, you would be reaching out to legislators.

And by the way, I'm not the only one that says that.

Look, we want them to stay here.

But but I've also got to make sure that it's a good deal for Illinois and a good deal for the 72nd district.

You know, the megaprojects, I just didn't see enough in there for to really benefit us.

And I'm going to be take a very skeptical eye towards anything that gives handouts to to billionaires.

I just I just, you know, it is when we see so many people hurting, not just i Illinois, but across the country we see a lot of stadium deal or, people, regret those deals and it does nothing but but put people into poverty around the stadium.

I'm not going to be able to support something like that, but I'm certainly willing to find a compromise there for sure.

Let's talk about education for a moment.

The budget fully funds K through 12 education, in Illinois.

And also you you passed a cell phone ban in schools, basically a bell-to-bell ban, as they call it, mirroring some of them, what some of the neighboring states of Illinois have already done.

Was that kind of a no brainer for you?

For me, it was a no brainer.

Not for my not for my daughter.

My daughter was a little upset of me for for a couple days.

I will say my daughter was a United Township.

They do a good job already.

I think you know, our real intent here, first off, I do think cell phones are a distraction in the classroom.

And I think giving, we are giving school boards the ability to, it still has a lot of local control, but giving them the ability to make these decision to take these cell phones out of kids hands.

I think the irrational part of this Jim is, is that sometimes parents, even parents that are opposed to this, they you know, we've had this, sadly, a rash, you know, school shootings for some years.

And people hear the good by calls and, and things like that.

And I think sometimes when you're, when you're talking about these things, you go to a kind of an irrational place.

But but the reality is, kids on their cell phones, being distracte while they're in the classrooms.

I mean, it does interrupt the learning process, and... And theres also stipulations, and I apologize, there's also stipulations in that bill that makes exceptions for, medical issues or if the cell phones are actually being used in the classroom.

So it's not like a total ban, but but it's pretty much like I said, a bell-to-bell ban in some ways.

Yeah.

It's a it's a better bill than it was a year ago.

And that's really what we strive to do.

Right?

Last year it was proposed.

It didn't get through.

And this year we we brought i through.

You know, legislation, it's about, someone has an idea, they file legislation.

Everybody I mean, everybody, all the stakeholders come to the table, you collaborate, and then you get to a place like this.

And I think we go to the best place at the end.

Much better place than we were a year ago.

And as you said, when it comes to the federal budget, Illinois is trying to prepar for a loss of federal funding.

That's that' the Democratic mantra right now.

And one of the things that was created is what's called the FRESH program, as you well know, Families Receiving Emergency Support for Hunger is what it stands for.

And people who have lost or seen their SNAP benefits reduced would be eligible for a one time $400 payment.

This is about a $70 million program and this is something you supported?

I did and you know, to be, you know, and I want to give credi to our leadership in the House and the Senate and the governor's office.

Last year, we gave the governor, $100 million into what we call a bridge fund.

And it was in lieu of we knew there were going to be some catastrophic, results from what the Trump administration was doing.

So, so the food insecurity wa one of the things we looked at and setting aside that $100 million allowed this year now, the governor to take 70 million of that and make sure that we had people that weren't losing their access to food, to the benefits, the FRESH program.

It not only does the things you talk about, it also creates, an avenue to help people get signed back up for the benefits so the lapse doesn't occur for them.

I, you know, I don't think anybody wants wants people, Republican or Democrat, wants, want families and children starving.

So we were able to use a lot of that funding.

Also, if you're looking, there's a lot of afterschool or funding programs, even for food through our school districts here during the summer.

We want to make sure our kids aren't starving and families are starving.

And we were very we had the foresight to to set that money aside a year ago.

Going from food to housing, Illinois homeowners can now opt into a payment plan optio instead of losing their homes.

As you well know, the the state has been out of compliance, what is it for the last three maybe four years, of a Supreme Court decision.

Because, the court said that local taxing bodies that were seizing properties were delinquent, taxes were owed, was simply unconstitutional.

This is a new program.

And do you think it's going to be an effective program that will still allow people who are delinquent in their taxes to not have their homes taken away from them?

I do I think, I think, I really do.

I think it's gonna be very helpful.

I think we're going to see, it's going to help a lot of families, a lot of people.

I think, the biggest part, the hardest part [?]

this, we got to make sure we message and let people know that advocates are out there letting [?]

out there.

Because a lot of times people get underwater and they just feel like it's over.

But this is actually an opportunity.

They get a second chance.

And, you know, als looking at the program that that allows them to access, you know, some of the equity before there are certain things.

Housing was something that, members of our caucus were laser focused on.

We want to keep people in their homes.

I talked earlier about about food security.

We I really, you know, Jim, as I said at the top of this, I am I am proud of the work we did in Illinois.

It's not a sexy budget.

It's not a [?]

budget.

But but I think we really, really looked at people who were at those most vulnerable places, and we figured out how we were going to protect them [?].

And I think we, we've accomplished that.

I'm going to talk high tech for a second.

Because the Power Act also passed.

I'm sorry, did not pass.

It would have reined in data centers.

We're seeing a lot of states facing, data center constructions, and they were so welcomed maybe, 2 or 3 years ago.

And now there' this real pushback against them.

Are you happy with the way Illinois is dealing with the potential of new data centers coming to the state?

I'm happ with the fact that we're having a very deliberative conversation about this.

You know, the data centers will tell you that they pay a very, very large portion of property taxes.

Those on the other side will tell you that, however, it's not worth it because of the drain on resources that they bring.

What really, the conversation at the end was the governor had, a moratorium.

