Burning the midnight oil to reach a multi-billion dollar budget agreement.

What did Illinois lawmakers do this week and how will it impact us in the city's.

The Illinois legislative session was supposed to end last week.

It didn't.

Once again, the state budget was the last major piece of legislation considered by lawmakers in Springfield.

Even though the governor proposed his $53 billion budget in February.

The state Senate spent the Memorial Day weekend hammering out an agreement that was finally approved on Sunday.

Members of the House are still debating late into Tuesday night before also agreeing to it on Wednesday morning.

So what does the spending plan include and what other budget measures highlight the 2024 spring session of the Illinois legislature?

Joining us to talk about this is State Senator Mike Halpin, Democrat of Rock Island.

It took months to come up with this budget.

I mean, the governor basically proposed it back in February, but that's the way the legislature always is.

It is like the last thing on the plate.

So people shouldn't be surprised that it's 11th hour, if not 11th and three quarter hour deal making and approval.

No, not at all.

So what we like to do is make sure to wait for the April forecasting of revenue and and costs.

So that we have the most up to date information before we start the the budget year of July 1st.

So I don't think it's abnormal at all to to take that information and pass the budget in May.

Republicans, of course, are underscoring the fact that it is a larger budget.

It is.

Democrats are unrestrained spenders right now.

It is a larger budget.

Does it have to be?

I would say generally, yes.

I mean, we're looking at I think the number was 1.6% increase from last year.

You look at the state of Texas, which is hardly a liberal bastion.

You know, they raised their budget 1.1% and they're at a $144 billion or 4800 per resident.

We're at 4100 per resident.

Our budget is not out of line with other big states.

But, you know, the Republicans in the minority are going to fixate on their talking points.

I just don't think that's a relevant thing.

The important thing is what does the budget do?

What kind of services does it continue to provide that people want?

And we're making sure that we're spending our money in ways that are going to help the people in Illinois.

And collecting the money in different ways.

And one of the things that I noticed that's that's made the headlines, of course, is, is the gambling across the state and a higher taxation, especially with sports betting and other things.

Why do you think that was significantly important?

One, because we look at other states that are taxing those sportsbooks, especially the big ones like DraftKings and FanDuel.

You know, those folks are not necessarily based here in Illinois, but they're raking in enormous profits from the people of the state.

And so with these increases, it allows us to invest more in the state, in our vertical capital and our other programs, such as the tax credits that we're putting out there.

I really think it'll be comparable to what other states are doing across the country.

And there's also an increased tax and correct me if I'm wrong on those, like those gambling slot machines that are like at bars and and that money goes into the state coffers.

But those type of machines, those type of gambling machines, I believe, are not allowed in Chicago.

That's correct.

So it's almost like the rest of the state is going to be collecting more money from this revenue.

And does it all go to Chicago?

You know, it doesn't.

You heard that criticism.

Well, I've made that criticism before.

And certain programs we do have to to make sure that places like Rock Island County and elsewhere in western Illinois are getting their fair share of those programs.

And in my my my speech on the budget, I raised that point.

And we're going to be vigilant and trying to make sure to do that.

When it comes to capital projects, though, which is what a lot of these gaming taxes go to fund, those are generally fairly well distributed.

And both myself and even the Republicans in the area are fighting to make sure that those road projects and other projects take place here.

There is a real question about, you know, the government making money off of sin taxes, so to speak.

I mean, gambling, liquor, now cannabis as well.

But that really is a huge income generator now in the state of Illinois.

It absolutely is.

And it's, you know, the people that are making those choices to to use a dollar cannabis to partake in sports betting.

You know, this was a market that was demanded by a lot of people here in the state.

And now that they have that benefit, there is a responsibility to help pay for other programs with those taxes.

But when you talk about the liquor, oftentimes in cannabis, there's that local connection.

When you're talking about the sports gambling, as you said, FanDuel and and things along that.

They're very much operated outside of the state of Illinois.

They are.

And we were very careful in the structure to make sure that, you know, local sportsbooks like here at the local casino that don't have as high revenue as some of the national operators, they have a lower tax rate.

So we're protecting our local establishments and making sure that they're not paying more disproportionately and really reserving the highest rate for those national groups that are bringing in the most money.

So we're talking about a basically a $53 billion budget.

It was 3400 pages.

Like you said, a 1.6% increase.

What do we get out of that money?

A couple of things.

So one thing is the the child tax credit, which was extremely successful on the federal level, on keeping kids out of poverty.

We've got a program that in the first year puts $50 million into that tax credit program.

Next year it will be $100 million.

