SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (Capitol News Illinois) – In a year when many state agencies received little or no funding increase, state lawmakers this year approved an increase of $15.7 million, or 22.4%, for general operating expenses in Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office.
That General Revenue Fund increase is significantly more than some other constitutional officers received for their operating expenses in the upcoming fiscal year. It’s also more than the $15 million that Raoul himself requested when he appeared before House and Senate appropriations committees this year – although reductions in revenue from other state funds left Raoul’s all-funds budget roughly flat from a year ago.
Raoul’s office did not respond to repeated requests to comment for this story about why lawmakers approved a larger general operating budget than he had requested, and why the budget reflected such significant cuts in two specific non-GRF funds.
During budget hearings in April, Raoul said he needed additional funding to hire attorneys and other staff to handle the increased workload that his office now manages. Some of that workload, he said, is the result of legislation that has given the attorney general’s office more responsibility.
But he also mentioned the increased workload that stems from more than a dozen lawsuits his office has joined challenging actions of the Trump administration as well as defending the state against legal actions the administration has filed against Illinois.
“This budget will support supplying the requisite attorneys to step up where the federal government is stepping away, as well as attorneys involved in critical cases to protect our state’s interests,” Raoul told a House budget committee.
At the time of those hearings, Raoul’s office declined requests by Capitol News Illinois to provide specific information about how many new attorneys or other staff it intended to hire with the additional money.
“We can’t give a specific number of staff we will be hiring but the requested $15 million increase in GRF funding will allow us to have a stable source of funding to adequately respond to both costs associated with supporting the attorneys defending ongoing federal challenges as well as new and longstanding state laws,” Raoul’s spokesperson Drew Hill said in an April 17 email.
According to the budget bill lawmakers passed on the final day of the legislative session, Raoul’s office will receive $85.7 million in General Revenue Fund money “to meet its operational expenses for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2026.” That’s up from $70 million that was provided in the same line item in the fiscal year 2025 budget bill.
By comparison, lawmakers approved an increase of just under $1 million, or 3%, in the comptroller’s general operating budget. And they approved an increase of about $2.4 million, or 5.7%, in non-GRF funds for the operating budget of the state treasurer’s office.
The attorney general’s budget includes several line items that are also funded with GRF money. Those include specific funding for the office’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and the Child Support Enforcement Division. They also include funding for various grants for organized retail crime enforcement and grants under the Violent Crime Victims Assistance Act.
All told, lawmakers approved a total GRF budget for the attorney general’s office next year of $116.05 million, an increase of $10.75 million, or 10.2%, over this year’s budget.
The office also receives appropriations of revenue from sources other than the General Revenue Fund, such as the Illinois Gaming Law Enforcement Fund, the Cannabis Expungement Fund and the Illinois Tobacco Fund that are earmarked for specific purposes.
It also receives appropriations from two funds that receive money from court-ordered and voluntary settlements of consumer protection lawsuits and from civil penalties that are paid to the attorney general’s office. By statute, both funds may be used, subject to appropriations, for the “exercise of the duties of the Attorney General.”
The budget lawmakers just approved for the upcoming fiscal year reflects a combined $16.9 million reduction in appropriations from those two funds.
As a result, the total “all funds budget” for the attorney general’s office next year comes to about $194.465 million, which is just $700,000 more than this year’s budget.
(Reporting by Peter Hancock, Capitol News Illinois)
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
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