SPRINGFIELD, Ill.— They were getting ready to vote on a $53.1 billion state budget on Tuesday night, but they planned to work all day Wednesday to finish the job.
The plan that the Senate approved on Sunday night was likely to be passed by the House. It costs $400 million more than what Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker suggested in February. To pay for it, taxes will be raised and other changes will be made to the tax code.
The Peoria Democrat who is Speaker Pro Tempore of the House Jehan Gordon-Booth told the Executive Committee, “This budget is balanced, responsible, and fair.” It puts money into children, facilities, and the people who are most at risk.
Even though the Legislature has passed its own self-imposed end date of May 24, lawmakers don’t expect to be done until early Wednesday morning. This is because the Constitution sets a number of days that laws must be read in public.
Republicans said that Democrats, who run the Legislature, are spending too much and not getting ready for what many people think will be tough years ahead. Norine Hammond, of Macomb, is the deputy leader of the Republicans in the House. She said she found at least $1 billion in spending that would be put off until the next fiscal year.
A 2017 overhaul of school funding called for a $350 million increase for elementary and secondary education. However, this is less than what the state education board had asked for in nationally required school operations. Gordon-Booth said that the budget adds an extra $75 million to early childhood education, which means that there will be 5,000 more places.
The plan to give $182 million to help tens of thousands of people seeking refuge in the U.S., most of whom come by bus from Texas, where they cross the border. It also gives $440 million to help noncitizens get health care.
It also fully funds the state’s sorely lacking pension plans and adds an extra $198 million to the so-called “rainy day fund” in case the economy goes down.
Gordon-Booth said that the plan only adds 1.6% to what will be spent this year. A Republican from Jacksonville named Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer pointed out that the budget is $20 billion more than it was ten years ago. He didn’t like how specific funds were moved, like $150 million from the road fund and $50 million from a fund to fix leaking underground storage tanks, to help public transportation.
Michael Davidsmeyer told Gordon-Booth, “I’m worried that this budget has tricks that will lead to a big crash in the future.” If something goes wrong, I hope I don’t have to say “I told you so.”
The General Assembly stayed in session past its due date because of the business tax hikes, which made lawmakers work hard to lessen the effects. But the plan to spend $526 million gets more money by keeping the limit on business losses that can be deducted from taxes at $500,000. Along with that, shops can only keep up to $1,000 a month to cover the costs of holding back state sales taxes. About $101 million would be made that way.
More taxes on sports betting and video gaming would bring in an extra $235 million. The tax that casinos pay for sports betting was supposed to go from 15% to 35%, but it was set to go from 20% to 40%.
The 1% tax on groceries was taken away, which is another win for Pritzker. This was another of the governor’s plans to fight inflation. But because the tax helps local communities directly, the budget plan would let any city or town set its own grocery tax of up to 1% without state control.
Cities and counties with populations over 25,000 people would usually have home-rule power. This means they could impose a sales tax of up to 1% without asking voters to approve it.
