Reaction to the governor’s budget speech

Posted on February 17, 2021
Gov. Pritzker delivered his third budget address virtually from the Illinois State Fairgrounds.(Twitter/Governor JB Pritzker)

 

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – Reacting to Wednesday’s budget speech, Illinois Senate President Don Harmon (D-Oak Park) called it a good faith effort.

“Our first priority with any tax incentive needs to be jobs for hardworking Illinoisans,” said Harmon, “so I think it’s a fair question to ask: what are the hardworking taxpayers of Illinois getting for these corporate tax breaks?”

House Minority Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) did not use the phrase “good faith” in his own assessment. “Your word is your bond, and when you break that, all is lost,” he said. “This is a very difficult time for me to be able to understand how I am going to cooperate with this governor when he has gone back on his word,” chastising Gov. JB Pritzker for reneging on business incentives agreed to two years ago.

“I listened to a governor who is completely out of touch with the state and with its people,” said State Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia), a possible challenger for governor in 2022. “I listened to a grown man whine complain and blame absolutely everything past and present except for himself and his own party as to the woes of the state of Illinois.”

While State Rep. Avery Bourne (R-Morrisonville) decried what she described as a budget only balanced by “gimmicks” and “new taxes on small businesses and job creators,” State Sen. Elgie Sims (D-Chicago) said the budget should not be “balanced on the backs of people who are least able to afford it,” adding “it does not propose a general tax increase,” but – as Bourne and other Republicans point out – the businesses whose loopholes could be tied off would disagree.

The next fiscal year starts July 1.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]

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