Legislative News Update from Rep. Spain

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

House Republican Leader Tony McCombie Announces Leadership Team.  Illinois House Republican Leader Tony McCombie has announced her Leadership team for the 104th General Assembly.

“My leadership team is built to provide a strategic advantage on how to achieve our shared objectives of creating a stronger Illinois without adding to the burdens on Illinois families,” McCombie said. “I’ve selected colleagues from districts across Illinois to work alongside me in pushing our state forward.”  

McCombie has been intentional in assembling a leadership team that reflects the diverse voices of Illinois. The team includes thoughtful leaders from southern, central, and northern Illinois, ensuring that the House Republican Caucus, which represents parts of all 102 counties, brings perspectives from every corner of the state to the table.

Leadership members include: 

Deputy Minority Leaders

  • Rep. Norine Hammond (94 – Macomb) 
  • Rep. Ryan Spain (73 – Peoria) 

Assistant Minority Leaders 

  • Rep. CD Davidsmeyer (100 – Murrayville) 
  • Rep. John Cabello (90 – Machesney Park) 
  • Rep. Dan Ugaste (65 – Geneva) 
  • Rep. Patrick Windhorst (117 – Metropolis) (Floor Leader) 
  • Rep. Brad Stephens (20 – Rosemont)
  • Rep. Jackie Haas (79 – Bourbonnais) 
  • Rep. Amy Elik (111 – Alton) 

Conference Chair

  • Rep. Jeff Keicher (70 – Sycamore) 

I am pleased to again serve on the leadership team, and released the following statement following the announcement: “Serving as a Deputy Leader is an honor and I value the trust Leader McCombie has in me to work beside her to advocate for our state’s future.”

Along with that announcement, I was also again appointed to serve on the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR). JCAR is a bipartisan, bicameral legislative oversight committee where I will work alongside 11 other legislators to help oversee the rule-making process by state agencies, making sure the rules abide by the original intent of legislators when laws are passed, adequately inform the General Assembly of how laws are implemented through agency rulemaking, and help facilitate a public understanding of rules and regulations.

I released the following statement when it was announced I will be a co-chairman of that committee:

“JCAR holds a critically important role in making sure the rules abide by the original legislative intent when the laws are passed. I am looking forward to continuing the essential work of this committee, to ensure our government’s checks and balances remain intact.”

MADIGAN TRIAL

Former Speaker Michael Madigan concludes testimony in his own defense.  Over a four-day period on the stand, Madigan, the former House Speaker and former head of the Illinois Democratic Party, presented almost 12 hours of testimony. The decision by Madigan and his defense team to put himself on the witness stand opened him up to cross-examination. On cross-examination, a member of the prosecution team confronted the former Speaker with a reference to audio evidence, obtained through a wiretap, in which Madigan can be heard discussing a possible deal in which the wife of a state representative, a member of Madigan’s caucus, would be offered a job. On the other end of the line with Madigan was his former close friend and ally Mike McClain.

On the wiretap, the job would have been offered by Jay Doherty, who was a contractual consultant with Chicago-area electric utility ComEd. Alleged ties between Madigan, ComEd, and members of Madigan’s political network are one of the elements at the heart of the current criminal trial. These ties are alleged to have resulted in criminal conduct that constitutes numerous counts of federal racketeering and may also have resulted in higher electric bills for millions of Illinois households.    

A key member of the Madigan network, former Chicago alderman Danny Solis, had himself been pinpointed by federal law enforcement at an early stage of the Madigan investigation. After interviews with law enforcement, Solis agreed to participate in the wiretap element of the investigation. As an informant, Solis continued his contacts with Madigan; these contacts included discussions, by Madigan and by co-defendant Mike McClain, of influence-wielding schemes. Federal investigators used these discussions as evidence for the trial: evidence that includes what the prosecution describes as verbal proof of criminal acts of influence peddling and racketeering. On the witness stand, Madigan was forced to admit that he regretted “any time spent with Danny Solis.”  

