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In the overnight hours of May 31-June 1, majority party Democrats rammed through a nearly 4,000-page budget that guides spending for the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2021. No committee hearing was held, and legislators were not provided with an adequate amount of time to read and understand the document. As approved and sent to the Governor, the Fiscal

In what’s becoming typical for the Illinois General Assembly, major pieces of legislation were rushed through in the dead of night in an effort to bypass transparency. One such measure was the Fiscal Year 2022 budget, which was filed and voted on within hours, all while the public was asleep. In the late hours of May 31, Democrats filed a

As the spring legislative session approaches its end, budget talks have begun to pick up steam at the Capitol. While negotiations are ongoing, Senator Syverson is calling for the removal of tax hikes on businesses that Gov. JB Pritzker proposed in his February Budget Address. Since the Budget Address, the state has added $3 billion in unexpected revenues between Fiscal

Between the costs of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and the state’s built-in structural fiscal issues, the influx of nearly $8 billion in federal money from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act was being eyed to plug a number of holes. Gov. Pritzker had hoped to use some of the federal money to pay back $3.6 billion that the state borrowed

On Wednesday, Gov. Pritzker presented his Fiscal Year 2022 budget blueprint in a pre-recorded speech delivered from a new vaccine clinic at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield. The Pritzker budget calls for $41.6 billion in spending and ignores a Constitutional requirement that budgets be balanced according to existing revenue. Despite the Constitutional mandate, Gov. Pritzker is relying on $1.5