Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch expects Chicago to be on Trump's 'dart board'

Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch said Thursday he expects President-elect Donald Trump to put Chicago "in the middle of a dart board," but there is no need for the state to protect itself any more than it already has.

“Thank God we live in Illinois because, we’re already Trump-proof,” Welch told the Sun-Times.

“We did a lot of the hard work the first time…We took him at his word the first time when he said he would overturn Roe v. Wade and turn the powers of state government against immigrant communities.”

With Trump's second inauguration slated for Monday, Welch said he expects “a lot of the fights” to be “on the state levels.”

“There may my some things that we have to do as a state with state’s rights to continue to push back against his agenda,” he said.

“We have to be concerned that he’s going to do what he says he’s going to do—that he’s going to put the city of Chicago and other…urban areas in the middle of a dart board. We have to be vigilant of that and be ready to respond,” he said.

The Democratic speaker said his greatest fear is the one that outgoing President Joe Biden expressed in his farewell address from the Oval Office: That an “oligarchy” of tech billionaires led by Elon Musk will be calling the shots during Trump’s second term.

Whether or not Trump uses federal funding to punish Chicago and Illinois, Welch has his work cut out for him.

The state is facing a $3.1 billion shortfall, and the challenge is to find a way to fill that gap by turning first toward spending cuts, rather than raising taxes.

“The last thing people want to hear around the kitchen table is the Speaker of the House talking about tax increases. That would be tone-deaf to what we heard in November,” Welch said. “The responsible thing to do is to first go through this budget and look for efficiency. We have some work to do — a lot of work to do — well before entertaining the idea of more taxes.”

Mayor Brandon Johnson is continuing to beat the drum for “progressive revenue” and “taxing the rich.”

He wants the Illinois General Assembly to consider taxing professional services, and he’s counting on lawmakers to deliver the $1 billion he claims are “owed” to the Chicago Public Schools.

The mayor also needs help to chip away at Chicago’s $3.8 billion pension crisis. And he needs $1.5 billion in increased annual revenue to avoid a mass transit funding cliff when federal stimulus funds that help the CTA, Metra and Pace dry up later this year.

“They’re not getting anything before we talk about reforms,” Welch said.

Asked whether the impending exit of embattled CTA President Dorval Carter Jr. qualifies as reform, Welch said, “Some people believe that to be a positive development for the CTA, yes. But, we also need structural reforms.”

Welch urged Johnson to have “realistic expectations” and “expect us to say no from time to time.”  

“They’re not going to get everything they’re asking for. It’s just not possible,” he said.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker said last week he’s had probably only five conversations with the mayor in the nearly two years since Johnson took office. The governor said the mayor’s team doesn’t have “good relationships in Springfield, in part, because they don’t do the outreach necessary.”

Welch said he and Johnson “go way back” and he considers the mayor a friend. But their communication could be better.

“He’s given us asks from time to time…Can they get `em to us sooner? Uh, yes. I’d love to see something here in January, to be honest with you, rather than in April or May,” he said.

“What we need right now…is for the mayor to give us his wish list so we can try to plan, see what we can help him with and help deliver some victories for the city.”

As for the Bears’ quest for a new stadium, Welch sought to temper remarks he made recently seemingly suggesting that the team could gain some traction on public funding for infrastructure if they shifted their Chicago focus away from the lakefront site south of Soldier Field and toward the old Michael Reese hospital site.

“People want to see tax dollars being used to uplift people who need it—not subsidize stadiums for the wealthy. Whether it’s a stadium at Michael Reese or a stadium in Arlington Heights,” Welch said.

“I made a comment that the Michael Reese site is a different conversation…because you would be talking about infrastructure with road fund dollars. But, we haven’t even had that conversation.”