Pritzker Signs State Budget Into Law
Governor JB Pritzker signs the FY25 budget in Chicago Wednesday. (Photo: Chicago Tribune)
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Governor JB Pritzker signed the FY25 state budget Wednesday, spending a record $53 billion while aggressively pushing back on critics of the state’s massive increase in spending since Pritzker took office.
“We’ve heard complaints every year after we balance the budget. ‘The next year’s going to be terrible,” Pritzker said. “You heard that in 2021. You heard that in 2022. You heard that in 2023. You’re hearing it in 2024. People say it every year and you know what we’ve done? Balance the budget every single year.”
The budget includes a $350 million increase to K-12 education, a 5 percent pay hike for lawmakers’ base salary to around $94,000, a tax credit for low-income families, and a repeal of the state’s grocery tax.
The budget also deposits $198 million into the state’s “rainy day” fund and makes the legally required $10 billion pension payment.
Republicans have been harshly critical of Democratic spending on programs for immigrants, including $182 million for asylum seekers in the country legally, most of whom have been bussed to Chicago from Texas. Republicans are uniformly opposed, it seems, to $440 million for a Medicaid-style health insurance program for people in the United States illegally.
“In six short years, Governor Pritzker has raised the cost of state government by over 30 percent and expanded non-citizen spending from a few million dollars per-year to nearly a billion dollars per-year today,” Senate Republican Leader John Curran (R-Downers Grove) said in a statement Wednesday. “The immense cost of Governor Pritzker’s taxpayer-funded spending spree coupled with President Biden’s refusal to secure our nation’s border, is playing out in the budget signed today. It is grossly unfair for Governor Pritzker to raise taxes on Illinois families and businesses to pay for the migrant crisis he created.”
Pritzker has yet to sign a package of $700 million in tax increases, mostly on business, to help balance the budget, but indicated he will sign it without changes.
He also responded to critics, including Democratic lawmakers and State Comptroller Susana Mendoza, who have called for the majority party to begin cutting some state spending.
“Across the board budget cuts, this idea is not an idea that Democrats believe in,” Pritzker said. “I’m willing to talk with anybody about good ideas for how to tighten up our budget, to make sure that we’re being efficient and spending money well, and making cuts. Happy to talk about all that. But you’ve gotta have specific ideas. It’s easy to make these proclamations that, usually, Republicans make about across the board cuts.”
But Mendoza, who served in the House for ten years, said on our podcast, to be released this weekend, that Democrats should be the party of fiscal responsibility.
“I’m just saying we should always be looking internally in every budget, whether it’s a great budget year or a tough budget year, no matter the budget year, we should always be looking to see if there’s additional cuts that can be made without compromising service and government operations,” Mendoza said. “This should not be controversial in the slightest.”
But Pritzker defended Democratic spending priorities.
“Education, health care, housing, child care. These are some of the most important issues at the top of mind for Illinois families and this budget goes a long way toward addressing them,” Pritzker said. “Our tax cuts, debt reductions, grants and scholarships are providing breathing room and support when people are feeling the pinch of inflation.”