State Senator Terri Bryant says Gov. Pritzker and Democrat legislative leaders have once again chosen big government over permanent tax relief for Illinoisans, passing an election-year budget that increases state spending by more than $3 billion but only provides minimal and temporary tax relief for families. Gov. Pritzker signed the state’s spending plan April 19.
Republican legislative leaders have for months offered plans that would have provided more permanent tax relief for taxpayers, not just temporary election-year tax relief gimmicks; however, Democrat budgeteers did not include any of those ideas in their $46.5 billion spending plan.
Senator Bryant says the bungled handling of the Unemployment Insurance (UI) Trust Fund is another example of Democrat leaders’ fiscal carelessness. Majority Party legislators shirked their fiscal responsibilities by not fully paying Illinois’ $4.5 billion UI trust fund deficit. Late in March, they approved a partial payment of $2.7 billion, leaving a $1.8 billion debt. Instead of using the once-in-a-lifetime flood of federal funds to fix the state’s UI deficit, Democrat leaders spent it on pork projects in their own districts.
The Governor has used the influx of federal money, more than $16 billion, as an opportunity to try and tout his so-called “fiscal responsibility.” Just this week, he held a press conference praising a recent credit upgrade, but failed to mention that Illinois still has the lowest rating of any state from Moody’s Investor Services.
FY 2023 runs from July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023.