Senate Approves $53 Billion Budget, Sends to House Later in the Week
Senate President Don Harmon in 2020. (Photo: Chicago Tribune)
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The Illinois Senate has voted along party lines, minus two dissenters, to approve a $53 billion spending plan for the new fiscal year beginning July 1.
The vote, after days of wrangling that left supermajority Democrats blowing through their self-imposed Friday deadline, now heads to the House, which will likely be able to take the proposal up on Wednesday.
The Senate debated the final version of the spending plan for more than an hour Sunday night, finally advancing the legislation 38-21 shortly before 10:00 p.m.
Senate Republicans, who were involve in perfunctory discussions but haven’t been at the table in any serious way in recent weeks, slammed Democrats for spending too much and raising taxes on business.
They claimed Democrats are seeing the consequences of overspending while the state received billions of federal COVID support.
“We’ve long warned the COVID money and the permanent spending you’ve put in place was going to run out,” said Sen. Andrew Chesney (R-Freeport). “Now we are starting to see the record spending and tax hikes that the majority party is putting into place. This [budget] is thousands of thousands of pages of ‘I told you so.”
Many Republicans, including Senate GOP Leader John Curran (R-Downers Grove) took aim at Governor JB Pritzker for his likely interest in national office and a potential 2028 presidential campaign.
“A budget is a list of priorities, and this budget passed by the Democratic Majority prioritizes newly arrived non-citizens over the taxpayers we were elected to represent,” Curran said in a statement. “It is patently unfair to raise taxes on Illinois families struggling to afford basic needs, and job creators fighting to keep people employed to pay for the migrant crisis Gov. Pritzker created.”
Pritzker’s top budgeteer, Deputy Gov. Andy Manar, a former Senator himself, attacked Republicans on Twitter during the debate.
“The same GOP senators lecturing us right now on how to budget are the ones who stood by and watched Bruce Rauner destroy our higher education system, close human service providers, wreck our economy, rack up $17B in unpaid bills, drain our rainy day fund, and trash our credit,” Manar wrote.
A few Senate Democrats spoke in frustration the new budget didn’t spend enough on their new priorities. Two Democrats voted against the budget, moderate Sens. Patrick Joyce (D-Essex) and Suzy Glowiak-Hilton (D-Western Springs). Joyce is on the ballot in November in a competitive district
Sen. Elgie Sims (D-Chicago), the top Senate budget negotiator, fought back at Republican criticisms.
“There is this dichotomy where you say we should be spending more, but then there are times where you say we should be spending less,” Sims said.
He also responded to criticisms that repealing the grocery tax would cost local governments $325 million in revenue.
“As I look at this budget, there are more than half a billion dollars in resources that will go to local governments,” he said. “I could be wrong, but those are significant investments in local communities. Those will make a difference in local communities.”
Earlier in the day, the chamber approved hundreds of millions in tax increases, mostly on business, to balance the budget.
“In keeping with our shared commitment to fiscal responsibility, we have approved a budget that is balanced, responsible, and invests in people in all corners of our state.” Sims said.