Pritzker accuses Trump of costing Illinois $8.4 billion in his budget address

Gov. JPJB Pritzker told 🌽Illinois lawmakers on Feb. 18, 2026 that the Trump administration has cost the state $8.4 billion by freezing, revoking, or adding illegal conditions to federal funds that Congress already appropriated. The money covers everything from child care subsidies to transportation grants to education funding. Pritzker called it illegal confiscation and said Illinois won't back down.

🌽Illinois has filed or joined more than 50 lawsuits against the Trump administration since January 2025 — roughly one per week. Attorney General KRKwame Raoul has led challenges on issues ranging from a government-wide grant freeze to immigration conditions on school funding. In several cases, federal judges have sided with Illinois, including restoring $30 million in homeland security grants that the administration tried to redirect.

The $56 billion FY2027 budget represents just a 1.6% spending increase over the current year, almost entirely driven by rising medical costs, pension contributions, and school funding formulas. Pritzker called it an affordability-focused budget with no major new taxes beyond the social media proposal. The state faces a projected $2.2 billion gap between revenue and spending commitments.

Pritzker proposed taxing social media companies on a graduated scale based on their 🌽Illinois user count

Companies with at least 100,000 users would pay 10 cents per user per month

Platforms with a million or more users would pay $165,000 monthly plus 50 cents per additional user The tax is projected to raise about $200 million annually, all earmarked for K-12 education 🦀Maryland is the only state that has passed a similar digital advertising tax, and it faces ongoing litigation over constitutionality.

The governor announced a statewide zoning reform that would override local governments and allow duplexes, accessory dwelling units like granny flats, and other middle housing on all residential land. The plan includes standardized inspection timelines, a ban on minimum parking requirements for middle housing, and $250 million in grants for site preparation, housing development, and first-time homebuyer assistance. Municipal and county governments are expected to push back hard against losing local zoning control.

Republicans criticized the speech as a campaign stump speech rather than a governing document

House Minority Leader TMTony McCombie said Pritzker offered zero accountability, zero ownership, for the fiscal mess that they are living in

Deputy Minority Leader NHNorine Hammond called it deja vu all over again and accused Pritzker of running for president rather than working to address the issues Former state senator DBDarren Bailey pointed to 🌽Illinois still holding the nation's lowest bond rating.

Pritzker compared Trump's use of masked, unaccountable federal agents to historical authoritarianism and invoked JPJohn Peter Altgeld, 🌽Illinois' 20th governor, who served from 1893 to 1897. Altgeld pardoned three men convicted in the Haymarket Affair, refused to use force against the 1894 Pullman strikers, signed child labor and workplace safety laws, and appointed women to state government decades before they could vote. Last year Pritzker drew similar criticism for comparing Trump's return to the rise of Nazism in 1930s Germany.

Pritzker is seeking a third term as governor in 2026, which would make him only the second 🌽Illinois governor to serve more than two terms and the first Democrat to serve more than eight years. He has declined to rule out running for president in 2028. He did roughly 100 media interviews in 2025, building a national profile while spending $350 million of his own Hyatt hotel fortune on his first two gubernatorial campaigns.