(The Center Square) – With one month left before the deadline to approve a $55 billion Illinois state budget, taxpayers still haven’t seen the finalized plan on how their money will be spent.
May 31 is the deadline to pass a budget with simple majorities. Senate Appropriations Vice Chairman, state Sen. Laura Murphy, D-Des Plaines, said the general outline is out there from the governor’s proposed budget.
“We’re going to try to be as transparent as possible,” Murphy told The Center Square. “The crux of the budget lies within the governor’s proposal that has been out since February, so people have had the opportunity to review and to look at that.”
State Rep. Norine Hammond, R-Macomb, said Republicans have been involved at a 10,000 foot level.
“But if history serves us correctly, that’s a signal that the Democrat majority will go it alone and they will continue to increase wasteful spending and absolutely continue to raise taxes on hardworking Illinois families,” Hammond said during a news conference Thursday.
The Illinois Revenue Alliance announced a list of tax increase proposals it said would raise taxes by $6 billion. Republicans warned and pushed back against the proposals, including one to cut the estate tax exemption from $4 million to $2 million.
State Rep. Amy Elik, R-Alton, is a proponent of bringing an approach to Illinois similar to the cost-saving efforts of the Department of Government Efficiency in the Trump administration. She said while Pritzker administration officials have called for agencies to find efficiencies, on the House Appropriations General Services Committee, Elik hasn’t seen it.
“There’s been nothing significant that indicates that they’re cutting expenses internally,” she said during a news conference. “In fact, there are pay raises involved, the [cost of living allocation] increases.”
Murphy said there is still time to have conversations with agency heads about finding efficiencies, but she pushed back on taking a DOGE approach in Illinois.
“I think the problem with DOGE and what you’re going to see is if they used a scalpel, that would be fine. But the chainsaw approach is just too much,” she told The Center Square.
At nearly $55 billion, Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposed budget will be the most expensive ever for taxpayers.
The next fiscal year begins July 1.
