Illinois AG – Attorney General Kwame Raoul said his office was shorted about $10 million after Illinois’ budget was finalized late and unevenly in May, leaving him scrambling for clarity in a political fight that’s been tightly linked to his work against the Trump administr
About a week after Illinois’ budget passed both chambers in the dark of night, Attorney General Kwame Raoul stepped to the microphone at the City Club of Chicago with a complaint that landed like a bill you didn’t expect.
He said his office’s budget was cut by $10 million—shorted “at approximately 3 a.m. in the morning a week ago Monday,” as he put it—despite the governor’s public praise of his work. Raoul framed the loss in blunt financial terms. saying his office generates results that depend on sustained investment: “For every dollar of General Revenue Fund spending on the attorney general’s office. we return $21.”.
Then he asked the question that lingered in the room: why would the office be reduced when it was already trying to do its job—especially with what he described as ongoing pressure from President Donald Trump’s administration.
The timing, Raoul said, matters. He tied the cut to the state’s broader fight over consumer protection and rights—work he says has made his office a target in the current political climate. In June, during Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s press conference to sign a package of bills supported by Raoul. the governor praised the attorney general’s efforts to ban hidden junk fees and to prevent ticket resellers from offering tickets they don’t actually have.
In that same spirit, Raoul’s budget cut raised eyebrows when questions turned toward the governor.
Isabel Miller asked him directly: “Have you talked to the governor about restoring that $10 million in budget cuts from your office?” After an awkward pause, Raoul said he had “several conversations with members of the legislature,” and that he had “spoken to the governor just today.”
Raoul pointed to the predictable stress that comes as May ends and lawmakers weigh competing priorities. He said that after 14 years serving in the Legislature. he’d learned that “come the end of May. there are competing interests. ” and that under the governor’s leadership and the Legislature. Illinois has “been passing balanced budgets consistently.” He contrasted that with what he described as a less reliable past.
But in the middle of that explanation was a harder reality: his office, he said, is already under strain.
“We need to be at least funding to flat level,” Raoul said, adding, “I think we’ll work our way through it through these conversations.”
Miller followed up with a challenge meant to test whether the governor’s praise would translate into dollars. She asked Pritzker, “You’ve said at multiple press conferences, ‘AG Raoul is our defense, he’s doing such a great job.’ Are you committed to getting that flat level of funding restored?”
Pritzker answered by reaffirming his support for Raoul’s role in court and in protecting Illinoisans. saying. “We’re not going to let it happen that he can’t go to court or that he can’t do the things that are necessary to protect the people of the state of Illinois. ” while also signaling restraint: “but we’re all tightening our belts.”.
Even as the governor said he wouldn’t let Raoul be blocked, the path to the cut still didn’t satisfy Raoul’s allies—or Miller. The mechanics of how the changes were made became part of the confusion.
Three amendments were introduced to the bill the Legislature used to pass the budget. The governor’s office said it controlled the second amendment, which prevented a cut to Raoul’s budget. The third amendment became the actual budget. and it was controlled by the Senate—the one that cut $10 million from Raoul’s spending plan.
No matter how the conversation shifted from assurances to process, the central frustration remained: Raoul and his supporters said they could not find a satisfactory answer as to why the reduction happened.
Some have suggested Raoul may have upset senators because of how his office lobbied for the bills—those bills the governor highlighted in June. Whatever the reason, the budget changes themselves, Raoul’s team argued, were not handled cleanly.
The account described amendment three as a tangle. The governor issued an almost unheard-of 37-item veto reduction to correct mistakes, and some other passages were so poorly drafted that a follow-up supplemental appropriation bill could be needed to fix additional problems.
Taken together. the details added up to a scene that felt less like careful governing and more like a rush job—one that matched the way Raoul described the cut itself. The budget was back-loaded to the final week. the chambers were kept apart until May. and members allegedly lacked bandwidth to correct problems before everything closed. The story closes on a simple accusation: if the budget is supposed to be the most important bill passed every year. “then everybody clearly dropped the ball.”.
The criticism didn’t stop at process. It widened into a political argument about what Illinois is supposed to do when President Donald Trump’s administration pressures “blue” states.
Democrats. the piece says. complain often about Trump’s assault on Illinois and other blue states. and they have passed a few bills meant to rein in some excesses. But in the view expressed here. the only institution truly standing between Illinois and Trump is the attorney general’s office—making the $10 million cut feel personal. and harder to ignore.
If Democrats are serious, the argument goes, they should use the budget to match the rhetoric. Raoul’s office is where those fights land—in court—and the questions swirling around how his funding was reduced have made the timing of this spring session feel like more than an administrative mishap.
Illinois budget Kwame Raoul J.B. Pritzker attorney general General Revenue Fund Senate amendments hidden junk fees ticket resale consumer protection Trump administration