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Illinois Democrats are starting the process of creating a budget.

At a time when Republicans in Washington may throw more responsibility to the state's.

What does that mean for Illinois lawmakers and residents as well?

In the city's.

We'll.

Right now, the Trump administration is dramatically changing the face of the federal government.

But from education to health care to various safety nets, Washington may be cutting programs with the intent of state government picking up the pieces.

No one is quite sure how this will pan out quite yet, but it is unfolding as lawmakers are meeting in Springfield to finish work on the 2025 session and start the final work on a new multi-billion dollar budget.

Democratic State Representative Greg Johnson of East Moline joined us to talk about the dollars and cents of what lies ahead.

representative, tell me a little bit about the state budget right now.

The governor's proposing $55.2 billion.

Republicans are saying it's once again tax and spend.

They've been you know, they've been saying this for the last five years.

We've had six balanced budgets.

I am a I would say I am a fiscal conservative.

I do know that, I think I was on the show last year, and I know we talked about how, when they come out with early revenues and budget expectations, it's always pessimistic, which I think is a good thing.

Early out, they came out with about a $3.12 billion deficit.

They then readjusted that back anywhere between one and a half to 2 million.

And now we're looking at a revenue, increase about $470 million coming in.

So but even by my math, we're still looking at about a billion short.

And, for me, I did have some issues at the end of last year.

I wanted to make sure that we continue to make good decisions.

You know, we have to look at the history of Illinois.

We had 20, 30 years of really bad decisions made by multiple governors and kicking the can down the road.

The pension can in particular.

You know, we got in this place by funding government, by not paying the pension fund, but maybe twice in 40 years.

And that's too many governors.

Republican and Democrat.

So when I and I worked in state government, Jim, when I remember under the, the, Quinn and and Rauner years, at the end when we would run out of toilet paper and have to trade with the facility four hours away.

I was sitting on my dock sometimes till 10 or 11:00 at night.

So I really lean on the legislators that I work with who were here during those years.

I really, while I respect all of my colleagues, I make sure that I really listen to those that were there prior to 2014, 2012 because we've we've had a lot of federal funding.

We've had a lot of surplus money to really help us along the way as well.

We have made good decisions.

We've made our we're I think we're over $2.5 billion now into our rainy day fund.

We're continuing to pay it on pension fund.

But, you know, my concern was at the end of last year was, it's easy once you make one bad year of financial decisions, it becomes easier to do it the next year.

So, we are not out of the woods.

You can't undo 30, 40 years of bad decisions in just six years.

So we can we we're going to have to look for ways to be efficient with how we're spending taxpayer dollars.

We're gonna have to look for what works.

What doesn't work.

For me, I'm a little fortunate in that my, the things that I've always really valued were we're a big part of the governor's budget address at funding.

Education at all levels is huge for me.

Always has been.

The early education, the early childhood education is this pilot program is important to me, funding, making sure we continue to fund math grants.

You know, I remember what it was like talking to parents during those three years.

We didn't find them during the round of years.

It was catastrophic.

We had a serious brain drain.

And and also, continuing to fund health care, which for me in particular, means focusing on the mental health needs that we have.

We need to make sure that we are, ensuring that all of our citizens have access to the health care and the mental health needs they have.

I have a bill, that brings, I had last year.

I got over on the House side.

We didn't get to the Senate side.

We're reintroducing it to bring more school social workers in to the network to help our kids.

Even now, if you go into our schools, you will see, it's sometimes it's one counselor for 6 or 700 kids.

We're just not doing enough.

It's just not good enough.

We're very fortunate in our area because we have groups like fosters Voice and The Gray Matters.

The two incredible work with our kids.

Not every place in Illinois has these groups, so making sure that every kid has access is important to me.

And I think the governor's priorities align with mine in a lot of areas.

I want to come back to the state budget, but to do that, I have to go to the federal budget first.

What we're seeing right now is a dismantling in many different ways of the federal government.

What's your first what is your reaction?

Because, you know, of state workers that are, I'm sorry, federal workers who live in the state who are worried day by day in and day out right now?

Yeah.

