Metro East Sun

Illinois state Sen. Jason Plummer (R-Edwardsville) laments lawmakers in Springfield missed a golden opportunity in the way they worked to pass the state’s new $42 billion budget.

“I’m disappointed because this was a real opportunity for elected officials in Springfield to come together in a thoughtful and sober-minded way,” Plummer told the Metro East Sun. “Instead, they used this opportunity to do a lot of egregious things like spend a billion dollars more than we did last year when we weren’t in the middle of a pandemic.”

Democrats banded together during a recent four-day special session to pass the spending plan Gov. J.B. Pritzker is now expected to sign. Plummer also expressed frustration that the plan heavily counts on federal funding to plug holes made deeper by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. As part of the plan, lawmakers also approved a measure that allows for the additional borrowing of up to $5 billion from the federal government.

“This has the governor’s name and that of House and Senate leaders all over it because they think it’s something that helps them,” Plummer added. “Who it doesn’t take into consideration are the regular citizens of this state because none of what’s in this bill does anything to make things easier for them.”

Plummer said the biggest affront of all may be lawmakers giving themselves a raise as part of the bill.

“We’ve got an economic crisis going on right now where constituents everywhere are struggling, and people are losing jobs or being furloughed and we’ve got legislators giving themselves a raise,” he said. “They couldn’t find any extra money for education, but they can find it to give themselves a big ($1,800 per year) pay raise.”

Plummer said he’s hoping voters across the state will be as outraged as he is once they find out everything that’s in the bill.

“It’ll take time for accurate information to get out, but that’s my hope,” he said. “I think this crisis has brought to the forefront how irresponsible state government has been and hopefully that makes more people become involved in the process.”