Gov. JB Pritzker will give his Illinois budget address on Wednesday, and there s already a major budget battle between the two parties brewing. Two months ago I asked Republicans in the General Assembly for their proposals to close this year s budget deficit. I was met with silence. Apparently their idea of bipartisanship ends when hard choices must be made, Pritzker said. The general funds budget I present today for Fiscal Year 2022 spends $1.8 billion less than FY2021. It reflects $400 million in additional cuts to appropriations, a hiring freeze, flat operational spending, full required pension payments, and the closure of unaffordable corporate loopholes, the governor added.
House Republicans put the governor on notice that this year needs greater transparency in the process.
Pritzker had been counting on increased revenue from the graduated income tax to make up for revenue shortfalls, but voters rejected that tax change in November, thus forcing a change of plans. We re in a really tough spot, said Professor David Merriman, UIC Department of Public Administration. The only way to balance the budget is either to increase revenues or cut spending, and both of those paths are going to be very difficult to do.
Last week, Gov. Pritzker released his budget overview with a warning: We re going to have to make some painful cuts in state government in order to balance the budget.