Pritzker Still Won't Say Publicly Where $160 Million for Migrants Coming From
Governor JB Pritzker speaks at the Koval Distillery in Chicago Tuesday.
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Governor JB Pritzker claimed Tuesday his administration was “being transparent” regarding an additional $160 million for Chicago’s migrant crisis will come from in the current state budget.
But, Prtizker’s administration hasn’t reported those figures publicly, and when pushed Tuesday, he said they were posted on blog, which we later learned was behind a paywall.
We spoke to Pritzker Tuesday as he spoke at a distillery on Chicago’s north side regarding the line items of the current Department of Human Services (DHS) budget being tapped for the $160 million infusion for the migrant crisis. Numerous lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have told The Illinoize the information hasn’t been shared with them.
“You’re the only one who’s raised the issue of transparency and I think, maybe, you just haven’t seen that,” Pritzker said.
The list, which is behind a paywall and was forwarded to us by a source, lists vague items that don’t match with line items in the current budget like “Home Illinois allocation for migrants” for $6 million and “child care appropriation transfer and backfill CC with federal funds” for $30 million. The list also includes a pending requests to FEMA for $40 million that it claims is “pending.”
We sent a follow up request for figures to Pritzker’s spokesman and the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget (GOMB). Neither responded Tuesday. We’ve sent repeated requests to GOMB for the budget information since Pritzker’s announcement earlier this month.
“This is a lack of transparency in budgeting,” one Republican lawmaker told us. We deserve to know what the total amount is being spent on people coming to Illinois and how it is impacting other areas of the budget.”
For now, Pritzker’s office remains silent on the details.