North Egypt News

State Sen. Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro) recently shared her opinion on Gov. J.B. Pritzker's signing of the 2023-2024 state budget.

"Today, the Governor signed his partisan and irresponsible budget, which spends over $50 billion in Fiscal Year 2024," Bryant wrote in a June 7 Facebook post.

In a news release, Bryant expanded on the Facebook post.

“After spending days touring the state, the Governor is signing his partisan and ‘balanced’ budget that will spend over $50.6 billion," Bryant said. "The reality is that this so-called balanced budget only has a self-admitted ‘surplus’ of $100 million and doesn’t truly account for all of the spending that we know will take place throughout the upcoming fiscal year." 

Bryant said the budget doesn't account for projected costs for healthcare for undocumented immigrants, and a new AFSCME contract.

"This budget doesn’t account for over half of a billion dollars that was projected to be spent on the state’s misguided undocumented immigrant healthcare program or hundreds of millions on the state’s expected new AFSCME contract," she said. “The Governor can travel the entire state to tout his fiscal responsibility, but anyone with a calculator on their phone can tell for themselves that this budget won’t really be balanced at the fiscal year’s end and our state is being setup for a fiscal disaster down the road.”

According to an article by the State Journal-Register, the $50.4 billion state budget for fiscal year 2023-2024 includes $250 million in funding for the Smart Start Illinois program, which would make it easier for families to send kids to preschool and increase childcare in the state. It also includes funding for homelessness prevention, and $100 million in additional funds for the Monetary Award Program (MAP), which allows the majority of community college students to have community college paid for, when combined with a Pell grant. Pritzker also amended  increased compensation for lawmakers and reduced the budget by about $192,700.

A press release from Pritzker’s office noted that the budget for the upcoming fiscal year adds $200 million above what is required for the state’s pension systems. There’s also funding to Budget Stabilization Fund, which is expected to grow to more than $2 billion. 

"From the beginning, I promised to work together with the General Assembly to restore fiscal responsibility to our state government after years of mismanagement," Pritzker said, according to the press release. Thanks to our firmer fiscal foundation, we have been able to put billions of dollars back into the pockets of Illinois taxpayers while investing in our future. Our budgets have allowed thousands more students to stay in Illinois because they can afford a college degree. Balanced budgets have allowed us to modernize our infrastructure, build nation-leading clean energy production, attract industries of the future like quantum computing, and prioritize childcare for working families and our youngest children."