NW Republican lawmakers call budget rushed, short-sighted

Republican lawmakers in northwest Illinois called the state budget process rushed and the reliance on tax revenue from a post-lockdown surge in consumer spending as short-sighted.

Those Republican lawmakers voted against the budget appropriations and funding, yet in large part, supported the tax-relief proposal that the General Assembly passed in the early morning hours on Saturday in Springfield.

The $46.5 billion spending plan and the $1.8 billion in tax cuts cleared the state Senate at 3 a.m. and the House at 5:30 a.m.

Rep. Tom Demmer, R-Dixon, who also is a candidate for state treasurer,  told Capitol News Illinois that the budget plan shaped by Democrats depends too much on pandemic-related tax revenues.

“And when this one-time revenue dries up, the only thing you’ll know how to do is go back and raise taxes yet again,” he said to CNI.

Rep. Andrew Chesney, R-Freeport, said: “While one-time tax rebates will be welcomed by Illinois families, the budget does not deliver what they really need, like structural reforms that will permanently keep taxes low and improve government efficiency.”

In the Senate, Deputy Minority Leader Sue Rezin, R-Morris, called the process rushed.

“Illinois families are struggling to keep up with ballooning inflation and out-of-control taxes,” Rezin said in a news release. “This year we had a real opportunity to provide the residents of our state with real and permanent tax relief that they so desperately need. Instead, they get tax relief gimmicks and reckless spending.”

Sen. Brian Stewart, R-Freeport, did not vote on the measures and said Republican suggestions for permanent tax relief were ignored.

Stewart cited the handling of the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund as an example.

Republicans, including Demmer on the House side and Rezin and Sen. Win Stoller of Germantown Hills on the Senate side, argued deep into March that American Recovery Plan Act funds should be used to resolve a deficit in the trust fund. Lawmakers approved a payment of $2.7 billion, leaving $1.8 billion unpaid.