State GOP reps. say budget should prioritize vulnerable Illinoisans first

Two northern Illinois Republican lawmakers addressed constituent questions this week largely focused on fiscal spending after Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker unveiled plans for a $55.2 billion state budget.

State reps. Jeff Keicher (R-Sycamore) and Steve Reick (R-Woodstock) held a telephone town hall from Springfield meant to provide updates on their policy plans and legislative strategy on what they called “challenges” facing Illinois in 2025.

Reick placed blame on Democrats in Springfield, saying Pritzker’s latest spending plan was filled with “gimmicks in an attempt to sustain uncontrollable spending.”

“We need to talk about spending restraint before we talk about going to the taxpayers for more money,” Reick said.

Pritzker’s proposal does not include increases on income or sales taxes.

During his annual state of the state and budget address on Feb. 19, Pritzker called for a roughly 3% spending increase to $55.2 billion in fiscal 2026 that will be supported by a similar increase in state revenue to $55.5 billion, Capitol News Illinois reported.

As he fielded questions about property taxes, talked about programs for youth with disabilities and his goals to reform the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, Reick said he wanted to see more dollars for social service programs funneled through local groups instead of at the state level.

Reick said he believes lawmakers need to decide whether Illinois will continue on the “path of high taxes” and face further population loss.

“My focus is going to be on localizing programs and bringing them back into the counties and things like that, where local people can start taking charge of what’s actually being spent in their communities,” Reick said.

Recik, who lives in Woodstock, represents McHenry County in the 63rd house district.

Keicher, who lives in Sycamore, represents portions of DeKalb, Kane and McHenry counties in the 70th district.

Like his Republican colleague, Keicher accused Pritzker of spending “very little time” on specifics for the governor’s plan to tightening the state’s spending without tax increases.

“We have a spending problem,” Keicher said. “We don’t have a tax problem.”

Keicher argued that services for more vulnerable Illinoisans such as the elderly, children and those facing domestic violence should be better prioritized by state money.

Part of Pritzker’s spending proposal includes significant changes to immigrant health care programs, including eliminating a program for low-income noncitizens living in the U.S. without legal permission between ages 42 and 64.

During the town hall, callers could wait in line to ask the representatives questions. Their questions appeared to be screened by legislative staffers, because Keicher at one point told the group they were getting a number of questions about federal issues and asked that callers focus more on state issues.

During Pritzker’s address, administration officials also warned that the state is in large part at the whim of President Donald Trump’s onslaught of federal policy changes.

The governor’s plan assumes a $173 million increase in federal funding, although Pritzker named several enacted or feared Trump policies that could alter estimates, including tariffs, food safety deregulation and potential health care cuts.

“We are state representatives, we don’t go to D.C.,” Keicher said. “We don’t deal with any of the national things you’re seeing in the headlines and with the new administration and new Congress going in.”

One caller asked Keicher and Reick to share ideas they had to address dwindling Illinois population because of high taxes.

Keicher said one strategy is to make Illinois more enticing for corporations and businesses to want to open branches or facilities in the state. He pointed to his work helping pass a tax incentive place to entice data centers to the area, including Meta’s DeKalb Data Center on the city’s south side.

“‘Grow our way out’ is the only way because whether we like it or not, people are going to start fleeing until we change the temperature here,” Keicher said. “And we need to change the temperature in here by creating a better job environment so people can get to work.”

Another woman asked about program cuts.

“We heard you say you’re concerned about how big the budget is, how high taxes are but then you also both kind of spoke about different programs that you think need to be supported by the state, which I don’t disagree with, but I feel like those concepts are kind of in conflict,” the caller, a woman identified as Vicky, said. “What programs would you cut to bring down taxes?”

Reick, who used to sit on the House Appropriations Committee for K-12 education, said he believes that dollars given by the state to agencies for social service or education programs like after school care did not have proper oversight.

“The thing is that you would ask questions to these agencies to say ‘Ok you have certain metrics that you have to abide by in order to get funding, what are those metrics and have you met them in the last year?’ Reick said. ”We never got an honest answer."

Reick did not provide specific examples about what agencies he interacted with that allegedly did not provide what he called adequate accounting of their state-funded spending.

Another caller asked what the representatives are doing in the capital to ensure facilities and programs are funded for children with special needs.

Reick, who also sits as a minority spokesperson for the Adoption and Child Welfare Committee, said he has hope that the new director of DCFS Heidi Mueller, will help reform the state department. DCFS came under heavy scrutiny following the 2019 murder of Crystal Lake boy AJ Freund, 5, at the hands of his parents, JoAnn Cunningham and Andrew Freund Sr.

“The child was buried a mile from my house, so I took it personally,” Reick said.

He said his goal is to bring forward legislation to keep families from falling apart, and then funnel state dollars to local agencies he thinks are better equipped to help families in their own communities.

“One of the things that bothers me the most is that in many cases families who need just fundamentally short term help and services have to go through the process and dealing wit DCFS through a hotline call before they’re given the kind of services that would keep them from having any kind of instances of abuse or neglect.”

Capitol News Illinois contributed.