As part of the cross-examination and reference to wiretap evidence, the prosecution team was able to refer to what appeared to have been a deal-making conversation between Madigan and McClain. This conversation was a point of evidence as to the status of the two men as close dealmaking friends and allies. The significance of this point became apparent throughout the course of this week’s trial action. As a result of the evidence presented thus far, counsel for Madigan and counsel for McClain have commenced moves of in-court hostility towards each other’s respective clients. With the evidence phase of the trial concluded, the jury will return to the courtroom next week to begin hearing instructions and closing arguments. 

BUDGET

Concerns grow regarding the State of Illinois’ FY26 budget deficit.  Gov. Pritzker’s Office of Management and Budget (GOMB) projects that, based on ‘locked-in’ State spending patterns and revenue estimates, funds coming in will fall $3.2 billion short of the money going out in Fiscal Year 2026. 

For the current fiscal year, FY25, revenues are coming in at a pace that enables Illinois to maintain a budget that is in bare balance. However, FY25 is now more than half over. FY26 is now less than six months away, and the approaching fiscal year will see mandated increases in pension expenditures, Medicaid spending, and the cost of pay and benefits for people directly employed by the State or who are dependent upon State appropriations for their compensation. The GOMB forward-looking budget analysis reflects these locked-in spending trends. The analysis also reflects the fact that new job creation has slowed almost to a halt in Illinois, ending the period of job recovery that followed the 2020-2021 COVID-19 pandemic. This is creating near-stagnant cash flows in Illinois income tax payments.

The ability of the State to proclaim that its FY25 spending plans were a “balanced budget” reflected the last-minute enactment, by the Democratic-controlled General Assembly in late May 2024, of a series of “midnight” tax increases that imposed higher burdens upon Illinoisans in various hidden ways. Fiscal experts are warning Illinoisans to be on the lookout for possible similar increases in May 2025 to support the FY26 budget. The Constitution of Illinois requires the State to enact and publish a nominally “balanced budget,” and this $3.2 billion budget deficit figure projected by GOMB indicates that meeting this constitutional mandate could be a challenge unless further tax increases or significant budget cuts are enacted in what is already one of America’s highest-taxed states. 

CHICAGO

Credit rating cut brings ‘junk bond’ status closer to Chicago.  The reduction imposed on Chicago by Standard & Poor’s, the credit-rating agency, will increase the cost when the city seeks to borrow new money or roll over existing debts. The press learned this week that S&P has lowered Chicago’s credit rating from ‘BBB+’ to ‘BBB,’ the second-lowest investment grade. The credit rating downgrade could lead to further Chicago increases in property tax rates and in the rates and scales of other taxes and fees paid by residents of and visitors to the city. Chicago already has one of the highest tax rates (measured as a cumulative total of income taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, and other taxes and fees) of any large city in the U.S.

Two more reductions by S&P or one of its fellow credit rating firms, from “BBB” past “BBB-“ to “BB+”, would re-rate city of Chicago debt as being “junk bonds.” Most investment portfolios are barred from, or discourage themselves from, holding non-investment junk debt. Although “BB+” debt has a nominal “plus” sign attached to it, that only means that the debt is high-quality junk. Debt in this junk bond category is often liquidated or dumped on the Wall Street marketplace for a buyer’s price. 

Similar actions in the 2010s, imposed upon the State of Illinois by credit raters, helped lead to the establishment and maintenance of the record-and-near-record-high state income tax rates that Illinois taxpayers continue to have to pay today. These tax rates have enabled Illinois to barely balance its budget, making it slightly more credit-worthy. Although S&P has increased Illinois’s general bond rating to a current rating of “A-,” four steps above junk-bond level, Illinois continues to have to pay higher interest rates on its debts than the interest that is paid to lenders by most U.S. states. Illinois now has a credit rating that is two notches higher, in the S&P spectrum, than the credit rating of Chicago.

UPCOMING EVENTS

I am hosting a free Medicare 101 Seminar for local seniors on Tuesday, February 11th from 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM. The event will take place at the Rock Falls Chamber of Commerce, located at 601 W. 10th Street, Rock Falls.

Experts from the Illinois Department on Aging’s Senior Health Insurance Program (SHIP) will be on hand to offer information and guidance about the intricacies of Medicare. This information will assist Medicare recipients in making empowered decisions about their coverage options. Questions from attendees are encouraged!