Metro East Sun

Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker recently unveiled his proposed budget for fiscal year 2023. It  totals $112.5 billion with $45.5 billion in spending from the state’s general fund. This accounts for a 3.4% decrease from last year.

According to a Patch report, public employee pension is a major part of the proposal. 

The budget provides up to $1 billion in tax relief as part of the Illinois Family Relief Plan. It also includes freezing the gas tax, which amounts to $135 million. He called for dropping the 1% sales tax for a year, which would amount to $360 million. There is also $350 million being put toward education. Pritzker introduced aspects of his budget proposal as part of the State of the State address held at the Old State House. 

“Right now, everyone is feeling the crunch of rising prices for goods and services,” Pritzker said. “The higher cost of even basic necessities is making it harder to make ends meet. Whether it’s supply chain interruptions or increasing oil prices, inflation is squeezing Illinois families. Government ought to do more to ease the pain and put more money back in the pockets of hardworking Illinoisans. Our budget success gives us the opportunity to do just that.”

Republicans across the state have criticized the budget, with many touching on the same aspect: concern that Pritzker appears to be providing only temporary relief for Illinois residents. Sen. Steve McClure (R-Jacksonville) took another route though, saying that he likes that Pritzker discussed addressing the problem with crime in the state, but he criticized the work of him and fellow Democrats to improve the problem. He discussed witness protection in the state, but added that last January there was a bill passed at 4:30 a.m. that took away the ability for law enforcement to detain people on pretrial detention for witness intimidation. 

“There's no greater message that is sent to scare witnesses than the moment after that person is back in the neighborhood,” McClure said. “So that's extremely troubling. What I'm focused on right now in representing my district is the long-term effects of these things.”

McClure said his concern is that the "Biden bucks” are going to be up soon, and also that there is $2.5 billion in new spending and temporary tax relief. 

“Well, the new spending is now permanent, so how are we going to wrangle that?” McClure inquired. “It's going to be very interesting to vote on the actual budget and I'm going to have a long-term view when I vote on the budget. We have to address crime. It's a crisis. Just speaking about is not enough. The Democrats have to come to the table with Republicans to work on this issue. We're ready to do it, but unfortunately, our side has been totally ignored and we are seeing the terrible results of that throughout the state right now.”