Overview
- The budget was signed Tuesday, June 16, 2026, and takes effect for fiscal year 2027 starting July 1, making it the largest state spending plan in Illinois history.
- Lawmakers avoided broad income or general sales-tax increases and instead created novel, targeted revenue sources including a progressive per-user social-media fee, taxes on digital-asset sales, a licensing regime and 15% tax for fantasy-sports operators, and levies on remote tobacco retailers and certain prediction-market bets.
- Key spending includes more than $300 million for public education, $100 million for food-insecurity programs, $143 million for healthcare for undocumented senior immigrants and $4 million for immigrant welcome centers, plus an Aug. 7–16 school-supplies sales tax holiday.
- A planned 1.3-cent-per-gallon gas-tax increase was delayed from July 1 to Jan. 1 and the budget allows a conditional transfer of $150 million in gas sales-tax revenue to the General Revenue Fund once transit funding targets are met.
- The social-media levy and other novel charges could face legal or administrative challenges similar to a contested Chicago social-media fee, and revenue estimates from corporate net operating loss cap changes and new levies helped lawmakers avoid broad tax hikes while funding new priorities.