Pickleball courts, dog parks and grants for an arts program led by House Speaker Michael Madigan’s wife are on a lengthy list of lawmakers’ pet projects paid for by a massive gambling expansion and tax hikes on smoking and parking.

The pork barrel bonanza comes courtesy of Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s $45 billion construction program that lawmakers approved as the spring legislative session spilled into overtime last weekend. It’s a signature away from becoming law.

For many years some school boards in Illinois, especially in suburban Chicago, routinely handed out the “two 20s.” What was that? As public school teachers and administrators neared retirement age, they received two back-to-back 20% pay hikes as a way to boost their pensions.

Not all districts were as generous. But the practice of eye-popping end-of-career pay hikes became the norm. Because pensions are based on an educator’s four highest years of pay, school boards would reward their retiring teachers and administrators on the way out the door, passing those now-higher pension costs onto the state.

Chicago businessman and former mayoral candidate Willie Wilson has formed a political action committee, and he’s taking aim at Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s graduated income tax proposal.

While he could end up paying significantly more in income taxes if Illinois voters next year approve a constitutional amendment needed to enact Pritzker’s tax plan, Wilson said he’s against it because it would hurt poor and middle-class Illinois residents by pushing wealthier people to move out.

Governor JB Pritzker, after signing the largest budget in Illinois history, declared that the Land of Lincoln is back, but he failed to complete the rest of that sentence. Illinois is back to the failed policies of more tax increases and out of control spending. Republican “leaders” who supported Pritzker’s big government fiscal policies should be ashamed of themselves. I voted ‘no’ on the Pritzker budget and tax increases.

The $40 billion Fiscal Year 2020 unbalanced budget that the governor signed contains more spending than the budget he originally proposed and includes no spending reforms. The budget also includes tax increases on health insurance and online purchases. The Illinois Constitution requires “appropriations for a fiscal year shall not exceed funds estimated by the General Assembly to be available during that year.”

DraftKings CEO Jason Robins typically reserves his Twitter feed for commentary about last night’s game or a shout-out to someone he’s met in his travels. On Sunday, he had an entirely different message.

“While it is good to see sports betting bills passed, excluding DraftKings and FanDuel is like passing a ride sharing bill that excludes Uber and Lyft,” he wrote. “Very disappointing that Illinois customers will not have the best options available to them for 18 months.”

Putting corrupt Chicago aldermen in prison has done little to deter other City Council members from trying to use their office to enrich themselves — so why keep doing it?

That’s the crux of a decidedly Chicago-style argument put forth by lawyers for former Ald. Willie Cochran in a court filing seeking to spare Cochran of prison for his fraud conviction because, well, it simply doesn’t work.

After more than a decade of discussion, construction on the Route 47 widening project in Woodstock could begin sooner than expected, the mayor said.

The Woodstock City Council met Tuesday to discuss a cost-sharing agreement to fund its share of a portion of the project, about $3.8 million. The widening project along the often-congested road now is included in the state’s capital bill, according to city documents.