Nearly 10,000 ideas for Illinois laws. Just 44 came with price tags.
Almost 10,000 bills were filed in the 103rd Illinois General Assembly that just ended. Of those, only 44 calculated how much the proposals would cost taxpayers.
How much did legislation passed in the Illinois General Assembly in the past two years cost state taxpayers? No one knows. Illinois lawmakers’ almost never bother disclosing those costs.
From 9,926 bills introduced, state lawmakers passed over 1,000 bills into law during the 103rd Illinois General Assembly, which ended in January 2025. Even when it does not involve a direct appropriation of state funds, those proposals often mean more taxpayer money must be allocated to program, project or personnel costs to carry out the law.
But of all those bills filed, only 44 included a fiscal note with an estimate of the cost of the proposal to taxpayers, according to data collected by the Illinois Policy Institute. That’s less than one half of 1% of the bills filed.
Twenty-three of those fiscal notes were included in the legislation passed into law, which translates into a little over 2% of laws passed in the past General Assembly. For the rest, taxpayers will have to guess at what the costs might be.
Most states require fiscal notes on all or substantially all bills, according to a 2015 study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The study measured state compliance with five rules of best practice, which include: (1) requiring fiscal notes on all proposals; (2) having fiscal notes prepared by a nonpartisan entity; (3) projecting the long-term impact of the proposal; (4) revising estimates with changes to the proposal; and (5) posting fiscal notes online.
Illinois was one of five states that only complies with one of these practices: in Illinois, the few fiscal notes the state does produce are posted online. But Illinois law allows the sponsor of a bill to determine if it needs a fiscal note. If another lawmaker disagrees, he or she needs to gain the support of a majority of members to generate the price tag.
As Illinoisans face $144 billion in pension debt and some of the highest taxes in the nation, taxpayers should know how much the legislation proposed in Springfield will end up costing them. The state should require fiscal notes for most, if not all bills. Those notes should be prepared by a neutral party. The estimates should project costs up to at least four years after the measure becomes law. The estimates should be required to be redone if the bill is amended.
Even if they won’t make actual policy changes, state lawmakers ought to up front and open about what their legislation will cost. They should make fiscal notes common practice in the Statehouse.