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Illinois lawmakers facing a big deficit issue.

Does that mean raising taxes or cutting programs that affect all of us in the cities?

Once again, Illinois must get its fiscal house in order.

It's projected the state is facing a budget deficit of more than $3 billion for the next fiscal year.

So Illinois has paid down its backlog of bills for the most part.

It also has a growing pension debt it must handle as well.

It is more than dollars and cents, and it remains at the heart of some very basic disagreements between the Democrats who hold the House, the Senate and the governor's mansion and the Republicans, who in many cases can only look on from the sidelines as the legislature wraps up its 103rd General Assembly.

We look ahead to the 104th, which is set to begin Wednesday the eighth.

We talked with Rock Island Democratic State Senator Mike Halpin and Savannah Republican Tony Maccabee, who is also the House minority leader, about the problems and the priorities ahead in the 2025 session.

Let's start with the management and budget, projecting a $3.2 billion deficit for the upcoming fiscal year.

Senator, I mean, what's going to be done?

Well, it's certainly a big number.

And I think the office has done a good job of having some conservative revenue estimates over the past several years.

So my, my hope and my expectation is that that number won't be as large as it is now.

But it is going to take some serious, thinking and prioritizing about where we're going to be putting, putting our dollars this year.

And it's not going to be easy.

I think we'll have a better idea as we get further into the, the fiscal year, March and April, as we really kind of, start to lock down that budget process, what we're dealing with.

But it's not going to be easy.

And it doesn't come as a surprise.

I mean, this was projected, this deficit three years ago even.

Oh, absolutely.

And I think, you know, the past several years we've been trying to, minimize the, the cost of, of new programs.

We were using federal money that came in during Covid to make sure to, not add to our base spending.

We've done a good job of that, I think.

And I think it's it's part of the planning.

And we're going to we're going to have to face these choices, and it's going to be difficult, but we'll get it done.

Leader be I mean, I know what you want to say.

I mean, the tax and spend Democrats are still at it.

Well, I won't go that far.

Here.

But it is a projection.

And I'm glad to hear that they're going to try to budget on hope.

So I'm a Republican Party in Illinois.

I live on Hope every day.

So, but I think to be realistic, we have been spending since when we first got in, we were looking at a $36 billion budget.

Now we're at 53.

So to say there hasn't been new spending on new projects is is not accurate.

And that's that's always been our concern, in our caucus and obviously in the Democratic caucus too, you don't want to start a new program, especially a good one.

Like the pre-K and different education funding and not have sustainable funding.

So to have to start them and then pull them back would really be detrimental to the communities they serve.

So that's really where my concern is also.

Obviously there's some issues.

We hear about it every day in Chicago.

And where is that funding that buyout going to be?

And then we're also looking at a mass transit fiscal cliff, and that's going to be some really hard decisions for the Democrats to come forward with a budget that is going to be able to balance that all out.

Now, as you said, I mean, super majority for the Democrats, how can the Republicans help in this situation?

Oh, we'd love to help.

We would love to be a part of the budget process.

We just did an interview not too long ago, and the senator said, well, bring your own budget forward.

Well, we'd be more than happy to do that if the agencies were given the permission to release all of their information to us to do that.

So we can't, but we do oftentimes, have conversations with, rank and file members and, try to balance out, especially with folks that are more to the middle, whether you're Republican or Democrat, who want to have conversations and who really want to have good, really infrastructure, good educational, good public safety, making those the priorities.

And there is quite a bit of agreement on that.

It's the bits and pieces, whether it's member initiative dollars, or new programs that can't be that are not sustainable.

That's where we really have some concerns.

So our job is to hold, Democrats accountable.

And and we have done a very good job of that over the last couple of years.

The budget deficit was expected.

It was anticipated.

Do you think more could have been done this past year in order to prepare for this?

Well, we prepared by putting about a $1 billion in taxes, mainly on gaming and on small businesses.

If we were to not spend $1 billion on, non-citizens, illegal immigrants, maybe we would be a little ahead.

That is a huge issue that Republicans have pointed out is the spending for, non non legal immigrants.

A total of 143.

