Back in 2018, about midway through President Donald Trump’s first term, the Illinois Senate passed a bill that was designed to prevent “the weakening of Illinois environmental and labor regulations in response to a weakening of federal regulations,” according to an Illinois Environmental Council press release. Some state rules are tied directly to federal rules, […]
Rich Miller
Rich Miller covers Statehouse politics and publishes Capitol Fax.
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A backlog of licensing applications
Back in April, the executive director of the American Nurses Association Illinois, Susan Swart, told my associate Isabel Miller that advanced practice registered nurses are losing their jobs because of ongoing and severe state licensing delays. Swart said some of those nurses are waiting “a year to 18 months” to get their licenses from the […]
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A state tax on services?
Gov. JB Pritzker unexpectedly moved away last week from his long-standing opposition to taxing services, saying he didn’t want to start taking ideas off the table as lawmakers search for ways to fund and reform the Chicago region’s mass transit system. A major business group predictably pushed back. As you may know, Chicagoland’s mass transit […]
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Illinois has some success in attracting manufacturing
I told you back in January that if Gov. JB Pritzker managed to help convince Stellantis to reopen the Belvidere auto assembly plant and even expand, “he’ll have overcome some gargantuan hurdles.” Credit where credit is due. Pritzker helped the United Auto Workers Union and the White House put together a deal with Stellantis to […]
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Businesses reopening too soon could lead to liability issues
By Rich Miller Gov. JB Pritzker has repeatedly said he’s delegating enforcement of his stay-at-home order to local governments. That stance has frustrated some folks who want him to get tougher with violators (although he’d undoubtedly risk making martyrs out of them if he did crack down hard). And the governor’s position seems to have […]