Preview of Governor Pritzker’s 2026 Budget Address
21st Show host Brian Mackey speaks to Illinois House Minority Leader Tony McCombie (Bottom left) and President of the Illinois State Senate Don Harmon (Bottom right) prior to Governor Pritzker's address. Candace Dane Chambers / Chicago Sun-Times and Jose Zepeda/Illinois Public Media
Governor JB Pritzker is delivering his annual State of the State address in which he plans to share his vision for taxes and spending in government. It comes after an intense year in which Illinois saw the Trump administration make multiple attempts to cut funding for programs in blue states.
The government also deployed thousands of federal agents to Chicagoland — ostensibly to round up people in the country without legal status, but using such aggressive tactics and casting such a wide net that they generated intense resistance from people in the area. Leaders in the state legislature and policy experts share their analysis and expectations of this year's budget.
GUESTS
Don Harmon
President of the Illinois State Senate
Tony McCombie
Illinois House Minority Leader
Paula Worthington
Senior Policy Advisor at the Civic Federation
Lecturer at the Harris School of Public Policy at University of Chicago
Brian Gaines
Honorable W. Russell Arrington Professor in State Politics
Professor, Department of Political Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
