By Eric Stock
BLOOMINGTON – Central Illinois Republicans were unanimous in slamming a proposed $5.4 billion tax increase which the Illinois Senate pushed through Tuesday with no GOP support.
“In recent weeks, I have been encouraged by the bipartisan, good-faith negotiations going on in the Senate, and I’m proud that we were able to find compromise on issues like pension and procurement reform,” said State Sen. Bill Brady, R-Bloomington, in a news release. “Unfortunately, rather than continuing to work together, Democrats chose to pass an unbalanced budget along with an income-tax increase. I have said for weeks that any compromise we reach has to be a good deal for the taxpayers, and that means having a balanced budget and fundamental reforms that will move Illinois forward. That’s not what happened (Tuesday).”
State Sen. Jason Barickman, R-Bloomington, said Democrats pushing through a massive tax hike is like ‘Groundhog Day’ in Springfield.
“They refuse to negotiate in good faith with those of use on the Republican side of the aisle,” Barickman said. “They are able to go it alone and that’s what they’ve done here. It’s both frustrating and disappointing.”
State Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, said passing unbalanced budgets, higher income taxes and no property tax relief is ‘typical of the Chicago Democrats.’
“Democrats admitted that this so-called ‘budget’ had over $2.5 billion in mistakes in it, and it didn’t pay off one penny of the state’s unpaid bills, and that is on top of the fact that it isn’t balanced in the first place,” Rose said, “Instead of going back into the room to finish cutting to make this thing balance, they did this. This is totally unproductive to getting a budget for the taxpayers that is truly balanced.”
State Rep. Dan Brady, R-Bloomington, told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin and Patti Penn, it will likely be a challenge for Gov. Bruce Rauner and House Speaker Michael Madigan to find common ground without spending cuts when it gets to the lower chamber.
“You’ve got to show, I believe, the electorate where you are going to make these cuts and what you are going to do,” Brady said. That’s the difficult part of where we are at right now.”
PODCAST: Listen to Scott and Patti’s interview with Rep. Brady on WJBC.
Brady added with a budget deadline one week away, lawmakers might have to consider budget items that ‘normally we would not look at when it comes to a vote.”
If no state budget is passed by May 31, Democrats would need a larger majority to pass any budget bills.
Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].