I'm sorry, I'm getting the number wrong.

There are $568 million on undocumented immigrants.

From the Department of Health Care and Family Services.

You take a look at that number and you would say it's necessary spending.

So what I would say, first off, I want to point out that I do believe health care is a right.

It's not a privilege.

And the federal government needs to do a significantly better job of, you know, providing a system health care that's affordable.

That being said, here in the state, you know, if we're trying to prioritize dollars, I want to make sure that, citizens and residents of Illinois are having their needs met before we start, helping or continue to help others.

So I that's certainly a, an item that I'm open to, adjusting, in my opinion.

To what extent?

I mean, I'm, I'm happy if that money can be better spent elsewhere in the Illinois state budget.

I'm prepared to do that.

So cut it completely.

That I mean, that's a question that that we'd have to face.

I mean, look at our revenue, look at our expenditures and figure out, again, prioritizing.

And if there is if there is sufficient money to be able to continue those programs and offer health care, to everyone, which I believe is a is a right, then fine.

But if not, we need to make sure that we're paying for services that our citizens need.

When you talk about priorities and you brought up, you know, pre-K programs like that, what is the top priority, for Republicans?

Is it is it education?

Is it public safety?

Is it all of the above?

I think the number one, responsibility of government is safety.

So that is the number one priority.

And with safety comes education, and serving our most vulnerable.

The senator and I have always agreed on what those top priorities should be.

Even just this last budget, you know, he he spoke on the floor.

Thank you for that.

About the priorities of the region of this area.

And don't forget us.

And but when you are in a supermajority, and you have to kind of very similar to, super minority, you know, we're going to vote no.

And they're going to vote yes.

Because it's a, it's a package.

They have a different view than we do.

But we do have to have some pieces in there that we do agree on.

I'm glad to hear that.

The senator, you know, is certainly going to put Illinois as a priority.

And I assumed that he would.

But we have caucuses around the entire state, diverse caucuses that have different opinions of that.

The money will run out and the taxpayers and the voters will speak of what they think is the priority.

And I and I hope that continues.

So I'm, I'm optimistic that there is, things halted this budget cycle because they're going to have to be.

Such as.

Such as funding for education, housing and health care for, illegals.

I mean, that's your number one.

Let's talk about, the priorities for the Democrats.

We're talking about public safety.

I mean, it's always been education also.

You don't see any cuts in any funding as far as that's concerned.

Well, I won't say any cuts.

You know, I don't want to take anything necessarily off the table, but I think it's important to continue to invest in the K through 12 funding formula.

Because that has proven to be, an investment in the future.

And that's going to prevent if we spend that money now, it prevents harder budget years in the future as we're educating children and they're able to go to college, get jobs, and be productive citizens of Illinois.

I think we need to add to that, though, on the higher education level.

We need to have more reliable funding for higher education.

Especially given the situation at Western Illinois University here locally finds itself in, but that is going to be a tough ask.

You know, a budget year like this.

So that would be my priority.

I'd much prefer to spend money on that higher education, particularly local higher education, than than some of these other things we've been talking about.

But that's going to be a discussion for, you know, for the caucus and for the Senate and the House to to decide.

There has been a lot of discussion about evidence based education programs in Illinois, that the system, how you measure the success of a school can be interpreted in so many different ways.

Are you happy with the way the system's going right now.

On the on the k-through-12.

Level?

Yeah, I. I think generally, yes.

The schools that I've talked to are in a much, freer situation, than they were when we both started.

They're not as concerned about the financial impact.

And there is a freedom there to be able to spend the money on particular programs that that is more tailored to that school, or that community.

And I think it has been successful.

I think most districts have been putting the money in the right place.

There are some exceptions, I think.

In the northeast part of the state, perhaps.

But for the most part, that that funding formula, especially in rural and downstate districts, has been, extremely helpful.

Education funding, as a senator was pointing out major concern when you guys both took office.

Yeah, I think the idea of the evidence based funding model was right.

The the changes that benefited Chicago, right before that vote, was certainly confusing for me as a freshman at that time, but I think that was a detriment also.

We already know that it's going to be expanded.

