Metro East Sun

Senator Terri Bryant expressed her thoughts on Governor J.B. Pritzker signing the 2023-2024 budget in a Facebook post on Jun. 7.

"Today, the Governor signed his partisan and irresponsible budget, which spends over $50 billion in Fiscal Year 2024."

The State Journal-Register also covered this event, shedding light on the details of the budget.

The newly signed $50.4 billion state budget includes several key provisions aimed at enhancing the lives of Illinois residents. Notably, it allocates $250 million to the Smart Start Illinois program, which focuses on improving access to preschool education and expanding childcare services across the state. Additionally, the budget provides funding for homelessness prevention initiatives and grants an extra $100 million to the Monetary Award Program (MAP). The MAP program, when combined with a Pell Grant, enables a majority of community college students to have their tuition costs covered.

Governor Pritzker did make amendments to the budget, primarily in terms of compensation for lawmakers. He reduced the budget by approximately $192,700 in this regard. Senator Bryant elaborated on her concerns about the budget in a news release on Jun. 8, following her Facebook post. She criticized the governor's partisan approach, asserting that the budget would exceed $50.6 billion in spending.

"After spending days touring the state, the Governor is signing his partisan and ‘balanced’ budget that will spend over $50.6 billion," Bryant said. "The reality is that this so-called balanced budget only has a self-admitted ‘surplus’ of $100 million and doesn’t truly account for all of the spending that we know will take place throughout the upcoming fiscal year."

"This budget doesn’t account for over half of a billion dollars that was projected to be spent on the state’s misguided undocumented immigrant healthcare program or hundreds of millions on the state’s expected new AFSCME contract," Bryant said.

In contrast, a press release from Pritzker's office on June 7 highlighted the budget's positive aspects. It mentioned that the budget surpasses the required funding for the state's pension systems by an additional $200 million. Furthermore, the Budget Stabilization Fund is expected to grow to over $2 billion. Pritzker emphasized his commitment to restoring fiscal responsibility in Illinois after years of mismanagement.

Senator Bryant, however, remains skeptical about the long-term sustainability of the budget. She argued that despite the governor's claims of fiscal responsibility, the budget will not truly achieve balance by the end of the fiscal year. In her view, the state is being set up for a fiscal disaster in the future. The press release quoted Pritzker.

"From the beginning, I promised to work together with the General Assembly to restore fiscal responsibility to our state government after years of mismanagement," Pritzker said.

"Thanks to our firmer fiscal foundation, we have been able to put billions of dollars back into the pockets of Illinois taxpayers while investing in our future. Our budgets have allowed thousands more students to stay in Illinois because they can afford a college degree. Balanced budgets have allowed us to modernize our infrastructure, build nation-leading clean energy production, attract industries of the future like quantum computing, and prioritize childcare for working families and our youngest children."

Bryant's statement in the June 7 news release continued.

"The Governor can travel the entire state to tout his fiscal responsibility, but anyone with a calculator on their phone can tell for themselves that this budget won’t really be balanced at the fiscal year’s end and our state is being set up for a fiscal disaster down the road," Bryant said.

As Illinois moves forward with the implementation of the 2023-2024 budget, it remains to be seen how these differing perspectives will impact the state's financial trajectory and the lives of its residents.