“What would Illinois be like if we had different political leadership?”

It’s midafternoon on a weekday, and Illinois Rep. Christian Mitchell is on the other end of the phone. He laughs.

“Oh, you must be calling people who have already started drinking for the day,” says Mitchell, a Chicago Democrat.

The Illinois Senate on Monday afternoon pulled the plug on a series of proposals designed to jump-start budget talks, saying they would revisit the ideas after the new General Assembly is sworn in Wednesday.

Democratic Senate President John Cullerton and Senate Republican leader Christine Radogno both acknowledged it would take some time before such far-reaching and complex measures would be in a position for a vote.

The Illinois General Assembly has a mere sliver of opportunity for action before a new class of legislators is sworn in Wednesday, but the Illinois House and Senate appear to be taking divergent approaches to Illinois’ yearslong political stalemate as well as to getting the financially rudderless state a budget for the remainder of the fiscal year, after the expiration of a partial spending plan on Dec. 31 left public universities and social services without funding.

Top senators are backing a multi-pronged package that deals with the budget but also raises the state income tax and grants Gov. Bruce Rauner victories on portions of his sought-after agenda, while Democrats who make up a majority of the Illinois House on Monday afternoon signaled a lack of faith in that package by moving forward with a stopgap budget measure the sponsor says is a “lifeline” to keep universities and social services afloat through June.

The Illinois Senate on Monday easily approved Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to shore up two city worker pension funds, but the measure faces an uncertain future now that it’s headed to a skeptical Gov. Bruce Rauner.

The mayor’s bill is aimed at preventing retirement systems for municipal workers and laborers from going broke in about a decade. The two funds are a combined $21 billion short of what’s needed to pay out future benefits, and the plan relies on newly hired employees paying more toward their retirement.

The largest state employee union said it will accept a four-year wage freeze and higher health insurance costs in an attempt to get the Rauner administration back to the bargaining table.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees sent a letter to Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner on Monday outlining what it called a “framework” to resume contract talks that broke off a year ago.

A bill to help salvage two city worker pension funds now heads to the governor, who has vowed not to sign it without pension reform.

The Illinois Senate on Monday voted to approve the measure 41-0.

It provides for taxpayers and government employees putting more money into retirement systems that cover laborers and municipal workers. The Illinois House passed the bill in December.

Gov. Bruce Rauner and House Speaker Michael Madigan each seem to believe they will be the ultimate survivor and the other guy the loser in their ongoing political war.

But what if neither of them survives?

The closure of Trunk Club’s distribution center on Goose Island and the shuttering of a River North gym contribute to more than 600 layoffs expected in Illinois in the coming months, according to notices filed with the state in December.

Trunk Club, a Chicago-based tech company that ships customers clothing and accessories picked out by personal stylists, first announced in June that it would be closing its distribution center to work more closely with parent company Nordstrom. Trunk Club said then that it would cut about 250 jobs.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel isn’t too popular with the city’s cabbies — and his latest comments about the taxi industry aren’t likely to help.

“Before taxi drivers worried about Uber; it’s bike-sharing they should worry about,” Emanuel told an audience Monday in Detroit.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration plans to appeal a court ruling forcing public participation at City Council meetings in a legal maneuver that a plaintiff calls further evidence of Emanuel’s aversion to transparency.

“It’s throwing every taxpayers’ good money after bad. They should just do the right thing, rather than go nuclear on cases like this where they’re clearly in the wrong,” plaintiff Andy Thayer said Monday.

Chicago aldermen demanded Monday that Mayor Rahm Emanuel present the City Council with a plan to use millions left unclaimed after a token $20 million property tax rebate instead of doling out the money to pet projects of his own choosing.

Even before providing a full accounting of rebate spending, Emanuel has already used the unspent money to bankroll more than $5 million worth of programs.

A Wicker Park elementary parent called out the Chicago Teachers Union over the weekend on a national stage, claiming the union stopped parents who volunteered to staff their children’s school library after its librarian was laid off.

Mark Hendershot, a parent at A.N. Pritzker Elementary, penned an op-ed titled “The Library Lockout at Our Elementary School” published online by The Wall Street Journal in which he criticizes CTU for keeping parents from temporarily filling in to work a “union job” earlier this school year.

Two Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago cops who were canned after they were recorded using racial slurs and talking about sleeping on the job claim their firing violated their constitutional rights.

Denis Lawlor was overheard giving rookie MWRD cop Daniel Varallo an unorthodox orientation to life on the job at the floodwater control agency’s Stickney plant in 2015, including the location of a secret room where officers kept a beer fridge, and calling another officer a “stupid Alabama hill n—–.”

It’s full speed ahead for a lawsuit filed against the Museum of Science and Industry for allegedly damaging a record-setting jet car on display for 50 years.

A Chicago federal judge last week ruled that Craig Breedlove can move forward with his claim the museum caused more than $395,000 in damage to his historic Spirit of America car.

Mayors from Lisle, Warrenville and Woodridge on Monday morning filed formal objections to an effort to ask voters in their communities if they want to be annexed by the city of Naperville.

Warrenville Mayor David Brummel, Lisle Mayor Joe Broda and Woodridge Mayor Gina Cunningham filed the objections in DuPage County Circuit Court as citizens of the municipalities.

The last of the residents who went missing when Illinois licensing officials shut down their group homes was found safe with family on Friday, ending a search that had dragged on for weeks, according to a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Human Services.

Citing safety violations, state regulators revoked the license of Disability Services of Illinois’ network of eight group homes on Nov. 28 and said they planned to move all 45 residents with developmental disabilities to safer homes managed by other providers.

Legislation requiring lead testing in schools and daycares was approved by the Illinois House of Representatives according to an announcement on Monday.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan initiated the legislation after the Illinois Environmental Council found alarming levels of lead in many Chicago and suburban school districts, according a statement from the attorney general’s office.

Illinois residents concerned about the future of the state’s environment can rest assured Sen. Pam Althoff and Rep. Steve Andersson, among others, are doing something about it.

Lawmakers in the state House approved on Monday afternoon a major criminal justice reform package sponsored by state Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth.

The measure, which passed 83-26 and is expected to get a Senate vote on Tuesday, includes recovery services to aid violent crime victims; allows good-time credit off sentences for prisoners who complete rehabilitative courses while incarcerated that are specifically targeted to fix their individual shortcomings; and gives judges added discretion for probation-only sentences in some first-time drug cases.