Skillicorn Pushes for Balanced Budget

A press release from State Rep. Alan Skillicorn:

Skillicorn Says Balanced Budget Needed to Provide Education Certainty

CRYSTAL LAKE – Despite K-12 education funding being spared much of the turmoil caused by the lack of full-year, balanced state budget, many school districts have been feeling the crunch due to state mandated categorical payments not being paid.

These categorical payments, which help fund things like transportation and special education, have yet to be paid to school districts by the Comptroller because of the state’s ever growing backlog of bills.

State Representative Allen Skillicorn (R-East Dundee) says this is one more reason it essential to stop playing games with another stopgap in Springfield and pass a comprehensive, full-year balanced budget as soon as possible.

“Illinois has been without a complete budget for nearly two years now, and gone even longer without a balanced budget that actually matches spending to projected revenues,” said Skillicorn.

“Every day this continues, our schools face growing uncertainty as their backlog of unpaid state vouchers grow. This is unacceptable and ultimately leads to more pressure being placed on local taxpayers.”

School districts across the state, including those in Skillicorn’s district, have yet to receive millions of dollars in state mandated categorical payments.

The Comptroller has not made the payments since the state does not have enough money to do so. Comptroller Mendoza’s office has said it plans to make the first of four categorical payments by the end of April, some seven months late.

School districts would typically have received three payments by April, but since the state’s spending has outpaced revenues by so much, and the state is still without an appropriation for a full-year budget, none have been made yet.

“K-12 education, higher education and social services need urgent, real solutions, not another stopgap that keeps growing Illinois’ backlog of unpaid bills. Continuing to spend more money than the state takes in will just grow the problem more in the long run.” said Skillicorn.

“I urge the Speaker to work with both Republicans and Democrats to pass a comprehensive balanced budget immediately.”


Comments

Skillicorn Pushes for Balanced Budget — 9 Comments

  1. THE PROBLEM IS P.E.N.S.I.O.N.S. and public sector unions!

  2. Someone tell Skillicorn that he needs to go to his financier and tell him that he is mandated under our constitution to present a balanced budget. He has not. Then tell him to tell his financier to stop handing our tax dollars out to his rich friends. That’s a start.

  3. Audrey please elaborate on which rich friend of the Governor has received tax dollars? And we all know that the state of Illannoyed has not had a balanced budget in at least 20 years, even bleeding heart liberal Quinn, raised taxes and did nothing to pay down any debt with the windfall. At let me guess, will you support Pritzker or Kennedy? Will it be ok to be a millionaire or billionaire as long as you’re a dem?

  4. ** raised taxes and did nothing to pay down any debt with the windfall.**

    This is fundamentally false. The unpaid bills when down significantly under Pat Quinn. To pretend otherwise is either ignorance or blatant dishonesty.

    BTW… where are Allen’s budget bills? He said he was introducing bills for the IPI budget. Where are they?

  5. The Mrs., Since day one Rauner has been giving out millions of our tax dollars in “incentives” to businesses. Some of these are warranted, the vast majority are nothing more than handouts. To be fair, Rauner is not the only, nor the first, to do this, its pervasive throughout the State at all levels, however, while he is handing out our tax dollars to corporations, he’s slashing funding for programs that help our most vulnerable residents and for things like higher education. Hes even started a “private, not-for-profit company” whose sole purpose is to figure out ways to “incentivize” businesses to come to or stay in Illinois. This is not an entity that will be transparent. We will not know how much of our tax dollars will be doled out, to whom and for what. If we are so broke, this should not be happening. It shouldn’t be happening even if we were drowning in cash.

    Skillicorn knows this but won’t do a damn thing about it because Rauner and his millionaire and billionaire buddies own him.

  6. Just so people know, I posted several articles about Rauner’s “double-secret probation” corporate giveaway corporation yesterday and it’s still “waiting for moderation”.

  7. 415 million dollar cut to Medicaid and eliminating the Local Government Distributive Fund is what IPI’s balanced budget called for. This has no chance of passing. The house just relaxed rules on taxpayer funded abortions…

  8. Well, it will have to wait a bit longer.

    Putting up articles comes before moderating comments.

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