NW Illinois News

Sen. Win Stoller (R-Peoria) had a bad reaction to Gov. J.B. Pritzker's proposed $112.5 billion state budget.

"Listening to his address today it felt to me he was spiking the football. It’s almost to me as if he was declaring mission accomplished," Stoller said. "The reality is we still have the highest pension debt in the country, the worst credit rating of any state, inflation is raging, crime is out of control and last year 113,000 people left our state. We got this huge windfall this year fueled by the federal government, but we have not changed our underlying behavior. This budget increases spending by $2.5 billion."

Stoller went on to warn that the revenue from the federal government would not last forever and the fiscal problems of Illinois would still remain afterward.

"The revenue windfall is temporary" Stoller said. "This behavior is what got us in this situation in the first place. If spending increases are permanent why are the tax reductions temporary? Clearly, the governor is using election-year gimmicks. What we need is true budget reform and permanent tax relief."

Out of the budget, $45.5 billion would be from the state’s general revenue fund with the rest being federal funds. Public employee pensions make up a large part of the budget. The new budget will begin on July 1, according to a report from Patch. 

In light of the high spending, Pritzker still does not want to raise taxes and in fact plans a billion dollar tax cut, according to a report from Patch. Despite these concerns, Pritzker's concluded his speech by saying that the state of the state was strong.