And that's, you know, real money to kids here in the Quad Cities and their families.

We've got increased program for youth employment and afterschool programs.

We've got increased funding for rental assistance, home for first time homebuyers.

We've got an increase to the map grant for higher education so that low and moderate income students can go to college.

And actually, we're maintaining that point where if you're eligible for a map, you can basically go to any community college for free.

And about 50% of the students that are eligible for a map can attend a four year university for free.

And during, you know, during the pandemic and before that, some would say during the Rauner years were when we saw the map grant really disappear.

Yeah.

It really has left an impact for college students and potential college students as well.

Yeah, there was a time when out of state universities were offering that basically the same scholarship or grant that you would have gotten through a map to go to places like Iowa or Iowa State or Missouri.

And we're still feeling that impact because once that student leaves, they're gone for four years.

Right, Exactly.

But since then, we've renewed that investment with a passion.

We have the largest map investment we've had ever.

I would have you know, personally, I would have liked to see overall increases to our university operating funds.

I mentioned that on the floor during the budget debate.

We aren't doing enough on overall operations and I will hope that we revisit that issue in next year's budget.

Because you take a look at Western Illinois University in particular, and you are seeing a bit of a stabilization as far as enrollment is concerned.

And we talk about the MAP grants, but when we're talking about public university and private as well, it's kind of a turn away from either higher education or brick and mortar education.

I mean, is that a real concern for the legislature?

It is.

We're seeing a larger proportion of nontraditional students, first of all.

And so their later in their in their careers or or later out of high school.

At the same time, if they're working a job, they're much more, you know, land bound and that don't necessarily have the ability to travel to McComb or Charleston to go to a regional university.

At the same time, we're seeing actual numbers of high school students and high school just high school students altogether dropping.

We have a just a lower population.

And so it's tougher for universities to recruit.

So we need to be investing as much as we can in those universities so they can offer a variety of programs, whether that's, you know, partially online or up here at the Quad Cities campus versus the McComb campus for Western.

You know, these are things that strategically I think they have to take into consideration.

And it's been a real point of pride is, especially among Democrats over the last two years, is the funding for K through 12 education and to improve the entire school system, the education system in Illinois.

That was a major part of this budget as well.

It was we've continued on our commitment to put $350 million over and above every every year to where I think our total investment now is $8.6 billion under that under that formula.

And what we've seen just here in the 36 districts that I represent are any number of schools are gone, had gone from 40% or 45% funding.

They're up into those 60, 65, 70% funding range.

With the theory that that also reduces property taxes in the future.

Yes, we have the school districts have the option to hold the line and even reduce.

And we do have a program that incentivizes them to lower their property tax in exchange for additional state money.

I want to put more money into that program because there's more schools that are applying for it than we have money to to fund it.

But overall, I think we've seen school districts not need to, you know, raise property taxes to the max every chance they get.

Well, and let's be honest, that's that was part of the governor's plan when he wanted to take a more progressive approach towards taxation as far as the income tax is concerned is to get it off of property tax, which is considered property and sales tax, more of a regressive tax than the income tax.

Do you think that's going to be revisited even though voters were very strongly against it?

I think it's highly unlikely that we'll revisit that.

I think the voters spoke.

It's something that I'm certainly personally supportive of.

I voted to get it on the ballot, and I think that would go a long way to making sure that the folks at the top of the income graph are paying their fair share.

But the people have spoken, and I think we're going to have to do our best with with what we have and try to try to provide the best budgets for the people that we can.

One of the things about the budget, that's that's not the sexy thing.

It's not a cool program or anything.

But the largest single expense in the budget is $10 billion mandatory payment towards the state's underfunded public employee pension system.

It's accounting for nearly one fifth of the total state spending, but it also was one of the most critical needs for the state over the last five years.

This underfunding was really impacting the bond service as well as anything else involving funding of state government programs.

Yeah, and that 10 million sorry, $10 billion number is certainly a large one.

But the the reforms back in 2011 in this sense are working that that percentage is stabilizing.

And as we get closer to the end of the 2045 pension ramp, we're on it.

We're on a path that that cost curve has bent downward for.

The first time, for the first.

Time in a long time.

We haven't skipped a payment since I've been in the General Assembly.

I don't plan on skipping any down in the future.

We've actually met our responsibilities there.

If you had told me when I first started as a representative seven years ago, eight years ago, that we'd be in this position today with our pensions, I probably would have laughed you out of the room.

Well, in seven, eight years ago, I mean, this was like the headline.

It was was the problems with this.

So, I mean, do you see we've talked about the economy and how that has an impact on tax collection as well as spending.

