(soft music) (energetic music) - Thanks for joining us on "CapitolView."

I'm Fred Martino.

This week, an effort to spark the Illinois economy by using vacant state properties.

A few bills in the General Assembly attempt to deal with drugs and overdose deaths.

And controversy over legislation that would affect parents who homeschool their children.

We'll have those stories and much more this week, with Dan Petrella of the Chicago Tribune, and Jason Piscia, Director of the Public Affairs Reporting Program at the University of Illinois, Springfield.

And Jason, I want to start with you.

Of course, the focus in Springfield right now, and it has been for some time, is on the budgets.

Governor JB Pritzker proposed a spending plan with fewer cuts than first expected, but it is based on a better financial picture than the over $3 billion deficit that we were expecting.

Not everyone agrees with that picture, however.

A legislative revenue estimate is more than $700 million lower than the governor's proposed budget.

Tell us more.

- Yeah, the world of financial prognostications is a fun pastime here in Springfield.

Just to take you through the history really quickly.

As you remember, before the budget came out a few months before, the governor's office was saying it looked like there was gonna be a $3 billion hole in the budget.

When the budget finally came out last month, the governor's budget office mentioned the hole was not as big, which made everyone feel better.

But now the legislature has their own financial outlook organization called the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, and they released some new revenue projections recently that show, as you mentioned, the governor's budget proposal is 737 million short of what Pritzker's budget said last month.

Again, these are best guess estimates based on the experts in these offices looking at how sales tax and income tax revenue's gonna look like.

But the big wild card in all of this is the Trump administration's cutting of everything.

The state budget is relying on actually an increased amount of federal funding over last year.

And it's not safe at this point to assume that the federal government is gonna come through with any sort of amount that the state is projecting.

So, that really throws a big wrench into this whole situation of trying to predict how big the budget hole is, or how small it is, and what the state needs to do to get the budget in place before the July 1st start of the new fiscal year.

- Such a good point.

We really don't know specifics yet on federal revenue.

We also don't know the short and longer term effects of these tariffs that are being implemented.

How will that affect the inflation that affects individuals and government as well.

And what will that do in terms of overall economic activity.

There are fears of a recession now possibly.

So, all of this could affect the budget short and long term down the line because of the revenue that they rely on from the sales tax, the income tax.

Jason, I'm guessing this has got to have a lot of our legislators very concerned about what they pass.

- Definitely.

The tariffs, especially.

As you mentioned, the president was using the R word recently, recession, that we might fall into one based on all this.

And, you know, he's coming out with, there seems to be a trade war developing between the two sides, between the US and the countries that he is imposing these tariffs on.

So, we don't know how much, you know, big ticket purchases or even small ticket purchases are gonna cost if the goods come from other countries.

And it's just hard.

And when there's that uncertainty, it's hard for lawmakers and the people who make the decisions about these budgets to figure out exactly what they want to do.

In the best of times, in the best of circumstances, state budgeting is a difficult task because you're essentially guessing what the income is gonna be, what the revenue is gonna be, and it's more uncertain than ever this year.

- Absolutely.

Very interesting.

We'll continue to watch it.

We also learned just this week that while inflation has cooled off a little, it is still continuing and above the Fed's target of 2% that they need to have, you know, in terms of their decisions on interest rates, which, right now, there's not an expectation that they will be doing more cuts.

So, we'll have to watch that and see.

We are taping this on Wednesday before it airs on Thursday.

But very interesting stuff.

Dan, your newspaper, the Chicago Tribune, has also been reporting on efforts related to the economy.

This one may be more important than ever, efforts to spark the economy by the Pritzker administration.

The governor announced a $300 million pitch to make vacant state properties, including an old prison, ready for economic development.

A news story at that proposal was in the news this week.

Tell us more.

- Yeah, this was part of the governor's budget address that he gave last month.

And should be noted, this $300 million is from the state's capital budget, which is separate from the operating budget that had that projected deficit we were talking about.

But basically they would be using state capital funds to take these sites, including, like you said, the former correctional center in Dwight.

The former Developmental Center properties in Lincoln and Jacksonville.

Sites in Rockford and the Kankakee area as well.

And get them ready for reinvestment.

These are, you know, state properties that many of which were closed down about a decade or so ago when Pat Quinn was facing his own budget issues and trying to, you know, slash the budget by shuttering some of these facilities.

Some of which were Developmental Centers that were part of sort of a transition for more institutionalized care for folks in that community to more community-based settings.

