Central Illinois lawmakers had predictably partisan reactions to the official state budget for the next fiscal year.
The budget includes $55.2 billion in spending, a 3.9% increase. Revenue estimates total $55.3 billion, with $1 billion in new taxes on nicotine products, sports betting, and businesses.
Democrats revealed the budget 48 hours before the midnight deadline on Saturday; lawmakers would need to a three-fifths majority to pass any bills after that.
That led to heated committee meetings. Republican state Rep. Ryan Spain of Peoria questioned budget management in a series of questions, and was left with many unanswered questions.
Spain brought his frustration to the House floor.
“At the end of the day, this continues to double down on a failed economic strategy in the state of Illinois,” Spain said. “That’s why for 30 years, not for one year, not for [the] occupant of the White House, for 30 years this state has continued to fall behind all other states. All national growth models.”
After some tension in both chambers, the budget was passed in the last two hours before the deadline with no Republican support.
For Democrats, the budget is a success. Democratic state Rep. Sharon Chung of Bloomington said the caucus was engaged and focused throughout the session.
“I was in regular contact with them and just feeling that our input was listened to,” Chung said. “And that to me means a lot, and especially when you have 78 members, it's a lot of people to manage. So, we all represent totally different districts all around the state. And so, the budget shows that. And it would help, it does help people all around the state.”
When asked if Republicans should have been part of the conversation, Chung said it is just a common complaint they hear every year and that Democrats were unified.
Chung praised the focus on health care in the budget: The state increased the hourly wage by 50 cents for direct support professionals [DSP] who provide care for people with developmental disabilities, $600 million in safety-net hospitals, $40 million in Federally Qualified Health Centers [FQHCs] and other increase funds for free and charitable clinics.
“We were able to invest in health care, and that's something that I think was important. And so that's something that I really did love about the budget,” Chung said.
Chung also was supportive of corporate taxes, but also acknowledged there were revenues she didn’t agree that were necessary to pass the budget, such as on sports betting and nicotine products.
Republicans frustrated
Republican lawmakers in Central Illinois and across the state spent the last days of session in frustration.
Republican state Rep. Travis Weaver of Pekin called the whole process and budget itself “grotesque.”
“It's out of touch with the state of Illinois,” Weaver said. “Here we are once again, with the largest budget that we've ever had that's got a billion dollars of tax increases and gimmicks in it, and we already had a growing budget because of revenue. Natural revenue growth. April was the highest revenue month in Illinois history. And yet, that was not enough for Illinois tax-and-spend Democrats.”
Republican state Sen. Sally Turner, who represents parts of Bloomington-Normal, also was disappointed, particularly as the budget relates to agriculture.
“Our farm families are hurting, and one of the things that is important is the value of our land and how we treat our land and how our farmers respect our land,” Turner said. “And one of the things we didn't see is additional money for soil and water, commerce, conservation, and two years ago they cut the budget way down for soil and water, and then the next year left it flat, and this year made it flat.
"So, there's nothing new for farmers for conservation issues such as the different things that they use for cover crops and things of that nature.”
Turner said she did find one positive. The budget kept two of Gov. JB Pritzker's initiatives focused on funding the demolition or improvement of abandoned sites. Lawmakers approved $300 million across the state, but Turner was glad to hear the project in Lincoln was still happening.
“The governor's office had talked to me about before that,” Turner said. “They said that was it something they really wanted was to help with the demolition of some of the state properties, and one of them being the Lincoln Developmental Center in Lincoln, Illinois, and that was extremely important to us because it's 100 acres that we need to tear down. And that was one of the ways that the state looked at it, that needs to be a shovel-ready property.”
Each Democrat in the legislature was provided additional money in the budget to fund local projects of their choosing.
Republicans criticized what they called “pork projects” as unfair, but Democrat lawmakers argued the projects would still benefit their districts even if they were not involved in the process.
Chung decided to use her $250,000 allotment to support OSF HealthCare’s nurse simulation program, the Bloomington-Normal Water Reclamation District’s projects and District 87 to upgrade playgrounds to be accessible for children with mobility issues.
Transit stalls
To solve the Regional Transportation Authority’s $771 million deficit, state Sen. Ram Villivalam of Chicago proposed a $1.50 tax on every purchase using a delivery service. This would have included groceries, fast food, general goods and medicine when purchased with other items.
Villivalam proposed to add $1.2 billion to the general revenue to be split between the Public Transportation Fund [PTF] and Downstate Public Transit Fund [DPTF] that supports downstate agencies, including Connect Transit. Eighty percent would have gone to the PTF and 20% to the the downstate fund, providing $240 million to DPS — a $120 million increase than what was originally proposed a few months ago.
The bill passed the Senate narrowly before midnight, but was never called in the House as it required a two-thirds majority.
Chung said she was disappointed that it didn’t go through since she said downstate public transit was “satisfied” with the proposal.
“And I wanted to make sure that any sort of revenues that we do raise for this wasn't going to be regressive in a way that we downstate would feel like that we are basically paying for everything up in the Chicagoland area,” Chung said.
How Central Illinois lawmakers voted on all three bills involving the budget (Budget, Revenue and Implementation)
Senate
(R) Neil Anderson - No
(R) Li Arellano - No
(R) Chris Balkema - No
(D) Dave Koehler - Yes
(R) Sally Turner - No
House
(R) Jason Bunting - No
(D) Sharon Chung - Y
(R) Regan Deering - N
(D) Jehan Gordon-Booth - Y
(R) William Hauter - N
(R) Ryan Spain - N
(R) Dennis Tipsword- N
(R) Travis Weaver - N
