2025 State of the State Preview

Host of the 21st Show Brian Mackey speaks to Illinois House Minority Leader Tonie McCombie ahead of Governor Pritzker's 2025 budget address. Christine Hatfield/Illinois Public Media
Gov. JB Pritzker is set to deliver his 2025 State of the State Address today. Illinois leadership is up against a lot this year from a projected $3 billion budget gap to tremendous uncertainty about funding from Washington.
Two prominent Illinois lawmakers and some policy experts join us during our live broadcast from the Illinois Statehouse to discuss the state's finances and concerns about federal funding cuts.
GUESTS
Speaker Chris Welch
D-Hillside • Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives
Leader Tony McCombie
R-Savanna • House Minority Leader
David Merriman
James J. Stukel Presidential Professor in the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago
Co-Lead, Fiscal and Economic Policy Working Group, Institute of Government and Public Affairs
Paula R. Worthington
Senior Lecturer and Academic Director, Harris Policy Labs, Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago