The budget sent to Pritzker included a 5% pay raise for state lawmakers, to $98,304. State law sets the pay for legislators to increase annually with inflation, and lawmakers took no action to stop it from occurring in FY26. The budget also includes:

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WLS) -- Governor JB Pritzker is set to sign the 2026 budget into law Monday morning. State lawmakers passed the record-setting $55 billion plan two weeks ago. It includes hundreds-of-millions in education funding and an increase in taxes on sports betting and tobacco products.

Taxes are going up for cell phones, tobacco and vaping products, sports betting, bed and breakfasts and more with the new state budget Illinois Gov. J.B.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a series of budget bills on Monday, allowing tax changes and several other policies to take effect on July 1.

According to the Chicago Police Department, one person was taken into custody after striking an officer during the “No Kings” march and rally on Saturday. A 21-year-old Matteson man was arrested for impersonating a police officer and carrying a loaded weapon at an anti-immigration enforcement protests last Thursday.

The U.S. Department of Justice is telling a federal appeals court that Illinois’ gun and magazine ban is unconstitutional.

Gov. JB Pritzker said his name was not among those on lists kept by the man charged in shootings of two Minnesota lawmakers. Pritzker said there were “Illinois folks” listed but did not provide names.

Rep. Brandon Gill dredged up the eight-year-old tweet from Pritzker during a heated House Oversight Committee hearing with sanctuary state governors.

House Oversight Chair James Comer requested in April that these Democratic governors testify, claiming that the "Trump administration is taking decisive action to deport criminal illegal aliens from our nation, but reckless sanctuary states like Illinois, Minnesota, and New York are actively seeking to obstruct federal immigration enforcement."