And the economy is coming back, but it's still so fragile.

But Illinois's growth is so dependent on it.

When you see the projections from from April, I mean, is it a rosier picture than perhaps we first thought.

For for this fiscal year?

I think yes.

I think the governor and the agencies that are in charge of getting those estimates were were fairly conservative, which is a good thing.

It's better to to be conservative on your estimate and then have have be pleasantly surprised when when you have more to work with.

And I think we do have to be prepared for what I would say are tighter budgets, not disastrous budgets, but more regular growth without a lot of additional federal revenue coming in.

We just have to be careful and be as responsible as we can just to take things as they come.

The budget, of course, is a reinvestment in a lot of Democratic priorities.

And one of the biggest for the governor is this smart Start Illinois program with the with the plan to ramp up for universal preschool, laying by 2027 is the year that I've got.

Is this something that you fully support?

I do.

And I'm glad we invested in the program.

And we actually have several local agencies that are involved, heavily involved in that, in that program and in the new Department of Early Childhood, which we created as part of this year's budget to try to bring all those early childhood services and licensing into one department that can more ably administer those programs.

So I'm very excited about that.

It's certainly an ambitious timeline and I hope we're able to do it within that amount of time.

But if we don't set ambitious goals, then we're not doing our job.

But preschool and daycare have been major issues for families, as you well know, and especially when we're coming out of the pandemic as well.

And it impacts people's employability.

It impacts the economy in that way, as well as the spending on daycare that impacts family budgets as well.

Are we seeing an improvement here?

Because I know Western Illinois University also very active in trying to get more preschool and daycare providers trained and out there to help these families.

I think we are seeing an improvement, but it's something that takes time.

When you're talking about getting people educated, trained and licensed to do this work, you can't just snap your fingers and make it happen.

So people are moving through the pipeline.

We I think we were aware of this upcoming problem and aware of what we wanted to get to even during COVID.

And so we've tried to be as best prepared as we can, but it just simply takes time to move people through that system.

One thing I'm proud of is that we are making those resource and invest investments to make sure that, you know, the folks that want to go through that process are able to complete it.

Some of the most controversial issues that that were tackled by the legislature a while was the safety program, which really looked at the judicial system in many ways.

And then the the laws on automatic weaponry and gun laws, which is now coursing through the court system as you said, as it should.

And then now Illinois really is doing a lot, the Democratic majority, to protect abortion rights and abortion providers.

And one of the things that was passed, I believe, was basically that Illinois will not partake in other states trying to determine if a person from that state comes to Illinois for abortion services.

I think almost.

How do you describe it?

Is essentially it protects folks that come to Illinois looking for those options from from having the state cooperate with it with an investigation.

When it's.

Investigation.

Thank you.

Yeah, they are home state, so to speak, correct?

Yeah.

When surrounding states are, you know, being punitive against women and passing these draconian laws.

All we're saying in Illinois is that we as a state do not have to cooperate when that procedure is is a lawful procedure in the state of Illinois.

Now, you take a look at the state of Illinois, bordered by, of course, Iowa, which is which is creating more abortion restrictions.

And then in the southern part of Illinois, bordering a lot of states that are southern states that have been doing it as well.

It's becoming because of the elimination of Roe, it is really becoming a patchwork of states.

This can't lead.

Well, one would think.

You know, I wouldn't think so, especially because in many of these states, they're directly counteracting the will of the people.

You know, when when reasonable people are given an opportunity on a statewide basis to vote on some of these policies, they vote for very different policies.

Very policies are very consistent with what Roe v Wade stood for.

But what we're seeing is states going way too far on the other direction to restrict what the voters really want.

And so although I'd like to see, you know, referenda in some of these other states to get them back to, you know, middle of the road position, we aren't seeing that.

And it's going to take, I think, several election cycles to get people to understand that this is where where the country is.

Do you think that Illinois is the middle road or is it.

Or is it a little more liberal than it should be?

I think we've done everything I'm.

Asking a Democrat.

I understand we've.

Done everything we can to to basically rectify Roe.

And that's when I go knocking on doors, doors door to door during during a campaign or over the past year.

That's where people say that they are.

One of the other issues, of course, is the grocery tax, the 1% grocery tax, and that seem to be very unpopular.

It is very unpopular in municipalities because a great deal of their income comes from that.

You address that in this session as well.

We did.

So it had been on the books as a as a state grocery tax, but the state never collected any of the money.

And so with the governor and us in the legislature said is, well, let's take that off of the state's books and let the local governments decide and the local people decide whether that's something that they want.