So, the properties have basically just been deteriorating for a decade or more and attracted vandals and crime.

And the idea here is to get them ready for development 'cause they're not in a situation where the state could easily just unload them as is on developers.

They need a lot of work.

You know, buildings torn down, some remediation, things like that.

And it really fits into what the governor has been very focused on his second term, which is trying to spur more economic development in the state, trying to attract, you know, businesses, large and small, to come to Illinois, to expand in Illinois.

And it will be interesting to see how well they succeed in doing that in these places.

You know, some of these communities, Dwight, and Lincoln, and Jacksonville in particular are sort of in the areas where they've seen a lot of, you know, businesses close down, or leave the area, and that sort of thing.

So it could really be a good boost to these communities, as well as to the state as a whole.

You know, the state would, after unloading them, wouldn't have to maintain or secure these properties anymore and it would bring potentially jobs and tax revenue to those communities.

I think a lot of what we were just talking about when we talk about the budget, some of those same economic uncertainties cast a lot of uncertainty over this plan.

Because if, you know, large manufacturers or other companies are uncertain about their future, about their cost of doing business with these tariffs on some of our biggest trading partners, like Canada and Mexico, you know, they might not be looking to make a large investment in building a new facility.

So, it will be interesting to see how those factors kind of determine the success of this idea.

- Absolutely.

Very interesting to watch that.

And again, folks can read more about it in the Chicago Tribune.

Jason, the Trump administration has used the drug war as a justification for tariffs against Canada and Mexico, something many critics say is misleading.

But there is no doubt that fentanyl is a problem.

Some republican bills aim to help Illinois in its battle against fentanyl.

Tell us more.

- Yeah, some Republican lawmakers recently had a news conference to talk about a package of bills they're putting forward to try to get a handle on the fentanyl situation, which is, you know, very small amounts of it are often cut into other drugs, whether it's methamphetamines, or even marijuana.

And can make those drugs increasingly fatal and can cause serious problems.

One of the proposals is to reclassify the use of fentanyl as a poisoning instead of something else.

Which will, and as a result, increase some penalties for it to make a Class X felony, to put a finer point on it to, you know, to make it more of a serious crime.

And these are just some sort of a response to the, you know, increased use of fentanyl being used in drugs everywhere.

There were some statistics that show some fentanyl related deaths actually decreased between 2022 and 2023.

There was some reporting in a local newspaper here in Springfield, our weekly Illinois Times, that did a deep dive on this and looked at here in Sangamon County where the number of annual overdoses has more than doubled between 2019 and 2024.

Last year in Sangamon county we had 90 people die of overdoses, and the estimate was that about two thirds of those had fentanyl involved.

So, it's a serious problem here in Springfield and all around the state, as well.

And so this is attempt to try to get a handle on that.

- Okay.

Thanks for that update.

Dan, we have a related story now.

This is really interesting.

A high school student is helping to draft a bill to require opioid overdose medications in Illinois libraries.

Tell us about that.

- Yes, this idea came from a student named Jordan Henry who attends the Illinois Math and Science Academy in Aurora.

She's from Elgin.

This story, I should say, was reported by Capitol News Illinois this week.

It's really an interesting idea.

You know, she got interested in these public health issues and then met her local State Representative, Anna Moeller, who's a Democrat from Elgin.

And sort of proposed this idea to her and they got working on the bill.

And it sort of fits into a broad scheme of bills that have been passed over the last several years, making these overdose antagonists, Narcan, these kind of drugs that can reverse the effects of an overdose available at more places like schools and training more people to use them.

Public libraries are really interesting.

I happen to be sort of partial because I'm married to a librarian, but I know that, you know, they can really be the frontline in dealing with a lot of these issues.

You know, people who are experiencing homelessness or other issues often end up, you know, spending a lot of time, particularly in the very hot part of the year, the very cold part of the year in public libraries.

And, you know, they do deal with from time to time.

I don't know any statistics off the top of my head, but, you know, drug use, or drug overdose situations happening, you know, in library bathrooms and things like that.

So it really, I think could meet a need that is there and it's always good to have more of these resources available.

I think, you know, NPR just had actually a very interesting story this week about the decline in overdose deaths that Jason was talking about nationwide.

And a lot of that I think is attributed to the fact that these drugs that can reverse the effects of an overdose have become more widely available.

And so, you know, getting them in the library, which is sort of a hub in many communities, is I think a really interesting concept and great to see, you know, a young person active and engaged in what their state government is doing and trying to find ways to, you know, make society as a whole better.

