By Capitol News Illinois
SPRINGFIELD – Illinois budget officials said Thursday that revenues are flowing into state coffers at a faster pace than previously estimated, meaning lawmakers will have more money to work with as they try to finalize a new budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
The Governor’s Office of Management and Budget officially raised its revenue estimate for the current fiscal year by more than $1.4 billion and by $842 million for the upcoming fiscal year.
Those figures are similar to the latest revised estimates from the General Assembly’s budget monitoring agency, the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, which said last week that revenues for the current year would go up about $2 billion while next year’s revenues would be $792 million more than previously forecasted.
SPRINGFIELD â As Illinois lawmakers continue to push for the passage of an energy overhaul this spring, the Illinois House Energy and Environment Committee discussed the latest proposal to enter the discussion â Gov. J.B. Pritzkerâs Consumers and Climate First Act.
House Bill 4074, sponsored by Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Chicago, was brought before committee for discussion only. Pritzkerâs 900-page proposal was released at the end of April with the goal of transitioning Illinois to 100 percent carbon-free energy â including nuclear power â by 2050.
âThis is the most important and pressing issue of our time,â Buckner said in the committee hearing. âWhile the past is not our fault, the future will be.â
Victory on behalf of consumers and accountability for Commonwealth Edison are far from assured by the governor’s new utility regulation proposal. But at least he is taking on the fight.
Now this is what a governor in full is supposed to look like.
With the close of the 2021 spring legislative session just three weeks away, Gov. J.B. Pritzker has put down a marker on the politically charged subject of utility regulation. And he did so, uncharacteristically, by bucking the unions a rare Pritzker move, indeed.
Joe Cahill
And they asked for it. A coalition of unions representing workers in the energy sector moved last month to front for ComEd in its effort to lock in higher rates and force customers to pay a premium to prevent a couple of nuclear power plants from shutting down. They even hired a former lobbyist for ComEd s parent company to aid the cause.
NationofChange
What impact will the Climate Union Jobs Act have on the renewable energy industry?
As renewable energy jobs unionize, we can expect to see an increase in the size of green power companies.
The COVID-19 pandemic contributed to an increase in global civilian job loss. As the market crashed, employment security decreased. Fears over future job protections led to the unionization of various positions.
A rise in eco-consciousness heightened the demand for green power jobs, and increased interest in renewable energy employment contributed to the recent unionization of positions in this industry. Most importantly, the drive for environmental employment led to the development of the Climate Union Jobs Act.