Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s budget proposal, including his call for legalizing recreational marijuana, will be among the top issues Illinois state lawmakers will face when they return to the Capitol on Tuesday, following their two-week spring break.

 

Pritzker, a Democrat who was elected to his first term in November, came into office in January facing a backlog of unpaid bills totaling roughly $8 billion, not counting late-payment interest; another $134 billion in unfunded pension liabilities; and a budget situation that he described as having a $3.5 billion “structural deficit.”

 

His short-term plan for climbing out of that hole calls for enacting a host of new revenue streams, including, among other things, higher cigarette and tobacco taxes, a new tax on shopping bags, a new “privilege” tax on certain kinds of health insurance companies, legalizing sports betting, and legalizing adult recreational use of marijuana, which he has said could generate $170 million in licensing revenues alone.

 

Click Here to read more.