Metro East Sun

Sen. Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro) was happy to hear Gov. J.B. Pritzker's (D-IL) plan to put the state's finances on the right track, but hopes Republican lawmakers will be given the chance to voice their opinions on how to follow through.

Bryant also spoke out about her concerns surrounding Pritzker's proposal to set aside more money in the state budget for education, public safety, and small businesses and make large payments to the rainy day fund and state pensions.

"We've talked a lot about the need, if we're going to get our fiscal house in order, to make sure we don't have new and expanded programs right now," Bryant said. 

Pritzker talked about the increased funding, along with ways to provide some relief to taxpayers as part of his State of the State address on Feb. 2. According to a press release from the governor's office, Pritzker had suggested pausing the upcoming hike in the gas tax, freezing grocery taxes, and providing a rebate in the form of a one-time payment for property taxes. 

"If we want to make changes, we need to make those changes in a permanent way," Bryant said.

She also expressed the need to incorporate Republican ideas into the decision-making process.

"I think Republicans have some excellent ideas on how to make permanent changes and permanent tax relief to the taxpayers to the state rather than election-year gimmicks," Bryant said.

The total cost for Pritzker's proposed budget added up to around $112.5 billion, according to a report published on Patch.

The article highlighted that less than half of the money to support the budget would come from the state's general revenue fund, in fact $67 billion would come from monies received from the federal government. 

Patch also pointed out that a large part of the budget was delegated to public employee pensions.