It was supposed to be a ten year catch up, and now we're looking at a 17 year catch up.

And that could be the cost of inflation.

Mandates and regulations increases.

But also, you know, no offense to Western Illinois.

You know, that's where I graduated from.

And I love that.

And I think there is some things that we need to do with higher education.

But doing and evidence based funding with higher education, especially some of the questions on on race is concerning to, to me and our caucus, but also, just throwing more money at whether it's education, whether it's public safety, whether whatever the topic is without any structural reforms is showing that it doesn't it's not as effective as the initial desire is.

And I think that's what you're seeing with the evidence based funding model.

You know, we're already talking 17 years.

So what does that mean?

And to continue, and I'm thankful that the administration has continued to meet the promise of the additional 300,000,300 every year, 350 every year.

But it's just throwing money at something without reforming it is is an issue.

Is it tough, though, to create a statewide standard, for each school district?

Oh, for for sure.

I mean, what is what is the right answer?

Right.

And one of the concerns and you hear with, president elect Trump, whether or not to get rid of, at the education on the, on the federal side so that that funding, I think the governor said was roughly $3 billion, for, basically, the disability side of our, our system.

Well, if that money were to come to Illinois directly, which was what the president elect said.

So if that comes to us, my concern is that it still would go into the buckets it's supposed to.

I would be very upset if that money went into Chicago, to bail them out, because that's going to cause a real problem for our area.

Do you see that as an impact when when the new administration comes in is how the federal government, basically funds some state government operations?

Yeah, I'm I'm certainly concerned about that.

We do have a lot of pass through programs.

And if for whatever reason, the federal government either doesn't get a budget or adopts a budget that, you know, re formulates where some of that money goes, we don't necessarily have the bandwidth to, to backfill on the state level or have state revenues to be able to continue those programs.

So I'm certainly concerned is something we want to keep an eye on.

If that starts to.

Happen, we are talking about a lot of changes in perhaps federal programs and how it relates to the states.

One of the areas that has been talked about is mass deportations.

Of course, where a Chicago is thought to be a target, but you don't know to what effect that could have in western Illinois.

What do you what do you see is possibly, a state or even a local fight when it comes down to sheriff's departments, police departments, when it comes to the idea of a mass deportation.

Yeah, I can understand the, I guess the the the fear and the the feelings that some folks have on this.

The reality is that there's a, there's a practical ability to try to do that.

And it takes away resources from solving other crimes.

In the area has a, you know, that type of disruption has an enormous economic impact.

You know, I think we should probably prepare, if the federal government wants to actually take those actions.

But I'm not at the point where it's something I. I worry every single day about it.

We really just need to be practical about how we address some of these issues.

And I, I don't think there's going to be, this significant drain on, on our law enforcement officials or impact to the economy.

I think cooler heads will prevail on that.

Do you see that in northwest Illinois?

Well, I think we're seeing, it is affecting us more here, whether it's the Quad Cities, Rockford, Freeport, Illinois, it is starting to migrate out from the city.

And since 2022, we've had 51,000 people come in to Chicago.

I think the first step is to the 1.4 million that has that order for deportation.

That's the first start, right?

Secure the border and handle the 1.42 and then the rest we can talk about later.

I mean, these are these folks have been given deportation orders for a reason, reason that we may not know, but I'm going to trust that it's the right reasons and they need to go back to their country.

So I think that's the first thing is follow that.

And that's not going to happen overnight by any means.

And I agree, I don't think it's going to be a drain on our our law enforcement.

I do believe the federal government is going to come in.

But, I was very thankful to hear that the governor had changed his tune and does want to have a conversation, with the federal government on on people that are criminals.

He does not want them here.

So I, I was very glad to hear that.

Because then correct me if I'm wrong.

The Trust Act was signed in 2017.

It prohibits state officers from cooperating with Ice.

I mean, so you could see a clash that could occur.

Yeah.

I think what that act does, it doesn't prevent, anyone from cooperating when Ice has, like, a warrant has the ability that it's doing an investigation.

It's it's it's a restriction more on a voluntary, policy for a local department to immediately turn over information about anyone that they pull in to ice.