You know, first off, we've got to defin whether or not data centers are are for, for different, you know, are good for your district or they're not.

But at the end of the day, what it really boiled down to, Jim, was the question of no matter what we do here in Illinois, there's going to be project labor agreements that are going to be part of that.

It does create jobs, but these are going to be union jobs.

I'm neve I will never, ever, ever support data centers or any other project coming in to Illinois or, in particular in our district that doesn't suppor those project labor agreements and support workers.

We're not going to be bringing in fly by night operations, fly by night workers from out of state to come here and do substandard work in these communities.

And this was a conversation that's going to be take place a whole lot more, probably over the next year, surrounding data centers.

Well, and on the other hand the artificial intelligence bill overwhelmingly passed, both houses and is and is heading to, the governor, requiring third party safety protocols, studie and audits of big AI companies.

None of the AI companies also supported that.

Yeah, I think we all agreed tha we needed guardrails in place.

I remember last year we were talking about, AI being used in mental health evaluations.

And I'm like, we jus we absolutely cannot have this.

They're just AI.

There are times it works.

There are times it doesn't.

And even the AI companies understand that, that, you have to have the guardrails up there.

They understand that.

We understand that.

We gotta make sure our people are protected, but in particular, our children are protected, especially in these times when people are so, really on tilt right now with everything going on in our world, some days it feels like the world's on fire.

The issue of mental health is so, so important to you.

And you're hoping that perhaps a new bill could as you, as you have told me, could be a game changer.

Yeah.

Yeah, it could be.

It's, I've been asking for appropriations for the Effective School Solutions program.

The unfortunate thing is we look at schools, even schools around here will have one counselor for 650 students.

So last year, I was able to get legislation passed that that eliminated for three years the, that the content task that was proving to be very burdensome, even for those with master's degrees to get schoo social workers into our pipeline to serve and support for our school counselors.

So we are seeing a change in that we're getting more help there.

And then on top of that, I introduced this Effective School Solutions into Rock Island and East Moline schools in Oswego.

And then this year I went back and asked leadership for more funding.

So we expand that program even further, because I think we're goin to find by the time we're done, hopefully in the next 4 or 5 years, much like the Parent Mentor program, which I've championed for for a number of years, that we're going to see it, profoundly change, the environment, our schools, and put our kid in the best position to succeed.

If they don't have their mental health in their family, they don't have mental support at home.

Obviously they're no going to be able to, to succeed.

And that's our job to see that they live the best life possible.

Our thanks to Illinois Democratic State Representative Gregg Johnson.

Summertime is starting to go into full swing with a lot of great ideas for you, your friends and your family.

So here's a look at a few of the events you might consider thanks to Visit Quad Cities.

[soft music] Check out the things to do this week in the Quad Cities.

Start your week off by watching KPop Demon Hunters on the roof of The Last Picture House.

Then head to the ballpark to see our Quad Cities River Bandits take on the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers.

Next, head to Niabi Zoo because they are staying open late on the third Thursday of each month.

Next The Project of the Quad Cities and the Quad Cities River bandits invite yo to Pride Night at the ballpark.

Finally, enjoy products that are homegrown and handmade at the Q Farmers Market in Rock Island.

For more events like these, check out our events calendar at VisitQuadCities.com [music ends] Mo Carter has been busy performing on stages throughout the cities over the past few weeks.

She says, this time of year, patio gigs season, is her favorite.

The self-styled charismatic troubadour visited us at Moline's Black Box Theater a few months ago to perform one of her originals.

So, here's Mo Carter with Hardware Store Man.

[electric guitar strumming] Song, nail, and hammer a dreamer all the time So much of my vision wrapped around the family vine We belong to a time and place, and you are magic in a rustic space A hundred years and 40,000 days We cannot measure the weight of this place.

Between the here and Union Boulevard, time goes fast and slow when youre, working hard.

When you're a daughter of a hardware store man Fifth generation, were you part of the plan?

[electric guitar strumming] An old brick building displaying my name Fades in time, slowly moves out of frame Things in life open, close and bend, the final chapter is only one bookend I know sometimes there was just too much on your plate You never said a word You never complained When youre a daughter of a hardware store man Fifth generation Were you proud of the plan?

When youre a daughter of a hardware store man Ever proud to know this was my homeland.

[electric guitar strumming] [strumming ends] Mo Carter with Hardware Store Man, performed at the Black Box Theater in downtown Moline.

And you can catch Mo Carter at Jimmy O's Saloon on Davenport's Telegraph Road.

That's June 18th and wide Rive Winery in LeClaire on the 25th.

We're celebrating America 250 with an ongoing initiative that looks at what some of ou friends and neighbors have done, whether it be on the job or in their spare time.

For the past year, we've asked people about their Civic Spark, wh they contribute to the cities.

So we posed that question to the head of the East Moline Main Street Association, Patricia Hanson.

What is your Civic Spark?

[soft music] I thin as we're aging as a community.

Also, for me it's about what's my legacy?

The first part of my career with East Moline Main Street, I was an unpaid volunteer.

So I have a lot of volunteer hours, but it's for me, it's just a passion project.

I'm learning grant writing.

I'm meeting community members.

I'm helping vendors get into brick and mortars.

So for me, it's about just giving back and being able to look in the mirror at the end of the day and know you've contributed something.

[music ends] Our thanks to Patricia Hanson, president of the East Moline Main Street Association.

By the way, East Moline will host its 68th annual 4th of July parade as part of its Independence Day weekend activities.

On the air, on the radio, on the web and on your mobile device plus streaming on your computer, thanks for taking some time to join us as we talk about the issues on The Cities.

[lively music] [music ends]