About a week after the state budget passed both chambers in the dark of night, Attorney General Kwame Raoul spoke to the City Club of Chicago to complain that his budget was cut by $10 million.

“For every dollar of General Revenue Fund spending on the attorney general’s office, we return $21. Anybody who has that in their portfolio is rich, but we can’t do this type of work without adequate investment and, unfortunately, at approximately 3 a.m. in the morning a week ago Monday, we were shorted about $10 million from what our overall appropriation was for fiscal year ’26, and I can’t imagine why what came about at 3 a.m. in the morning.”

During Gov. JB Pritzker’s press conference in June to sign a package of bills supported by Raoul to ban hidden junk fees and prohibiting ticket resellers from offering tickets they don’t actually have, the governor heavily praised Raoul for his work on not only consumer protection, but also for defending Illinoisans against constant attempts by President Donald Trump’s administration to take away various rights and funding from people in this state.

So, my colleague Isabel Miller decided to ask Raoul about his budget cut. “Have you talked to the governor about restoring that $10 million in budget cuts from your office?” she asked.

After an awkward pause, Raoul said he’d had “several conversations with members of the legislature, and I’ve spoken to the governor just today.”

“I understand from serving 14 years in the legislature that come the end of May, there are competing interests, and under this governor’s leadership and this legislature we’ve been passing balanced budgets consistently, which was not a common thing in the past. That means that come the end of May, there’s some difficult decisions to make.”

But Raoul went on to say, “Our office is burdened, and you know we need to be at least funding to flat level, and I think we’ll work our way through it through these conversations.”

Isabel then asked the governor, “You’ve said at multiple press conferences, ‘AG Raoul is our defense, he’s doing such a great job.’ Are you committed to getting that flat level of funding restored?”

After praising Raoul yet again for attempting to keep the Trump administration in check, and thanking Raoul for recognizing the state’s current budget challenges under this federal administration, the governor said, “We’re not going to let it happen that he can’t go to court or that he can’t do the things that are necessary to protect the people of the state of Illinois, but we’re all tightening our belts.”

Three amendments were introduced to the bill the legislature used to pass the budget. The governor’s office says it controlled the second amendment, and that amendment prevented a Raoul budget cut.

The third amendment became the actual budget. That amendment, controlled by the Senate, is the one which cut $10 million from Raoul’s spending plan. I haven’t been able to find a satisfactory answer as to why Raoul’s funding was cut, but some have said that Raoul may have upset some senators with the way his office lobbied those very bills mentioned above.

Whatever the case, amendment three was a mess. The governor issued an almost unheard of 37 item and reduction vetoes to correct mistakes. And some other passages were so poorly drafted that a follow-up supplemental appropriation bill could be needed to fix its many other problems.

This botched amendment is a metaphor for the entire spring session. Everything was deliberately back-loaded to the final week and the two chambers were kept apart until May so members couldn’t work on fixing problems and, in the end, nobody had enough bandwidth to get everything right.

And if the budget is supposed to be the most important bill passed every year, then everybody clearly dropped the ball.

I do not see why they didn’t just adjourn at midnight on May 31 and call everybody back the following morning. Staff would have had more time to rest and work on the budget.

Instead, both chambers chose to remain in session until nearly dawn during a massive late-night final evening cram session like they were all a bunch of panicky sophomores.

The Democrats are constantly complaining about Trump’s assault on Illinois and other “blue” states. They’ve passed a few bills here in an attempt to rein in some of the excesses, but the only institution truly standing between Illinois and Trump is the attorney general’s office.

If Democrats are truly serious, then they should use the budget to back up their rhetoric.

Rich Miller also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and CapitolFax.com.