VOTE: Which Is The Biggest Change Coming to Illinois After Long Weekend for Lawmakers?

Illinois politicians worked overtime to pass a host of new legislation before calling it quits for the Spring session. It was refreshing to see both sides of the aisle work together to get things done (even Republicans seem to be happy-ish with the new budget).

So which piece of new legislation is the biggest deal for our state? Obviously, it depends on who you are, what you do and what you find important…each one of us will be different.

So is it:

Recreational marijuana?
Abortion protection?
Graduated Income Tax (to be voted on by all of us in 2020)?
Gambling expansion/sports betting?
State construction program (which includes a host of new taxes, like the doubling of the gas tax)
Or is there something else you find more important than these?

All of these are HUGE changes for Illinois, but the marijuana laws stick out as notable. It’s not just that people can now smoke recreationaly, but how it impacts the criminal justice system. There will be thousands of people who have been convicted of weed-based crimes who will have their records cleaned because of the new law, and it will free up police and the judicial system with no more small-time marijuana issues for them to address.

It should also be noted that amidst all of this, politicians did vote to give themselves a nice little cost of living pay raise that reverses a decades-long freeze on their pay. Typical.

It will also mean some nice income for the state (assuming they don’t mess it up, which is by no means a certainty!)

What do you think?

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