Illinois residents can make their voices heard during the legislative process with the General Assembly scheduled to return to Springfield for the annual Fall Veto Session in October. 

Communicating with legislators is one way residents can get involved and stay engaged on current issues pending before the legislature. State lawmakers offer email addresses, district and Springfield office locations, office numbers, and surveys that residents can utilize. In both district and Springfield offices, legislators have dedicated staff that field calls, emails, and meetings with residents to provide critical real-time feedback to elected officials. 

Illinois is known for many things, but one of the most haunting is our state’s reputation for corruption. With four of our last ten governors and our last Speaker of the Illinois House being convicted on criminal charges occurring while in office, our state serves as a cautionary tale for the rest of the United States.

Outside of Illinois’ political corruption, Illinois has a rich history that includes accounts from some of the most famous criminals. One of the most notorious was involving Al Capone, a mastermind and mobster in Chicago, known for running a highly successful criminal enterprise. During his reign, Al Capone allegedly used the Congress Hotel in Chicago, situated on the famous Michigan Avenue, as his criminal headquarters. The building has an iconic history, built in 1893, being classified as “new Chicago,” as it came after the horrific Chicago Fire of 1871. The famous hotel is known as the “Home of Presidents,” as it has served as lodging for several United States presidents, including Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. 

BUDGET/TAXES
Get ready for higher taxes: Gov. Pritzker issues splashy executive order to lay foundation for big tax hike. In “Executive Order 2025-05”, published this week, Gov. Pritzker admitted that Illinois’ economy is going downhill, and issued a text that tried to shift blame to the federal government for Illinois’ longstanding budget woes.

The FY26 budget passed by the Democrat supermajority already included over $1 billion in tax increases, fund sweeps, and other budgetary gimmicks, and was still only barely balanced on paper. Democrats supported and the Governor signed this precariously balanced budget despite multi-year, repeated warnings from credit ratings groups and economists that a recession was on the horizon. Ignoring these warnings will have more of an effect on the FY26 budget than any federal action will. 

Illinoisans deserve steady leadership and straight answers. Instead, Governor JB Pritzker shifts with the political winds, saying one thing when the cameras are on and doing another when the pressure hits. The result is confusion on budgets, mixed signals on public safety and immigration, and a credibility gap that keeps growing. When leaders flip, families pay. 

Dating back centuries, southern Illinois has been home to some of the best hunting and fishing opportunities in the United States. Southern Illinois, in particular, is a region rich in natural resources, beautiful forests, abundant lakes, rivers, and streams, and a plethora of fishing and hunting spots to land a variety of species of fish and wild game.

Early settlers to the area farmed, hunted, and fished the expansive public lands and waterways, taking deer, turkey, waterfowl, and a variety of fish to help feed their families. As the means of production improved, the need to hunt and gather to provide sustenance gave way to more readily available and easily attainable food sources. However, the tradition of hunting and fishing has remained a staple for millions of southern Illinoisans. 

Governor Pritzker is blaming Washington for a crisis he created. Since taking office, he has increased state spending by roughly 40% and just signed the largest budget in Illinois history.

Transparency first. House Republicans have demanded real transparency across agencies and the budget process, including time to review billion-dollar bills and clear accounting of dedicated funds. The current process hides the ball and fails taxpayers. 

Illinois families are already reeling from the nearly $1 billion in tax hikes shoved through by Democrats during the Spring Session in late May. And as Fall has descended upon us and the Halloween season awaits, Democrats once again have your pocketbooks on their radar. No, this isn’t some scary Halloween hoax; it’s daily life in Illinois, the Land of Pumpkin Spice and Tax Hikes that are Not So Nice.

Just a few short months ago, Illinois Democrats worked their ‘magic’ and passed several tax increases. These tax increases directly affected sports betting wagers, hotel and short-term rentals, cell phones, and tobacco products. More tax increases were put on the table and did not pass, but that does not mean those proposals are dead. Not by a long shot.