And so that's the option that we've given to local municipalities now.

But in so many different ways that 1% tax gave cover to municipalities, as you well know.

I mean, as long as it was collected by the state, in the state was to blame.

And so you can picture Moline putting that as a referendum and it's not passing.

Sure.

But but what we have seen in the past also is the local governments blame the state for their high property taxes when the state doesn't collect a penny in property tax either.

I think this is probably a good balance to allow municipalities to continue to have revenue and give them option options for more revenue to try to fund their local priorities without having to always come back to the state and be reliant on us every year to try to fund their needs.

There is at this point that I always ask you, the simple question is you were you were in the legislature since January.

What was the most significant bill that you really supported that you think passed through?

So I think it would be the the Illinois Veterans grants for higher education.

It's a program that would reimburse universities for recruiting veterans into their programs.

And it hadn't been funded in, I guess, almost a decade, although we weren't able to get full funding under that.

We did get $6 million into the program, which would in particular help Western Illinois University because of their great work that they do with veterans.

And I think although that didn't pass as a standalone bill, it was part of the budget and something I'm very proud of.

Well, and I think of the fact that you being a protege of Lane Evans and veterans issues was such a huge issue for the former congressman.

I mean, is it almost like a part of his legacy that that that this is a part of the budget bill?

It is for for me, when I started to work for Lane, I wasn't as familiar with veterans issues.

I hadn't served.

I had an uncle that had served in the Vietnam era in the Navy, but I didn't have a familiarity with it.

But as you travel around with with Lane, you meet folks that had served and are continuing to mentor others that are that are serving as they come through the armed forces.

It just reinforces how important it is that we honor that service by not just speaking the words, but doing the deeds and trying to repay the debt that they've given us.

When you look back, as you said, over the last seven, eight years, as a state lawmaker in Illinois, and, you know, the dire financial situation that the state has been and then the rocky road that was occurring when we had Democratic majorities in the legislature and a Republican governor.

How do you see the state right now?

Because it seems to be on a better financial footing.

But everything is dependent on the economy and whatever happens in the future.

I mean, overall, has the legislature done what it's supposed to do?

I think it has.

And I think we're on a much better financial path.

We were when I first started, we were absolutely low and we had, you know, $17 billion in unpaid bills.

And as I mentioned earlier, I never really dreamed that we'd be in the position we are today.

Having navigated that, having navigated a pandemic, we are really starting to invest in those areas that are seeing returns.

K-12 education, making sure funding our pension payments.

Hopefully next year with the higher education formula, the increase increase that we are, we are on a good path.

But we're like so many other states, we are dependent on the economy and is important that we try to do everything we can to keep that economy growing, growing without a bubble that can possibly burst and just try to be steady, steady growth, increase that certainty for people here in the state.

And of course, we have seen a decrease in federal funding because of the post pandemic.

I mean, that was a key for budgeting for Illinois as well.

It was.

And we made some very responsible decisions in Illinois not to use that federal money for for one time purposes.

The biggest problem that we had seen is that some of that federal money was earmarked for federal program purposes.

And with that money expiring, we had a lot of requests for the state to then pick up the cost.

Of.

Rams, even though we hadn't initiated those programs.

And so we had some difficult choices to make.

But we did continue, I think, some of the best programs out there, and it's my hope that I'll be able to restart some of some of the other ones that weren't able to get that funding this year in next year's budget.

Our thanks to State Senator Mike Halpin, Democrat of Rock Island Electric.

Larry has been part of the city's music scene for decades, a lover of blues and country music.

We caught up with him at Molines Black Box Theater, where he played one of his originals.

Here's Electric Larry with I'm Still Here Hurting You.

And I'm sick of hurting.

No, you want sin 30?

No, You want sin.

You don't know what to do.

I'm looking to do what?

I'm sitting here looking at the wrong wants and wondering where it wants you.

Wishing you were going, wanting you, wishing you were gone Luncheon wondering what answer Why am you watching my hold?

You want it?

You don't know what to do.

Well, my darling, I know, I know you won't, darling.

I know.

I know you well.

But, darling, I can't go back to.

I'm hurting.

You know, you aren't sinking Looking at you want.

Well, I'm sitting here wishing you were.

I'm sure.

Why would you, darling?

I know I love you.

I'm hurt, darling.

Jekyll, don't you, darling?

I know, I know.

You're darn electric, Larry with I'm still here hurting.

Performed at Molinos Black Box theater on the air, on the radio, on the web, on your mobile device, and streaming on your computer.

Thanks for taking some time to join us as we talk about the issues of the city's.