On Wednesday, Governor JB Pritzker gave his annual Budget Address before a joint session of the Senate and House. Following the speech, State Senator Don DeWitte (R- St. Charles) issued the following statement:
“For months, we have been told this will be a lean budget year because we’re facing a $3.2 billion budget hole. Yesterday, miraculously, Governor Pritzker announced that the actual deficit will be only $1 billion because they ‘found’ $2 billion. I view this as just more fuzzy math meant to confuse Illinois taxpayers and paint a rosy picture of the State’s financial picture. Taxpayers deserve the truth behind revenues and expenditures. They deserve transparency, not budget gimmicks and political games.
“It appears that runaway spending will continue under this Governor. He introduced yet another record-high spending plan which, this time, puts Illinois taxpayers on the hook for an additional $2 billion in state spending. This $55.4 billion budget represents a 37% increase in state spending since Pritzker took office. It’s an astounding increase in just six years. Rank and file Illinoisans have not seen their income grow by 37% during this time. Illinoisans are doing more with less, and state government needs to do the same.”