So I don't think it's a severe restriction as as others have claimed.

But again, I really don't see this court being, an immediate, problem.

I do believe that the state, and the federal government are going to be in communication, and my preference is to to trust that they're going to, to try to figure that out.

And then if they can't, then we can deal with the problem.

One area that you want attention toward is a prison security, and improving, the security, particularly for those who work there.

What do you expect to see in 2025?

Well, I think we're going to see a lot of public pushback.

Certainly I believe the unions are pushing back as well.

You hear from advocates for inmates that this is a right for them to have, their personal mail, without having any review of it.

But this isn't about a right.

This is about safety for the inmates, the safety for the correctional officers.

And this is not only a state issue, but it's also a federal issue.

I have a federal penitentiary in Thompson, and that's an issue there as well.

So I think you're going to see more pushback.

You're already seeing that, Democrats agree, that have especially that know and that have corrections.

They want the same things.

They want the inmates and the staff to be safe.

It's just whether or not the the state of Illinois, pushes up there.

They've started in a couple, I think Pickney bills.

One of them, they need to accelerate that pretty quickly.

We don't like to necessarily do things by legislation or, we'd rather do it by rule or, but in this case, when you when you file this, it's kind of a signal to the public that, okay, this is a real issue and we need to push this a little bit further.

So I think there will certainly be more of a push for that.

Through the department.

It's certainly my.

Hope.

Well, you, of course, have the same correctional facilities in your district as well.

Yeah.

We.

Yeah, we want to make sure that, worker safety is always at the top of my priority list.

And we want to make sure the folks that are working there is safe.

And we want to make sure that the other, inmates are also, you know, protected, you know, but the what I think we do need, you know, when it comes to, these possible, drug exposures through the mail, which is what we're talking about.

We need to get a more reliable test.

First of all, we we need know exactly what it is and where it's coming from, and, to be able to address it, because if we if we don't have that data on that information, we end up risking being overly harsh and overreacting.

And we don't want that either.

We want to be able to protect everyone.

Everyone's freedoms.

At the same time that we're protecting workers.

January 1st, across the state, minimum wage went up to $15.

That was something that you fought for.

And you know that there was the cross winds, from the business community saying it's going to drive up prices.

Are you saying that this is a victory for the workers and that it hasn't?

I mean, I think I think minimum wage workers consistently deserve a raise.

And we've provided that in Illinois over the past several years.

In addition, we've seen other states that are not typically liberal bastions, like, I think Missouri and Nebraska both raise their minimum wages as well.

Iowa is now an island, at 725, surrounded by states that have, I think, at least a $12 minimum wage.

So I think it was the right move to make.

And at the end of the day, we in the past couple of years, when we talk about raising prices, the inflation that we've experienced has had nothing to do with an increase in, in wages because it's affected it's affected every state.

And it's one of the reasons why we have a new incoming, federal administration.

So I think it was a victory for the workers.

And, I'm excited that we're hitting that that $15 in January.

You did see opposition.

Yeah, absolutely.

This is just a, a cost.

And I'm not saying whether or not they, the workers deserve it or don't deserve it.

That's not the point.

I don't think $15 an hour is a living wage per se.

You certainly can't raise your family on it.

I think the market needs to determine that would be interesting.

With an Iowa study, how many people are actually really making $7.25?

But I would add that if they're not making 725, it's because we have a higher wage and businesses have to compete with us, which I think is completely fair.

Well, maybe so, but, I love this cut.

I miss this guy.

It's been a while.

But for us, it's just the cost just gets passed on.

Whether it's to the goods.

The services, the taxes of the increase of the workers comp the and the increase of the overall insurance for the liability, it just gets passed on to the consumer, which really hurts our senior citizens the most who didn't get a raise.

Well, and it leads me also to the, Dignity and Pay Act, which was to raise the minimum wage for, many disabled workers.

And a lot of social service organizations are worried that this could, make them unable to hire the disabled.

Are you worried about the ramification and the domino effects that could happen with the Dignity and Pay Act?

Yeah, absolutely.

This is a bill, that has been negotiated for a couple of days now.

