BUDGET
Slight upgrade to Illinois’ credit outlook. The three major New York-based bond-rating agencies agree that the State of Illinois has the lowest credit rating among the 50 states. Using the terminology published by two of the three rating agencies (Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings), Illinois has had a BBB- credit rating – the lowest level above “junk bond” territory – with a “negative outlook” for further changes. Any reduction in Illinois’ credit rating from BBB- would push the State’s general obligation (GO) debt, the bonds Illinois sells to finance a wide variety of day-to-day capital expenses, into the realm of non-investment-grade securities. 

Virginia Marmaduke (right) with the Eisenhowers at the
Illinois Pavilion during the New York World's Fair.
Photo from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum. 

Right from the start of her distinguished journalism career, Virginia Marmaduke had been clear about what she wanted to do.

“I wanted to be a police reporter and cover blood, guts and sex,” she recalled. She did just that for nearly four decades, opening doors and redefining the roles women played in journalism in Illinois.

Marmaduke came along at a time when women journalists were often consigned to the entertainment beat or other similarly frivolous topics at their newspapers. But Virginia Marmaduke had no use for that: she was a hard news reporter, and that’s where she was determined to do her work.

BUDGET
Democrats change House Rules to clean up their budget mess. On Memorial Day, in the middle of the night, Illinois House Democrats voted for a new State budget that included $650 million in tax increases, legislator pay raises and a billion dollars in pork projects for Democrats’ legislative districts.

House Republicans have long argued that one of the root causes of Illinois’ fiscal chaos is the lack of transparency in the budgeting process. Budgets should be thoroughly vetted through both chambers of the General Assembly with a mandatory period for public comment. What absolutely should not happen is what we saw at the end of May, when the final amendment to a more than 3,000 page budget bill was filed just minutes before the House vote. 

When the final day of the June 1858 Illinois Republican state convention arrived the convention had already made history. But it was nothing compared to what was to come.

During the 19th century, before the 17th Amendment to the Constitution, United States Senators were chosen by state legislatures. The typical practice was for the new legislatures to be sworn in following the fall elections and then for each party or faction within the legislature to put forward its nominee for the Senate, should one of their state’s two senators’ terms have expired. The legislature would then vote on the nominees and select their senator.

Not surprisingly, the nominee of the party holding the most seats in the legislature usually won.

REDISTRICTING

Durkin, McConchie File Lawsuit to Challenge Legislative Maps. Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin and Illinois Senate Republican Leader Dan McConchie filed a lawsuit this week in federal court to challenge the legislative maps drawn and passed by Illinois Democrats in the General Assembly and signed into law by Governor JB Pritzker. The lawsuit is being filed against Illinois House Speaker Emanuel Chris Welch (in his official capacity), Illinois Senate President Don Harmon (in his official capacity), the offices of the Speaker of the House and the Senate President, and the Illinois State Board of Elections and its members (in their official capacities).

William Butler Ogden seated center in a group portrait. 

Like many states west of the Appalachians in the early 19th century, most of Illinois’ early leaders were born elsewhere and then came to the western frontier to find new opportunities.

Our state’s first governor, Shadrach Bond, was born in Maryland. Our first senators, Jesse Thomas and Ninian Edwards started out in Virginia and Maryland respectively, and our first congressman, Daniel Pope Cook, was born in Kentucky.

They were not the only early Illinois leaders who made their way west in those days. Another such traveler who came to Illinois and became an early leader was the Walton, New York-born William Butler Ogden, who in 1837 became the first mayor of Chicago.

Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin and Illinois Senate Republican Leader Dan McConchie filed a lawsuit today in federal court to challenge the legislative maps drawn and passed by Illinois Democrats in the General Assembly and signed into law by Governor JB Pritzker. The lawsuit is being filed against Illinois House Speaker Emanuel Chris Welch (in his official capacity), Illinois Senate President Don Harmon (in his official capacity), the offices of the Speaker of the House and the Senate President, and the Illinois State Board of Elections and its members (in their official capacities).

BUDGET
Democrats pass $42.3 billion budget full of pork, pay raises and higher taxes. Minutes before midnight on the May 31 deadline, House Democrats passed a $42.3 billion State budget for Fiscal Year 2022. Their budget adds a billion dollars in pork projects for Democrat districts, includes a nearly $1,200 pay raise for legislators, and raises taxes on Illinois businesses by more than $650 million. 

Fresh from the success of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition world’s fair, city leaders in Chicago sought a dramatic revitalization to bring their city into the new century. And they knew just who they wanted to lead the charge.

Daniel Burnham had been the Director of Works for the World’s Fair, but now he was approached by his fellow members of the Commercial Club of Chicago and presented with an even greater assignment.