Dozens of amendments hit lawmakers in last days of session
Illinois lawmakers got many amendments at the end of the legislative session.
In the last nine days of the just-concluded legislative session, including a spill into the morning past the deadline, Illinois lawmakers had to wade through dozens of amendments.
From May 24 to the early-morning hours of June 1, 109 amendments were filed, with about half of those amended to a bill.
Twenty-one amendments to bills were filed on the last day of session and two after the midnight May 31 deadline. Nine were adopted, the most notable of which was the 3,703 pages for fiscal 2027 appropriations, part of the record-high $55.9 billion budget.
A typical practice at the end of session is to swap out bill language and replace it with new or entirely unrelated language.
The clearest example of this practice: the budget package passed with over $800 million in tax increases.
The complete budget package was House Bill 111, House Bill 2949 and Senate Bill 3019:
House Bill 111 is the appropriations measure, outlining which programs receive funding. It started with nine lines of text allotting only two dollars to the Department of Revenue, but those lines were deleted and replaced with the 3,703 pages.
House Bill 2949, which designs and implements a plan for budget execution, originally was intended to designate September as Scarring Alopecia Awareness Month. That version of the text was deleted and replaced with 848 pages on budget implementation.
Senate Bill 3019 outlines the taxes and other mechanisms lawmakers will use to balance the record-breaking budget, but it was introduced to amend the Illinois Finance Authority Act for agricultural borrowing. Its 31 lines of text were deleted and replaced with over 1,600 pages. It included more than $800 in new taxes and $185 million in fund sweeps.
More than half of Illinois voters polled cited high taxes as the top or a top-two in a list of seven issues facing Illinois. Illinoisians need lawmakers and the governor to hold each other accountable to make responsible decisions addressing the issues taxpayers truly care about.
The 2026 regular session was a missed opportunity for Illinois leaders to address those taxes. Lawmakers should take time to consider how legislation will affect Illinois residents and businesses.