Charlie Meyer, Representative Meyer from Southern Illinois, was a huge advocate in our caucus and worked with the department very closely and, with our leadership team and did ultimately end up supporting that with several of us, because we felt it got to the best place that it could.

But you're absolutely right.

There are going to be places that may be hit, like Rolling Hills and Lanark, that may not be able to sustain, so that there is some real concern, real issues, that, I think the delay that was put into the bill, hopefully will help remedy some of those questions and concerns, because the last thing that we need is, any of those facilities, Being closed because you do want to protect the disabled workers, but you also don't want to take away the jobs.

Yeah, we yeah, we don't want anyone to be exploited.

And I look at this bill and I remember back in 2018 and 2019 when this was percolating, I think we passed a version of the House.

And again, Representative Meyer was staunchly opposed.

And I think this bill is a good example of how we have been able to at least work together to try to negotiate a bill and get it to a place which, if it's not perfect, it's something that that folks can live with and I want to reinforce that.

That is a lot of what we do in Springfield, whether you're Democrat or Republican, the vast majority of bills that we pass are not knocked down.

Drag out fights.

It's the result of interest, holders and stakeholders, talking to Democrats and Republicans and actually getting to a place where everybody can, can live with.

Well, for this bill, I did talk to, local providers, and they were generally supportive of having that dignity and pay.

As, as leader said, there's a, there's a chance, in isolated cases, hopefully, only, only isolated cases, hopefully where an employer may make a different decision.

But I think there's an education factor to employers we need to make also to show them.

Exactly, what the purpose of this bill is and see if they can find those accommodations.

As you both know, this is a polarized society right now.

And there were 17 threats to the state capitol in 2022 for, twice as many as, almost twice as many as in 2018.

Do worry about, safety at the Capitol or for yourselves.

Not so much for for myself.

But I do worry that people, if there is a threat that regular people or staff are just going to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, it's certainly something I'm I worry about.

And it's also another reason, going back to what I said about working together, it's why I try to constantly educate the public in that when we're when we're down there, the the, the Republicans are not the enemy.

There are folks that, get elected to their seats from their own communities, and they're here to to talk with us and, and try to negotiate bills with us and try to do what they think is best for the state of Illinois.

And I may disagree wholeheartedly, and I do with leader wholeheartedly, with Tony.

But, at the end of the day, we're elected by the people we need to have trust in the system, and we can't we can't afford to vilify the other side.

And I try not to do that, in my, in my day to day so that these type of threats will, well, hopefully go away.

Do you think there's more security needed at the state capitol?

I think it's they're trying to be more proactive, I think, which is good rather than reactive.

But I'm really more concerned about what's happening in our own districts.

We've had on both sides of the aisle.

We've had senior figures or outreach events canceled just recently.

Another, representative, a Democrat, had, something in the mail.

We had a threat on the Republican side.

You know, this is we things are very polarized and it's it's Republicans and Democrats who are in office, but it's also advocates that support Republican and Democrats who are really firing things up.

And it seems like the moment that that, President Trump was shot, that that stopped for one quick second and then it's not, so it is upon us, as elected, but it's also about people that are around us to, to stop this rhetoric.

To a dangerous degree.

I mean, I'm always going to, you know, you know, and we're always going to debate and battle and that's okay.

But you can do that.

You can disagree and do so respectfully.

And I think that's the key.

And we have to lead by example on that.

Our thanks to Democratic State Senator Mike Halpin and Republican state Representative Minority Leader Tony McNamee.

The new year is just getting started, and we don't want you to miss a thing when it comes to events that make the cities a fun place to live.

Here's what's topping our calendar for the coming days.

Thanks to visit Quad Cities.

Our thanks to Illinois State Senator Mike Halpin, Illinois Minority Leader Tony Mcomie for joining us for this program.

And next week on the cities, a new session of the Iowa Legislature in Des Moines.

That means an even bigger majority for Republicans.

We talk with a lawmaker from the cities who's at the center of the action in the coming year.

Plus, circuit, 21, has plans for after the holidays, a dinner and a date that's next week here on the city's 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 on the city's.

At 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 Wqpt.

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.