Fall Veto Session Begins Today in Springfield

The Illinois State Capitol is pictured in Springfield. Lawmakers will return to the Statehouse today for the first of a two-week fall veto session. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Jerry Nowicki)

By JERRY NOWICKI,
PETER HANCOCK,
HANNAH MEISEL
& ANDREW ADAMS
news@capitolnewsillinois.com

When lawmakers return to the Capitol today for their annual fall veto session, they have a full agenda, including a handful of vetoes from Gov. JB Pritzker to consider overriding, in addition to deciding whether to revive a private school scholarship program.

But additional state spending is unlikely to be on their agenda, according to recent comments from both the governor and House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch.

The prospect of a supplemental spending plan had been floated in recent months after the state ended the previous fiscal year with a surplus of about $700 million and revenues have continued to meet projections in the first quarter of the current fiscal year. 

New Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson had hoped the state might allocate more funding to help the city house some of the 18,500 migrants who have been bussed to Illinois from southern U.S. border states such as Florida and Texas in the past year.  

But Welch indicated last week that no such funding package would materialize in the veto session, answering a reporter’s inquiry about whether Johnson had requested the additional funding in a recent meeting between the two. 

“At that time, there was no request made (from Johnson), specifically because I think I made it clear that we were not expecting to do a supplemental budget in veto session,” Welch said. 

The veto session runs today through Thursday and Nov. 7 to 9.