By Dave Dahl

CHICAGO – The $50.6 billion state budget is ready to go, and with only Democratic support.

Gov. JB Pritzker Wednesday signed the bill in Chicago, and reporters afterward asked about some GOP criticisms, one of which is that the budget does not account for the increased costs which will undoubtedly come once a contract with AFSCME is settled.

“We built into the agencies’ budgets what we thought might be the appropriate amount of money for what we expect from that AFSCME negotiation,” said the governor. “That is in the budget already. That is one of those false things that Republicans like to say about the budget, but it is in the budget.”

While the governor said the expected costs are built into the budget, his spokespeople said they could not provide a dollar amount, as negotiations continue.

Republicans also were upset the “Invest in Kids” program was left out. After distancing himself from it by saying he couldn’t “speak to the decisions” of the House and Senate, Pritzker said the program could come back when lawmakers convene the fall veto session; and that Invest in Kids is “one piece … left dangling” among the ways the budget supports education “in every way possible.”

Superminority Republicans single out Invest in Kids, a program initiated when Republican Bruce Rauner was governor, because it provides donors to private school scholarships a 75 percent tax credit.

Illinois’ fiscal year begins July 1.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]