- Yeah, that is really exciting, and one of the reasons why I wanted to make sure that we got to that story this week, 'cause there's always these discussions of lower voter turnout among young people and less civic involvements.

So, when young people get involved, it's something to really celebrate.

Jason, I know you do that work with college students at University of Illinois, Springfield, getting young people learning and involved, and it's so great.

And while that story was about this young person, a citizen helping to draft legislation, our next report is about folks fighting to stop some legislation, another form of civic involvement.

Hundreds rallied at the capitol to oppose a homeschool bill.

We're reading this week that there are many, many thousands of petition signatures against the homeschool legislation.

What is the latest?

- Yeah, as was reported previously, after some news reporting by Capitol News of Illinois, that sort of got into the details of there's some people that are referred to as "no schoolers."

They're, you know, students whose parents are claiming they're being homeschooled, but for whatever reason, nothing is happening.

There's maybe negligence involved, or parents not paying attention.

Or, in some cases they, Capitol News Illinois reported instances of, you know, students who were attending public school stopped attending public school.

The truancy officer went to visit their home.

The parents said, ah, we're homeschooling, leave us alone.

And at that point, because Illinois generally has no regulations on homeschooling, you know, proving in any way that actual learning is happening, or learning standards are being met, or students are meeting certain standards, or attending certain amount of days, or hours a day, you know, the truancy officer just tends to back off and say, okay, they're homeschooling.

That's really not much we can do.

A bill introduced by Representative Terra Costa Howard, a Democrat from Glen Ellyn, has sponsored a bill to institute some, you know, fairly basic, some would argue regulations, that homeschoolers have to register with the school district they would attend if they were going to public school, to let them know that yes, my child is being homeschooled.

And to sort of, you know, add some accountability to the situation.

There's some issues in Springfield where when the issue comes up, a Bat Signal goes out.

And the people who oppose or support the issue jump into action very quickly.

You know, one of them is usually gun control.

Another one is whenever they talk about, you know, maybe requiring helmets for motorcycle riders.

And here's another one with homeschools.

As a result, the homeschool and, you know, the home pro homeschool lobby jumped into action.

And as you mentioned, several hundred of them came to Springfield recently to lobby their legislators about killing this bill, stopping it at its tracks, leaving homeschoolers alone, giving them the freedom to educate their children however they like.

And as you mentioned, you know, there are thousands of people registering opposition to this as well.

The bill itself, if you're not familiar with the process, as a citizen or a lobbyist, you can go in and register, you know, support, or opposition, or no position on the bill.

And that gets read into the record.

There's more than, as I looked this morning, more than 24,000 slips, as they call them, in opposition to this bill.

That's the largest number I've seen on a bill in a long time.

The homeschool bill is supposed to be in a committee.

You have a committee hearing this week, possibly because of that large amount of opposition.

They've postponed that hearing.

Maybe to go back to the drawing board a bit to see what they can salvage from this bill, or, you know, maybe we'll see what happens.

We're coming up on the deadline.

The deadline is next week to get substantive bills out of committee to go on for the rest of the spring session.

So, we'll see where this goes.

Like I said, this is a hot button issue.

This gets people riled up in Springfield.

And they've really come out in force, at least in numbers.

And we'll see where it goes from here.

- It will be interesting.

24,000.

That is really, really interesting that there's a lot of activity related to this legislation.

Dan, actions to cut funding and slash federal jobs have sparked protests across the nation.

And Illinois is already feeling the effects of those cuts.

You have been reporting on this, what is the latest?

- Yes, so, my reporting has focused on the cuts to the US Agency for International Development, which one wouldn't think would have much impact right here in Illinois.

But there are several nonprofit groups, university-based researchers and centers that have funding through USAID to do work all over the globe.

A couple stories that we've done have focused, in particular, on the Soybean Innovation Lab at the University of Illinois, excuse me, Urbana-Champagne, which has had a contract with USAID for about a decade now.

Their work is to promote the growth of the soybean industry in Sub-Saharan Africa to help with, you know, bringing a commodity crop to that area, helping spur economic growth in parts of that continent.

But also the long-term ideas that soybean growers here in Illinois and across the United States have more markets to sell their product.

And the companies who process soybeans, some of which also are either based here in Illinois, or have a large presence in Illinois, have new markets.

And it's really been described as a win-win kind of situation.

This is just one example, but they were part of the freeze that happened right after President Trump took office.

