Republican candidate for House District 113 Katherine Ruocco blasted incumbent Jay Hoffman (D-District 113) for his support of the unbalanced budget passed by the House in May.
The Senate refused to support a budget that was $7 billion in the red.
"Career politicians simply don't see the forest, but only the trees," Ruocco said. "My opponent clearly wants to make effort to distract as opposed to addressing the catastrophic course that has been set by his nearly 25 years of leadership. After receiving a literature bag distributed by our staffers, he chose to make comments unrelated to Illinois issues, as opposed to taking responsibility for voting for a bloated spending bill that would likely require nearly doubling our state income tax."
The state comptroller reviewed the proposed budget, which was turned down by the Senate, and pointed out that the income tax would have to more than double in order to pay the state's current and $12 billion backlog of bills.
While the legislature finally passed a stop gap bill that allows funding for K-12 education and provides a $625 million bailout for the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the budget is only a six-month compromise. The appropriations take the state through the November election, when new and reelected lawmakers will face more budget negotiations to prevent another budget impasse.
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