Macon Reporter

While Gov. J.B. Pritzker delivered an optimistic State of the State and Budget Address, Sen. Chapin Rose (R-Champaign) wasn’t impressed.

"I’ve seen a lot of budget addresses, but this one is so completely disconnected from reality that it's reminiscent of the Blagojevich era,” Rose told the Macon Reporter.

Pritzker announced plans to provide up to $1 billion in tax relief and pay more than required into public sector pensions while putting hundreds of millions into the state’s exhausted rainy day fund. His proposed fiscal year 2023 budget totals $112.5 billion, $45.5 billion of which would come from the state's general revenue fund. The other funds are federal pass-through dollars. Pritzker proposed a total budget of $95.5 billion for fiscal year 2022, with $41.6 billion from state funds.

Public employee pensions remain a major cost. The administration will propose fully funding the required contribution of $9.6 billion with an additional $500 million infusion.

Rose remained unimpressed. 

“Here you have a governor who is creating permanent spending dollars while only providing temporary relief,” Rose said. “He has done nothing about crime but throw more money at it. He refuses to lock up violent offenders walking our streets. But where he's really disconnected from reality, Pritzker is using the federal Biden bucks to make everything appear that all is well. But people are going to wake up next year with a heck of a hangover when that money dries up and they're left with his reckless spending.”

Pritzker said record inflation and increased costs on consumers, in combination with increased tax receipts, drove some decisions. 

The governor will propose nearly $1 billion in tax relief in what his administration is calling the Illinois Family Relief Plan. The proposal puts a temporary freeze of the annual gas tax increase for a total of $135 million. He also proposes freezing the grocery tax, totaling $360 million, and $300 property tax rebates, totaling $475 million.