CHICAGO — To enact his progressive agenda, Mayor Brandon Johnson is looking to Springfield for an assist, but powerful Speaker of the Illinois House Emanuel "Chris" Welch warns that money is tight.
"The mayor of Chicago and mayors all across this state have to come to us with realistic expectations. They can expect to hear us say ‘no’ from time to time," the Democrat told WGN during a Monday sit-down interview. "We’re entering into this budget season with a $3.1 billion projected deficit, that’s billion with a ‘B.’
Last week, Gov. JB Pritzker slammed Johnson and his team for not developing good relationships in Springfield. Welch calls Johnson a "very good friend" whom he’d like to help if the mayor would get specific about what he wants.
"I need to know what his wish list is. What’s his ask? Let me help you deliver what we can. What is that? I don’t know. But let’s have that conversation," Welch said.
To help Johnson and close the budget hole, Welch is not ready to endorse raising the state income tax.
"People don’t want us talking about taxes right now," he said.
Also last week, Welch got into a dust-up with Pritzker. Welch decided not to bring to the floor a Pritzker-backed bill that would regulate increasingly common hemp products, including banning the sale of synthetic THC gummies to children. The governor thought he had 60 House Democratic votes for the measure.
"It wasn’t even close," the speaker said. "The governor gave us a roll call. He knew beforehand that we were going to verify that roll call, and that roll call wasn’t even close."
The governor told reporters that during a private House Democratic caucus, officials from his administration were verbally abused by Democratic lawmakers, and he blames Welch for not intervening.
"Listen, the governor wasn’t present in our caucus meeting, and it got a little emotional," Welch said when asked why members of the governor’s team left the meeting in tears. "I did talk to those members immediately after caucus, and it’s my understand they reached out to those staffers immediately after I talked to them. Caucus, it gets emotional sometimes."
Welch said tensions ran high due to lingering bad feelings about the lack of minority ownership in the legal cannabis system.
"There’s a perception that the social equity program was not done correctly in the cannabis space. And here we have an industry where there are a lot of Black and brown owners currently in existence and the legislation that’s currently proposed would literally put those people out of business right now and it would turn it over to the cannabis people," he said.
Regarding transit, Welch added that reform is needed before Springfield provides Chicago’s regional operators with a lifeline. On the budget deficit, Welch said the state should look for efficiencies before it considers raising the income tax.
News,Region: Chicago,City: Chicago
via News | WGN TV https://wgntv.com
January 13, 2025 at 06:21PM
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