Unkept

Broken means he had the pledge and did the opposite. Doesn't match means a fact-check or an official number contradicts the sentence. Never happened means the plan died. Still open means this campaign has not delivered it.

1. Aug 1, 2017First campaignNever passed

   IllinoisCares, the public option

   Said. Early in the race he proposed IllinoisCares: a public option, described as buying into Medicaid, cheaper than a private plan, and “at no cost to taxpayers.” The pledge on his issues page was that as governor he would do everything he could to get people coverage at the best price.

   Record. It never became law. Illinois still has no public option of that design. Medicaid and the ACA marketplace are still the system. This was a flagship idea of the 2017–18 campaign, and it is not on the books after two full terms.

   Daily Kos publication of the Aug. 1, 2017 plan; Ballotpedia issue archive

2. Oct 2, 2018First campaignFalse record

   The Gold Coast mansion, and the toilets

   Said. During the campaign, affidavits filed for a property-tax appeal described a Gold Coast house as having no working bathrooms for years, which is what produced a much lower assessment. The candidate’s side called the work a renovation.

   Record. Cook County Inspector General Patrick Blanchard found the toilets were removed about 10 days before those affidavits, on instructions tied to M.K. Pritzker, so the house could be treated as uninhabitable. He called it a scheme to defraud by false representations. Assessed value fell from about $6.3 million to about $1.1 million. Refunds plus later savings came to about $331,000. Pritzker paid the money back. There was no criminal conviction. The inspector general’s finding is the record.

   Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times, Oct. 1–2, 2018, on the inspector general’s report

3. Due end of 2019First termNo report

   The property-tax task force

   Said. On Aug. 2, 2019 he signed the bill creating a Property Tax Relief Task Force and said it would review the whole system and make recommendations by the end of that year. He had already said fair-tax money would help with property taxes. In the 2020 State of the State he said Illinois property taxes were simply too high.

   Record. The task force never issued a final report or a set of recommendations. A governor cannot, by himself, cut a bill that is mostly schools, cities, and local pensions. What he did control was this panel. It produced no plan. Illinois is still at or near the top of the country for effective taxes on a house.

   Chicago Tribune, Aug. 2, 2019; Tribune op-ed, July 11, 2024

4. Nov 19, 2019First termMostly false

   “Billions and billions,” maybe $25 billion

   Said. On a pension buyout program he had expanded, he said a study showed savings of “billions and billions, potentially $25 billion,” and that almost 20 percent of retirees were taking it.

   Record. PolitiFact rated that Mostly False. His office would not release the study. The Civic Federation found about $13 million in general-fund savings in the first scored year, against more than $400 million that had been expected. Participation in the full buyout was a sliver of the systems. Years later, long-run liability reduction from buyouts is described in the low billions — real, and nowhere near $25 billion. The five state systems’ unfunded liability is still around $145 billion.

   PolitiFact, Nov. 24, 2019

5. Nov 3, 2020First termVoters said no

   The fair tax, and the cut for 97 percent

   Said. The centerpiece of 2018, with rates published March 7, 2019: replace the flat income tax. His office said 97 percent of Illinoisans — people under $250,000 — would get a cut, the state would raise about $3.4 billion, and the money would steady the budget and help with property taxes. He put about $58 million of his own fortune into the campaign.

   Record. Voters rejected the constitutional amendment. The individual rate is still the flat 4.95 percent. The promised cut never happened. Be precise about what else happened that year: he did not sneak through an income-tax rate hike. He did sign Rebuild Illinois, which doubled the state gas tax from 19 cents to 38 cents a gallon on July 1, 2019, indexed it to inflation, and raised vehicle fees. That capital plan was public. It also meant drivers paid more while the income-tax cut died at the ballot.

   Rockford Register Star, March 7, 2019; Associated Press and Forbes on the Nov. 3, 2020 vote

6. Jun 4, 2021First termBroken promise

   He pledged to veto politician-drawn maps

   Said. In a 2018 debate, asked if he would veto legislative maps drawn by lawmakers, party leaders, or their staffs, he said: “Yes, I will pledge to veto.” He said an independent commission should draw the lines.