Then it was being fought out in the courts.

But amid all of that, they got a notice that their contract was terminated by the State Department.

So, they are in the process of shutting down.

Similar situations going on in other nonprofits in the state, other universities that have received this funding.

You know, in Champagne, they're laying off a staff of couple dozen workers.

So, it's having, you know, some local economic impacts.

Obviously, we'll have, you know, the broader global impact if those markets aren't developed in those places around the country.

And just the latest that I saw as we were getting ready to record here on Wednesday, is that on Tuesday, a federal judge who is hearing a challenge to this funding freeze for USAID said that the State Department has to go ahead and pay the folks with these contracts for the work they had already done before this administration took office, but said that it looks like they can cancel these contracts going forward.

So, it's about $2 billion in work that's already done that they're gonna have to pay for.

But the judge also said that the administration gonna have to figure out how to spend the rest of the money that Congress had appropriated for these programs, because it looks like they did violate the Constitution by, you know, negating spending that was already approved by Congress.

- That is so interesting, and I'm glad that you included that context, because I've read about other cuts that have been made where organizations have already paid for work, expecting reimbursement from the federal government.

And now being told, sorry, we're cutting this program.

So, this is, by all means, gonna be something we're gonna hear about in the courts for a long time.

It is gonna be fascinating to watch.

Jason, we have about four minutes left.

And here's another interesting one that's a continuing story in Illinois.

The federal government has not taken action against Illinois yet, but there are concerns, as you know, about the so-called Tier 2 state pension system.

This was the subject of a recent column published in the Chicago Sun-Times.

Tell us about the column and the issue.

- Yeah, the column in the Sun-Times was by a Brooke Johnson, a sociology professor at Northeastern Illinois University.

She is in the Tier 2 system.

And like many people in the Tier 2 system, they are concerned about the sort of differences between Tier 2 state employees.

Those are ones that were hired on, or after January 1st, 2011.

And they have, you know, less lucrative, or less beneficial benefits than state workers hired before that time.

So, even though it's been, you know, 13, 14 years since Tier 2 has been in place, there's now a concern now that some changes need to be made, because the law requires that government pensions need to be at least as generous as Social Security benefits or, you know, the government, federal government could impose taxes.

So, there was talk.

It started ramp up last fall, especially.

They thought maybe something was gonna get done in the fall veto session.

It didn't, but there's a thought that the state government should do something to shore up the Tier 2 pension system, and make some changes to make it more equitable to the people their Tier 1 counterparts.

This is expensive.

There's some concerns about what's the best way to go.

There's some critics who say, you know, there's been no actuarial testing to prove that, you know, that the state is in violation of those federal rules and could face that tax.

So, we're sort of waiting for this issue to sort of reemerge this spring to see where it's gonna go.

Like I said, the committee deadline is approaching, so we'll see where it goes.

And just for the record, I am a state employee, working for the University of Illinois, Springfield, but I'm actually not in the pension system myself.

As a State University Retirement System employee, I had a choice of joining the traditional pension system, or SURS also offers sort of a retirement savings plan, more of a 401(k) style, where I put in some of my money, the state puts in some of the money, and it gets invested in the mutual funds.

And then I have sort of a 401(k) retirement plan at the end.

So, that's what I use.

So I don't have a vested interest in the Tier 1, Tier 2, at least for myself.

But many of my colleagues here are definitely concerned about it.

- Yes, thank you for that disclosure.

Of course, at WSIU, we're licensed by Southern Illinois University.

And employees here are many of them are part of this Tier 2, and there are also Tier 1 employees.

Jason, why do you think this is taking so long, because, of course, the longer this goes on, theoretically, the bigger the problem could become?

- Yeah, I think any very complex problem in Springfield when those come up, you know, just by nature, there's a, I mean, I think everyone wants to solve the problem somehow, but, you know, it's gonna be expensive.

And, you know, the governor at this point has, you know, avoided any major revenue enhancements, AKA, tax increases or fee increases, to afford any new programs or any fixes to any programs.

And I think they want to stick to that and definitely many of the lawmakers want to as well.

And this is gonna take real money to fix.

There's, you know, every new state employee that gets hired theoretically enters the Tier 2 system.

And it's a big problem, it's an expensive problem, and it's not gonna be easy to fix.

- We will be watching.

Jason, Dan, thank you for being with us.

We are out of time.

Thank you at home, as well.

That is "CapitolView."

For everyone at WSIU, I'm Fred Martino, have a great week.

(energetic music)