You know, I, I'm thankful that I'm in Springfield, where I feel like we are very worker friendly and I think we're making a lot of really sound decisions.

When I see what's going on on the federal level, it does break my heart.

I think there's a lot of really haphazard decisions that are being made, and some workers are being reinstated now through the courts.

It's amazing to me that workers have to go to the courts in order to protect their rights to go to work.

You I think you can always argue.

I could probably go through I worked in corrections for three decades.

I could try to go to the state budget and find inefficiencies.

I could find things that maybe we could do without.

But I think when you bring, someone like an Elon Musk in from the private sector and you allow them, give them a scalpel and you allow them to start attacking agencies, it's very, very dangerous.

And I just don't understand what the end, what the end goal is here for what they're doing.

And it's affecting real people.

You know, in particular it's affecting veterans.

When you look at the cuts to, the D program, you know, these are these are disproportionately affect veterans, our lower income people.

You know, but these are real jobs.

And the, the the chaos is real.

So, so it's really disheartening to see from, from a, from a perspective, I talked to some taxpayers who who welcome this, who believe it's a jolt in the government.

The private sector is seeing jolts.

People have been laid off.

They find new jobs.

You become leaner, meaner, perhaps, you become better.

And that perhaps it's time for government to have that as well.

I don't know how anyone can responsibly say you can make those decisions over a week or two.

You know, I mean, the administration's only been in, I believe, six weeks, and we're laying off thousands.

I mean, we're cutting the education department.

We've eliminated about 80,000 jobs in the VA. You cannot possibly tell me that's not going to impact the care that our veterans are receiving.

I have no problem with them going through line by line, department by department.

But but bringing in people who are experienced and how government works.

I don't think you can bring in all outsiders and having these conversations.

I don't think that's been done, Jim.

I think they have just gone in and just recklessly just started cutting things that they didn't think they needed.

So then it goes back to the state budget.

It's a belief that if these federal services are all going to be cut, states are going to have to fill in.

On the other hand, the state wouldn't get more money necessarily from the federal government to do that.

Is that playing a factor when it comes to how the fiscal year budget is being developed right now?

It's hard to have that conversation right now, because while we're having those conversations, until we really know what's going to be on the federal level, look at Medicaid.

We know if Medicaid cuts come as they could, it could be absolutely.

It could be catastrophic.

I have not even got the number of those residents that would be affected in my district.

A lot of low a lot of low income, residents, a lot of children, not having those numbers makes it really hard to not know.

Same with our infrastructure.

Projects don't really cut funding.

We have a lot of infrastructure, federal infrastructure dollars coming in.

If that happens to be cut, how is that going to impact us?

You really don't know how you're going to have how you're going to have to react until you actually know what you're dealing with.

And I think there's a little bit of frustration there as well, because we're going to have to react to whatever happens anyway.

And how will you react if a budget's already put in place?

We're going to have to see cuts in services in other areas.

I hate to say that, but we would also we would have to do the same thing.

We'd have to look at where our efficiencies exist and where where are the inefficiencies.

We would have to take an even closer look at government.

I mean, I think we're, force now in order to be responsible.

I think we're doing a much better job, but we're gonna have to drill down even further into just what we're going to have to do.

I know the governor has talked about consolidating school districts.

That's where I was going to go.

Now, let's talk about, you know, first of all, I want to make sure that the parents and the students are heard from.

But but there's one over 860 school districts, I think I think here in the 160 current district.

I think that we're going to have to see where that would work and where that wouldn't when you have to look at canceling services across the board and a whole lot of a lot of areas.

The governor's not talking about consolidating townships.

What townships, you know, the size of townships.

There's several different bills out there that are talking about that.

So I think the governor is looking at ways to to streamline government and to make government run more efficient and get it leaner.

It's just where do we, you know, right now we're in that sweet spot between where we're getting our bills out.

We're looking at legislation, and then we pivot over to the budget side.

Pretty much when we get into April in May is when we really.

So we're kind of in that in-between time right now.

But those are conversations.

And maybe by then we have a better chance of just what the federal government's intentions are, what dollars are being cut or not cut, and just where we're going to go.

Talk about higher education.