   Record. On June 4, 2021 he signed maps drawn by the Democratic supermajority. The Associated Press said he flipped. His new line was that the commission had never been created, so he would only veto an “unfair” map — not the pledge he ran on. On Sept. 24, 2021 he signed a second set, redrawn with census numbers, again on a party-line vote. Republicans and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund sued. He vetoed neither map. Those lines are still the ones Illinois uses.

   Associated Press, June 4, 2021; AP and WTTW, Sept. 24, 2021

7. Aug 27, 2021First termFell short

   Ethics, after promising a cleaner Springfield

   Said. The first campaign was built against the Madigan-era way of running the state. After Mike Madigan was charged and left the speakership, a 2021 ethics bill was the response on offer.

   Record. The Better Government Association’s David Greising wrote that the bill nibbled at the edges: a six-month wait before former lawmakers can lobby, when most states require a year or two, and a legislative inspector general who still cannot issue subpoenas. Legislative Inspector General Carol Pope resigned, saying leaders would not let the office do the job. Pritzker told Crain’s he was disappointed in the bill. His amendatory veto fixed a drafting error. It did not close those holes. He took the bill anyway. Madigan was later convicted. The rules that made that culture possible were not seriously rewritten.

   Crain’s Chicago Business, June 4, 2021; Chicago Sun-Times, Aug. 27, 2021

8. Dec 20222022 campaignText didn't match

   The SAFE-T Act, then the rewrite

   Said. He signed the SAFE-T Act on Feb. 22, 2021, ending cash bail at the start of 2023. In the 2022 race he said Republican warnings were false and that people accused of violent crimes would not be emptied out of jail.

   Record. State’s attorneys said the text he had signed did not clearly let a judge detain every defendant charged with a forcible felony. In December 2022, before the bail ban took effect, he signed a trailer bill that widened detention authority. The Illinois Supreme Court upheld the amended law in July 2023. Ending cash bail was a real policy he ran on and kept. The 2022 assurance — that the original text already did what he said it did — did not match the statute, which is why he had to change it.

   The SAFE-T Act (2021), the December 2022 trailer, and the July 2023 Illinois Supreme Court ruling

9. Through FY 2025Second termThe hole grew

   “We reduced the pension debt”

   Said. The 2026 campaign says his pension policy reduced the state’s pension debt, citing extra payments and buyouts it says cut liability by about $2.9 billion.

   Record. Those slices can be real and the overall hole can still be bigger. Reuters, from the legislature’s own analysts: unfunded liability was $137.3 billion at the end of fiscal 2019, his first budget year. The Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability put the five systems’ actuarial unfunded liability at about $144.6 billion on June 30, 2025, with a funded ratio of 47.4 percent. The ratio is better than the roughly 40 percent he inherited. The dollar gap is not smaller. “Reduced the debt,” said about the whole obligation, does not match that report.

   Reuters, Dec. 5, 2019; COGFA FY2025 figures; JB for Governor fact-check, Oct. 2026

10. Jan 1, 20262026 campaignLeaves out the catch

    “I eliminated the grocery tax”

    Said. Third-term campaign materials say he eliminated the grocery tax and put money back in family pockets.

    Record. The statewide 1 percent grocery tax did end on Jan. 1, 2026. The same law let cities and counties charge their own grocery tax by ordinance. Chicago and a long list of suburbs adopted one. At those registers the tax changed letterhead. It did not leave the receipt. Calling it eliminated, with no mention of the local replacement, is the spin.

    2024 state grocery-tax law, effective Jan. 1, 2026; JB for Governor fact-check, Oct. 2026

11. Jun 20262026 campaignStalled

    BUILD, the housing plan for this campaign

    Said. Asking for a third term, he has put the cost of housing near the front. The 2026 spring package was BUILD — Building Up Illinois Developments — meant to get more homes built and push costs down.

    Record. Capitol News Illinois reported on June 9, 2026 that the far-reaching pieces stalled in a legislature his own party runs. He got other bills. He did not get the housing plan he had described as the priority. Election Day is Nov. 3, 2026. This is unfinished, not yet a decade-old break. It is also not done.

    Capitol News Illinois, June 9, 2026