(CAPITOL CITY NOW) – Gov. JB Pritzker does not sound as if a proposed Chicago-area mass transit bailout can get through the Illinois General Assembly in the remaining day and a half of veto session.
“As it is, it’s not going forward,” Pritzker said during an appearance on a Christian County farm Wednesday morning. “There’s got to be a lot of discussion between the House and Senate to come up with a final bill, because it’s not going to be what the House has put forward.”
In May the Senate passed a bill funded in large part by a tax on deliveries to homes. Opponents countered that many deliveries are necessities and not luxuries, and the House never called the bill. Components of a possible House bill include a tax on streaming and other forms of entertainment.
Another idea, a so-called “billionaires’ tax,” would be on unrealized capital gains. Pritzker said that’s never been tried before at the state and federal level and is far from developed enough for a discussion yet. Expanding the use of speed cameras would, Pritzker said, double down on something already established to be riddled with corruption.
The governor said it’s time to “take a pause” on speed cameras, and taking a pause just may be what lawmakers do on bolstering mass transit until 2026.
Pritzker visited the Curtin family farm near Taylorville Wednesday to sign an executive order that state agencies enhance Illinois’ agricultural commerce in response to the Trump administration’s tariffs, which the governor said are hurting Illinois family farms.