As you know, Western Illinois University has gone through some dramatic cuts and paring back at both the Macomb and the Quad City campus.

First off, are you fearful about how that will impact, the universities?

And then on the second hand, how can we strengthen the four year institutions throughout Illinois?

We have to continue.

You know, I think last year we funded we increased funding by 2%.

I think this year it was closer to three.

I still think we need to do better.

You know, I will tell you, as far as the for you, I'm very concerned about Western in particular.

We're sitting here, you know, near Western University campus, with with the launch of the Quad Food Manufacturing Institute, the partnership with Iowa State University, Illinois.

I think there's some promising future us where and we're working with partners to do a lot of workforce development to address a lot of the jobs for those.

I think Western is doing a good, pretty good job right now in identifying where those needs are going to be in our community, how we can kind of grow our own, health care professionals, teachers, you name it.

Working with John Deere and here businesses here in the, the private sector.

But clearly there are challenges.

There are, I know Senator Howe and I have a couple bills that are hoping to address, one where we're working to give them a short, short term loan from the Western Illinois, Foundation.

We're looking at another standalone bill.

We don't feel that, that our university has gotten a fair shake.

And when that comes out, you know, me personally, I'm a 77 district representative.

I want to make sure Western Illinois University gets a fair shake.

So I'm going to make sure that I fight for the funding that they need.

But those conversations are going to be ongoing.

This is a tough time right now, for higher education.

But we can't we can't stop investing in it.

We have to figure out a way to, to invest.

And they, also have to make sure that they're, using that money in the proper ways and investing in the right programs.

It was a strong belief to grow Western's, Quad City campus, as you well know.

I mean, it just started as a seed, basically from a company actually started before that.

But you know what I'm talking about the bill.

There were several phases to the project.

The old IBM building, that was over by John Deere Road.

And it's grown into this, a multi, building, campus.

But it didn't grow to what they thought it would.

And I think some people that are looking at the money that was spent in order to create the Quad City campus are wondering if it was a good investment.

So I know that they temporarily removed a lot of that long term phase.

I think phase 3 or 4.

Three.

Right.

I will tell you that I have not given up on that.

I'm not someone who gives up.

I think, there's still that possibility to grow this campus.

It's long term.

When I look at, you know, I think the real situation we're looking at, I think we can grow.

We're still fighting very hard for the Amtrak funding.

I still think if we can get that in here, of something, some promise to us for over a decade.

And if we can grow this region, there's a lot of things that we have to do in our legislature to make this even more appealing.

But this is the best place in the, in the, in the country, as far as I'm concerned, to raise a family.

I said my whole life here.

So we're just going to have to continue to really drill down.

We have to create more affordable housing, housing at all levels.

We have to, as I said earlier, invest in education.

I'm not giving up on those long term plans for Western.

When I envision, Western Illinois University in this area, I envision it that larger plan.

I just can't give up on that idea.

I can't you are, of course, a Quad City native.

You love this area.

I do.

You see both sides of the river and you see what's going on in Iowa when it comes to, school choice, voucher programs, you see what's going on as far as transgender rights and LGBTQ issues.

And, and then you take a look at what Illinois offers.

What does that make you think?

I'm very active on the Iowa side.

I have a lot of friends over there, a lot of family.

And when I see the attacks on the transgender community, I see it in the attacks on workers rights, the decline, the reduction in unemployment benefits.

And I see all of the things they're doing over there, book banning, basically.

And it seems like it's just the exact opposite of what we're doing.

It's hard to believe that all I have to do is look out my my window across the river.

And it's a completely different universe, completely different reality.

I know, the disinvestment in public education.

I just, I know a lot of people on the Iowa side when I talk about affordable housing.

Jim, I know a lot of people that want to come over here.

They feel like Illinois is a safe place.

Women, obviously, that's a very an issue that's very important to me is women have been able to make their own health care decisions.

Illinois looks like a very welcoming place.

We are a shining blue beacon.

Even Rock Island County is here compared to surrounding areas.

I believe that I do believe, as Martin Luther King Junior said, that the arc of history does bend towards justice.

I do feel a lot of the things that the legislature has done are bending away from justice.

But but I have to be optimistic and believe that down the line that that things will get to veterans.

