NOTE: NBC Chicago will offer a livestream of the governor’s State of the State address on its website, the NBC Chicago app and the station’s 24/7 Streaming News channel.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker will deliver his annual State of the State address on Wednesday, and he’ll have to address a potentially large budget deficit.
Pritzker will lay out his vision for the coming year when he addresses the General Assembly in Springfield, and while in previous years he’s been able to tout the state paying down its debts and stashing money away in rainy day funds, this year he’ll have to address what could be a large budget deficit.
According to estimates released in November by the Illinois Office of Management and Budget, the state had a projected $3.2 billion budget deficit for fiscal year 2026, with the expiration of federal COVID funding and increased allocations for K-12 education and pension payments making up a significant amount of that projected deficit.
In a press release detailing the projected deficit, state officials cautioned that Illinois’ “ability to fund new programs will be severely limited,” and that lawmakers would have to consider a variety of steps to close the projected deficit.
It is expected that potential federal funding reductions by the administration of President Donald Trump could also have serious impacts on the state’s budget in coming years.
The Illinois Constitution requires lawmakers to pass balanced budgets, meaning that some combination of spending cuts, increased revenues and borrowing could be implemented to address the shortfall.
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Illinois has also steadily seen its tax revenues increase in recent years, but the OMB’s projections for fiscal year 2026 accounted for mostly flat rates of revenue at roughly $53 billion. That, coupled with the increasing cost of covering healthcare programs and pension payments, were a driving force behind roughly half of the projected deficit in the OMB report.
Pritzker is expected to address those issues during his speech in Springfield, with Republican lawmakers and several different caucuses of Democratic lawmakers also expected to react to the address Wednesday afternoon.
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