Raoul’s office to receive $15.7M budget increase for operations
[June 13, 2025]
By Peter Hancock
SPRINGFIELD – 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.
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Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul speaks to state Sen. Omar
Aquino, D-Chicago, on the floor of the Illinois Senate on May 30,
2025. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Jerry Nowicki)
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.
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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