CHICAGO — This weekend, in the dead of the night, Illinois Democrats passed the largest spending plan in state history, including $800 million in tax increases and new spending on illegal immigrants. See for yourself how Illinois Republicans stood united against this irresponsible, tax-and-spend budget:
POLITICO: Illinois Playbook: Pritzker’s budget blame game: Trump
Republicans could only roll their eyes: State Sen. Terri Bryant echoed her GOP colleagues, calling the budget “irresponsible, unsustainable and wrong for Illinois.”
Republicans also criticized Democrats for “ramming” the budget through in the last hours of the session.
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There’s a lot that didn’t get done: The transit bill to prevent a “financial cliff” in the transportation industry failed to pass — there’s talk now of returning to Springfield to address the problem. An energy bill that would protect the state’s power grid didn’t pass. And an omnibus bill to improve elections didn’t pass. And a proposal to overhaul the state’s Tier 2 pension system (which affects public employees hired on or after Jan. 1, 2011) didn’t make it over the finish line, either (though lawmakers did approve $75 million for a reserve fund for the program).
Chicago Sun Times: Illinois Democrats pass budget in final minutes with sports betting tax hike
Taxes were also set to be boosted up to 45% on cigarettes, e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches and chewing tobacco.
And while legislators dropped a proposal to impose a 10% digital advertising tax on tech companies like Facebook, a new method of taxing large out-of-state companies for their Illinois presence was expected to churn out an additional $72 million while a tax amnesty program was expected to claw back some $198 million from delinquents.
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Superminority Republicans, boxed out of budget talks as usual, roundly bashed the Democratic plan.
“You know how it’s a bad budget? When it starts out with at least $1 billion in taxes,” said Senate Minority Leader John Curran, R-Downers Grove.
House Minority Leader Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, slammed Democrats for including nearly 5% pay raises for General Assembly members, increases that are tied to inflation under state law.
“Speaker Welch said the quiet part out loud: tax-and-spend Democrats are thriving in Illinois — at the expense of Illinois families,” McCombie said.
Chicago Tribune: Illinois lawmakers pass budget with tax hikes on tobacco, gambling — but adjourn without transit, Bears stadium
Democratic state lawmakers voted late Saturday, just minutes before their midnight deadline, to send Gov. JB Pritzker the final piece of a $55 billion budget balanced with a combination of spending cuts and an estimated $800 million plus in tax increases, including hikes on tobacco products, vaping and online sportsbooks.
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Republicans criticized what they called a bloated budget and said the Democrats’ attempts to lay blame on Trump Republicans in Washington are misguided.
“The tax-and-spend Democrats … are so unfamiliar with cost-cutting, they call it chaos,” said GOP Rep. William Hauter of Morton. “They wasted billions. And they are prepared to waste billions more. Wake up, Illinois. Vote ‘no.’”
Pointing to the $40 billion budget approved after Pritzker first took office in 2019 and last year’s roughly $53 billion plan, Sen. Chapin Rose of Mahomet, a GOP budget negotiator, said Democrats must shoulder the blame for the state’s fiscal issues.
“Let’s be clear: $15 billion over six years, that’s on you,” Rose said. “$2 billion increase over last year, that’s on you. Billions of dollars in tax increases that are driving working families out of Illinois, that’s on you.”
Senate Republican leader John Curran of Downers Grove faulted Democrats for once again pushing their budget package through in the final hours of the legislature’s spring session without sufficient time for review, particularly on the tax side of the ledger.
WLS ABC: Illinois lawmakers pass $55.2B budget with new taxes, immigrant health cuts, no transit funding
The budget marked a roughly 3.9% spending increase from the current year, while Republicans criticized it for containing few cuts. It raises about $500 million more in new revenue than what Gov. JB Pritzker proposed in February to make up for declining base revenues.
The minority party also aired frustration with supermajority Democrats for providing next to no time for public review of the massive spending plan and other major bills.
“We’re rushing this process like we always do. ‘Let’s hide this stuff. Let’s hide it so that the public doesn’t see it until it’s too late,'” Rep. John Cabello, R-Machesney Park, said.
WMAQ NBC: Illinois budget passes, includes tax increases on sports wagering, tobacco
Republicans blasted the increases in spending and tax revenue included in the budget agreement, arguing that they’d been cut out of negotiations and that Democrats are using a variety of maneuvers to artificially balance the budget.
“Rather than pursuing meaningful structural reforms to secure our state’s future, Democrats chose to prioritize political pay raises, steal from the rainy-day fund, and funnel money into their own pork projects,” House Minority Leader Tony McCombie said in a statement.
WGN: Illinois lawmakers approve $55.2B budget, tax hikes on sports betting and tobacco just before midnight deadline
Assistant House Minority Leader Rep. John Cabello (R-Machesney Park) decried the budget, saying it raises taxes for constituents in his and other Republican-led districts while providing them nothing in benefits.
“There is so much pork in here, and none of it is in any of these folks’ districts here,” Cabello said. “Their taxpayers are paying for this, and they get nothing, except another almost billion-dollar tax increase placed on them.”
He also said Democrats’ claims that the Trump administration’s policies are affecting state budget decisions are not accurate.
“It’s not the Trump administration that is constantly raising taxes on the State of Illinois, it’s what is coming out of this dome,” Cabello said.
WGLT FM: Central Illinois lawmakers stick to party lines on state budget
The budget includes $55.2 billion in spending, a 3.9% increase. Revenue estimates total $55.3 billion, with $1 billion in new taxes on nicotine products, sports betting, and businesses.
Democrats revealed the budget 48 hours before the midnight deadline on Saturday; lawmakers would need to a three-fifths majority to pass any bills after that.
That led to heated committee meetings. Republican state Rep. Ryan Spain of Peoria questioned budget management in a series of questions, and was left with many unanswered questions.
Spain brought his frustration to the House floor.
“At the end of the day, this continues to double down on a failed economic strategy in the state of Illinois,” Spain said. “That’s why for 30 years, not for one year, not for [the] occupant of the White House, for 30 years this state has continued to fall behind all other states. All national growth models.”
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Republican lawmakers in Central Illinois and across the state spent the last days of session in frustration.
Republican state Rep. Travis Weaver of Pekin called the whole process and budget itself “grotesque.”
“It’s out of touch with the state of Illinois,” Weaver said. “Here we are once again, with the largest budget that we’ve ever had that’s got a billion dollars of tax increases and gimmicks in it, and we already had a growing budget because of revenue. Natural revenue growth. April was the highest revenue month in Illinois history. And yet, that was not enough for Illinois tax-and-spend Democrats.”
Republican state Sen. Sally Turner, who represents parts of Bloomington-Normal, also was disappointed, particularly as the budget relates to agriculture.
“Our farm families are hurting, and one of the things that is important is the value of our land and how we treat our land and how our farmers respect our land,” Turner said. “And one of the things we didn’t see is additional money for soil and water, commerce, conservation, and two years ago they cut the budget way down for soil and water, and then the next year left it flat, and this year made it flat.
“So, there’s nothing new for farmers for conservation issues such as the different things that they use for cover crops and things of that nature.