I was the first state to, legalize, gay marriage years or so.

So, yeah, seven years ago.

Right.

I mean, and that's the Iowa that I remember.

Iowa is a state that back when Barack Obama was elected in 2008, they were one vote away in their Senate from being actually a collective bargaining state and not a right to work or a right to work for less status.

I would, as I would qualify that.

So we just have to to keep working hard.

I'd like to partner with them.

Can we work together across the river?

Because I want their citizens to have what our citizens have over here.

That that being said, Jim, I do want to say they have done on the economic side, they've done some some things along the river development.

A lot of their incentives are things that we're starting to look at over here as well to incentivize development.

We had the the we now had the, port district that we gave to Rock Island every dollar we looked at, I worked really hard to try to figure out a way for us to partner and get federal dollars in.

We did that last year with the River's Edge development zone, for for Moline and Rock on this one.

Now we're looking to expand that even further, this term with some legislation.

And a lot of these ideas are things Iowa has done in order to spur development.

Well, you may have noticed during the condition of the state Governor Reynolds was talking about or I know of a place that, it was a jab against Illinois.

Yeah, that that, place of higher taxes and bad budgets and and all the things that that Iowa is not.

I mean, you do say that there's a lot of people that look at Illinois and say, gosh, I'm glad I'm not living in Iowa, but there's a lot of people that are living in Iowa that say, Thank God I'm not in Illinois.

Yeah, I think there aren't.

And I see I think a lot of the outmigration is a lot of, in particular seniors in Illinois that are tired of higher property taxes, people who've retired, I think a few.

But I will say this, Jim, if you want to look at how, people view a state when you look at every state has the advantage of having an in-state tuition plan for their students.

But you look at Illinois and about 78%, I believe, or 70 at least percent of students in Illinois that graduate from Illinois College.

They stay right here in Illinois.

Iowa is, I believe, in the top 6 or 7 and outmigration.

As soon as their students graduate college in Iowa, they're seeking opportunity elsewhere.

And that might be because of the job market.

But I think it also could be they're looking long term.

Where would I want to raise my daughter?

Do I want to raise my daughter in a state where she's going to have the ability to make her own decisions?

Do I want my kids to go to a state where they emphasize the importance of public education, as opposed to a voucher?

I do think that kids come out and they project out where they want to live in.

Iowa is lagging far behind in that.

With their outmigration of college students, the house has created a, gun violence prevention committee that is just beginning to meet right now.

And I looked at the membership of that House committee.

As far as the Democrats are concerned, they're all from Chicago or the ring counties.

No Democratic representatives from anywhere outside of the ring counties.

Is this just simply another attack on gun rights?

I don't think it's an attack on gun rights.

However, I do think that when you when you when you have a committee, sometimes it's made up of people who don't live in rural areas.

I think sometimes not every voice is going to get heard.

But here's the good thing whatever suggestions they have that would come out, and I think they're really just looking at, holding gun owners responsible for what happens, making sure that guns stay out of the out of the hands of those that shouldn't have them.

That being said, I want to make sure that, you know, I'll have a voice when it comes to committee when it comes to the floor, because, it's a different culture.

It's a different world.

We live in here.

You know, I grew up in Taylor Ridge.

God, that was, Senator Anderson had a bill that, actually teaches gun safety for hunters, and it's.

And I, I, I gladly jumped on it as a as a chief on that bill.

Sometimes when you have different worlds converging, we all converge in Springfield and we have to share each other's experiences and touch those stories.

It's my job to tell our stories involving guns here in Iowa as well.

But isn't that a little bit tone deaf for the Democratic leadership not to have that type of voice, especially on the Democratic side, when you have a supermajority that a committee wouldn't have that I will tell you, I'm not in leadership as of this point.

I'm, I'm I'm one year into my my second term.

Would I love to serve on a committee like that?

I absolutely loved it.

To give voice to my community on that.

I don't get to make those decisions.

So that's that's really, you know, I also I know this I'll get to have a say at some point.

I could have saying a lot of things and I my voice is much louder than it was two years ago.

I lead more with my chair now than I did then.

Democratic politics has always been tough.

