SCHAUMBURG – An array of topics, from election results to immigration and energy, were covered in a webinar discussion with Illinois Republican House Leader Tony McCombie earlier this week with TMA Advocacy Team members David Curtin and Rich Carter.
View the whole conversation with Leader McCombie HERE.
McCombie addressed concerns about how changes in the Administration with Donald Trump as president could affect Illinois’ welcoming immigration climate. States like California are passing emergency legislation to “Trump-proof” their immigration policies, even to the point of providing funding to those who’ve entered the US illegally with free legal assistance.
While immigration could be a “serious threat from the federal government” for Illinois, she sees no need for the state to respond like that during the “lame duck” session.
“There’s nothing the state could do [with its current immigration policies] other than roll back the sanctuary state. I don’t believe the governor is going to do that. We’ll have to figure out how we will handle their initiatives once [Trump’s] actually in office,” she said.
During the upcoming session starting January 8, 2025, McCombie warned of a predicated huge state budget hole in 2025—despite Governor Pritzker shrugging the concern away. The funding shortage is complicated by issues within the state’s employee and teacher pension plans.
In addition, she said, the state’s mass transit system is facing a “fiscal cliff” that affects college towns and rural areas, in addition to the state’s urban areas.
One Democrat-proposed solution is to raise taxes to fill the budget hole to fill the pension deficit and place it within a lock box – a failed solution that was tried by the federal government for Social Security recipients.
Questions from TMA members focused on topics including rising energy costs. McCombie shared an experience she had visiting a clean coal plant in southern Illinois, where in the past five years, the company has diminished its team from 300 employees down to 60.
“They were very proactive in the coal industry for clean coal. Our coal burns well, it is good coal. Now we are shipping in coal from other states – not as clean as Illinois’ coal – to meet the needs of our state. That is really silly because we’re not manufacturing it, but we’re still using it – we’re going to pay extra and it’s not good for our environment. The coal is coming in on rail cars,” she said.
McCombie has introduced an extension of five or ten years to the green energy deadlines imposed by Illinois’ environmental goals – some of the strictest in the nation.
“There’s no way on God’s green earth that we are going to be zero carbon in the timeline set currently,” she said. “Still, the governor is still very strong on his timeline.”
McCombie suggested the issues concerning the Biometric Information Protection Act would likely face more challenges in the next legislative session, looking for a “true solution.”
Finally, McCombie addressed the possibility of another attempt to change Illinois’ Constitution in 2026 to move away from Illinois’ flat income tax and adopt a graduated income tax.
TMA actively opposed the 2020 effort by participating in a grassroots campaign that led to a significant loss for Governor Pritzker and the Democrats that pushed for a tax rate change that would have negatively affected their small and midsize manufacturing members.
“I thank [TMA] for the help to [stop that initiative in 2020]. There will be another, and I will ask for your help again,” she said. “Our [income] tax in Illinois actually is one of the only good things we have, even with the small increase in 2017.”
Illinois’ 2024 ballot included an advisory on the topic worded in a way that appears to push more of the state’s financial burden onto millionaires, rather than the expanse of citizens’ budgets it would actually affect.
Stay involved in the discussion, McCombie encouraged TMA and its members, or “we will definitely have a graduated income tax in Illinois.”
McCombie plans to remain the House Republican leader in the upcoming Illinois General Assembly session. She is a member of TMA’s Small and Midsize Manufacturing (SaMM) Caucus.
More pertinent information directly from lawmakers and policymakers concerning small and midsize manufacturing will come from TMA in the weeks and months ahead.
