Republicans Critical of Pritzker's Upcoming Budget Presentation
House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) in the House Chamber during an ongoing budget battle in 2017. Republicans are critical of Governor JB Pritzker’s upcoming budget proposal, which includes few details.
It’s an annual tradition. The governor gives his budget address and the legislature, particularly those in the opposing party, take pot shots at it.
This year is no different though the coronavirus pandemic adds significant challenges in addition to the usual cloud hanging over Illinois’ finances: Illinois’ messy budget situation managed to become even murkier with an explosion in unemployment and failure of Governor JB Pritzker’s graduated income tax referendum last year. The budget passed by the legislature in May planned for revenue from the tax hike along with a federal bailout, neither of which ever came to fruition.
Pritzker’s latest proposal will be released in more detail on Wednesday. His administration touted that it included no tax increases and kept the $700 million in cuts from the last budget.
The “devil is in the details” with how Pritzker will balance his budget. House Republicans said Monday they’ve been asking for weeks for more specifics but they said they’ve been left in the dark.
“It is the Democrats who are in the majority in the House and Senate and also in the executive branch,” said House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs). “With the snap of a finger, this budget becomes law.”
House Republicans said they wanted to work with their Democratic counterparts on the budget, but ultimately their minority is small enough that Democrats don’t necessarily need to include them. Pritzker has repeatedly criticized Republicans for not submitting their own budget proposal and detailed cuts.
“We’re not going to propose a budget when we can’t get information on their cuts and propose something that’s going to be based on imaginary numbers, something that they’ve done quite well over the last two years,” Durkin said. “Until the governor can provide us with a list of his agency cuts, we’re not in a position to make recommendations. These are his agencies. He has said he would make tough decisions two years ago, but he still hasn’t done that.”
Pritzker’s budget proposal is expected to include $900 million in expected revenue by closing corporate loopholes. So far, the Governor hasn’t said which exceptions would get the ax.
“What the Democrats call ‘loopholes’, we look at those as tax increases,” Durkin said. “We also believe that that is a disincentive for businesses to remain in Illinois, to grow and to keep employees employed and to bring in new people.”
Pritzker’s spokesperson didn’t respond to an email requesting comment.
Even setting aside how the pandemic will complicate the budget this year, the fiscal fight between Republicans and Democrats could be even more contentious than usual. Illinois voters overwhelmingly rejected Pritzker’s plan to amend the state constitution and allow for a graduated income tax. The Governor pinned much of the blame for the amendment’s defeat on Republicans, saying they’d have to come up with ways to get state finances back on track.
Durkin deflected blame for the graduated tax proposal’s defeat, repeatedly saying it was a “tri-partisan” effort between Republicans, Democrats and independents which sank the graduated income tax. He said the same percentage of Illinoisans voted against the proposal as voted for President Biden.
The House Republican Leader said raising taxes is out of the question.
“We can’t go back to the taxpayers,” Durkin said. “That was quite clearly the message sent last November when the Fair Tax was soundly defeated.”
Pritzker said repeatedly last year failing to pass the tax referendum would lead to large tax hikes and draconian cuts. His proposal seemingly doesn’t include either of those doomsday scenarios.
“We cannot continue to allow Governor Pritzker independently to provide budget spin to try to support further tax increases or to try to make the kinds of threats we saw in order to push forward a tax increase that Illinois voters overwhelmingly said no to,” said Rep. Tom Demmer (R-Dixon), the second ranking Republican in the House.
Pritzker will combine his annual State of the State and budget address at noon Wednesday. He’ll give it virtually because of the pandemic and the legislature not being in Springfield. House Republicans will likely have to wait along with everyone else to see the details on how Illinois will pay for itself for the next year. Whether they’ll have any say is just as murky as the details of Pritzker’s plan.