And and there's so many jokes in regards to Democrats in Illinois.

You take a look at Rod Blagojevich, who was a disgraced governor, who just got a, pardoned by, President Trump.

You take a look at Mike Madigan, who has been convicted on multiple counts and is awaiting sentencing right now.

Let me know about your reaction to these things.

I mean, Madigan had such an iron fisted control over the legislature.

Rod Blagojevich dominated, politics for so long.

Are those days behind us, necessarily?

And the fact that these people are necessarily getting pardons or their sentences are unknown right now and could get a pardon.

Is that distressing?

First off, to deal with the pardon situation, the fact that Rod Blagojevich was pardoned and he's got this bromance with with President Trump, I find really disgusting.

I mean, I served under Rod Blagojevich.

He stole money from us.

We had money for a lot of the 500 correctional officers.

He really started our staff shortage by pilfering that money and sending it elsewhere.

He took pension holidays.

He decimated our budget.

He was a horrendous governor.

Blagojevich was I mean, he was corrupt.

And, we've had whether it's George Ryan, whether it's burglary, which are those days behind us?

I hope so, but we have to continue to strengthen our laws to make sure that those things don't happen again, because generally, what happens is when you're not watching and you're not looking, these things happen.

So, clearly, they all needed to go to jail.

Mike Madigan needs to go to jail.

He violated the public trust.

I don't know how it's going to play out on appeal, but we always have to keep an eye on on our ethics rules.

And, for me, it's a little different.

I'm a law and order guy.

I worked in DLC for 30, 32 years.

Nearly.

To me, you do the crime, you got to do the time.

And, I'm not.

I'm not a lifetime.

I've not been in this game.

I came in, I first saw serving an officer at the age of 58.

So, for me, this has not been while I've been an advocate in the in the halls.

I've never really been on this side.

So rooting out that kind of stuff is is it's extremely important.

It is.

Our thanks to Illinois Democratic State Representative Greg Johnson of East Moline.

March is a big transition time when it comes to not only the seasons, but the events being offered, whether it be indoor gatherings or outdoor activities.

Here's a couple of ideas you might want to consider.

Thanks to visit Quad Cities.

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

Start off with Tuesday Trivia night at Bally's Quad Cities on March 18th.

Then grab the kiddos for Spring Break workshop at Borden rush Quad Cities on March 19th.

Then you can watch a Quad City Storm Saint Patty's Day game at Vibrant Arena at the mark on March 20th.

Then you can head to circuit 21 dinner, play house to check out Heartbreak Hotel on March 21st, and finally try some yoga at Bends and Brews at Paw Bros.

Craft Taproom on March 23rd.

For more events like these, check out visit Quad cities.com.

Musician Murray Lee is best known for his part in four bands that have hit the stages around the cities its Rude Punch, Heads in Motion, Logan Springer and wonderfully Wild, and Murray Lee and the Sons of Hades.

We invited him to join us to perform one of his original.

So here's Murray Lee with little victories.

I didn't give a John, nor have I won the lottery.

But I just made a perfect cup of coffee.

Sometimes it's all about those little victories.

Are you?

My bills.

Do.

My bank account is overdrawn, but I think that I just met someone.

Sometimes it's all about settle matters at a one.

Oh, yeah.

And then at.

Yeah.

Winning big show would be nice.

The way nobody will put your, Won't be nice.

At least I'm not six feet underground.

Sometimes it's all about not being yourself down.

On.

Now I've got Eddie.

She.

John.

And it pays like a little birdie.

Lottery.

But I still crave that perfect kind of coffee.

Yeah, I'm still all about those little, big dreams.

Oh, it's still all about those little, big doings.

That's Murray Lee with little victories on the air, on the radio, on the web, on your mobile device and streaming on your computer.

Thanks for taking some time.

As we talk about the issues on the city's.

I am VCU.

We've always been here for you.

You are and always will be our top priority.

We care about your financial health and we are here.

I am VCU is a proud supporter of WCU.

Public affairs programing on Wqpt is brought to you by the Singh Group at Merrill, serving the wealth management needs of clients in the region for over 35 years.

This program was made possible by viewers like you.

Thank you.