By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – We’ll find out more at noon Wednesday just what Gov. JB Pritzker has in his budget proposal for the twelve months starting July 1.

The budget negotiators in the House are led by Republican Rep. Tom Demmer and Majority Leader Greg Harris.

“This kicks off the budget season,” said Demmer, “and, really, this is the time when the appropriations committees in both the House and the Senate … need to start bringing in agency heads, bringing in department directors, talking to them about the pressures and the opportunities in their own budgets and begin to have the legislature assert its role in the budget-making process.”

“For me,” said Harris, “if we can close corporate tax loopholes, I would love to do that. I want to listen to the governor’s budget speech, listen to the specifics he lays out, and then we’ll go from there.”

The governor has said he wants to cut $900 million in loopholes. That is sure to draw the opposition of business groups, but Harris said lawmakers will have to determine whether to make that sort of cut — or raise taxes on individuals and families, if that is indeed the choice.

Over in the Senate, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee reminded everyone just about any suggestion from the governor Wednesday will fall short of a slam dunk.

“There are some discussions that we have been having for a long time, then there are some that have come up over the last couple of years that individuals have identified,” said State Sen. Elgie Sims (D-Chicago). “so I expect the governor will lay some of those out, but for every tax expenditure, there is a group that advocated for its inclusion in the tax code.”

The governor’s office said there’s no tax increase, but the businesses which have been benefiting from those loopholes may say, au contraire.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]