North Egypt News

Sen. Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro) recently reacted to Gov. J.B. Pritzker's State of the State address.

"The governor had a lot of new and expanded programs," Bryant said. "We’ve talked a lot about the need, if we’re going to get our fiscal house in order, to make sure we don't have new and expanded programs right now. I like some of the things he said about getting our fiscal house in order. It’s time to pass some of that on to taxpayers. … I hope that you’re going to give a seat at the 'grown-up table' for those of us that have good ideas."

According to Patch, Ptitzker's budget comes in at $112.5 billion and much of that would be put toward infrastructure and pensions. 

Out of the total budget, $45.5 billion comes directly from the state’s general revenue fund while the rest comes from federal funds. A large portion of the budget will also be dedicated to public employee pensions.

"I think Republicans have some excellent ideas on how to make permanent changes and permanent tax relief to the taxpayers ... rather than election-year gimmicks," Bryant said. "If we want to make changes we need to make those changes in a permanent way."

Pritzker's administration predicts a total of $45.8 billion in tax collections for the coming fiscal year, with expectations of around $890 million in income tax receipts. However, state officials mentioned that corporate tax revenues are expected to decrease, according to Patch. 

Also proposed was the Illinois Family Relief Plan, which would allocate $1 billion in tax relief toward a temporary freeze of the annual gas tax, grocery tax, and property tax rebates to help families who are still recovering from the pandemic.