From State Senator Don DeWitte and Craig Wilcox:
Upcoming Budget Address Shadowed by Looming Deficit
As the Governor prepares to present his annual budget address next week, lawmakers are anxious to see how he intends to address the expected budgetary deficit and various points of contention, including the ongoing migrant crisis and free healthcare program for noncitizens.
While the U.S. economy has been more resilient than some economists originally anticipated, the state’s economy is expected to experience a significant decrease in revenues in the coming year, all the while spending is continuing to increase.
According to the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget, Illinois is projected to face a nearly $900 million deficit for Fiscal Year 2025. [Emp[hasis added.]
Governor Pritzker’s program to provide free healthcare to noncitizens is a particular point of contention in the upcoming budget process.
The program has become one of the state’s largest fiscal responsibilities as well as one of its most scrutinized programs.
The Governor claimed last year that new copayment requirements for migrants were expected to reduce some costs.
$550 million was allocated for the program, but current estimates say the cost will be at least $200 million over budget.
Senate Republicans have repeatedly pushed for the Governor and his allies to focus on other priorities, including existing programs for struggling Illinois citizens.
The projected deficit is also partly due to new permanent spending that was created during the height of the pandemic and funded with federal relief funds.
Now those federal sources of money have mostly dried up.
My Senate Republican colleagues and I had repeatedly warned Democratic lawmakers about the potential risks that reckless spending growth would create on the state’s finances once federal funds were exhausted.
Those warnings were ignored and the continued push for new programs and more spending has put the state’s finances in a precarious position.
here is a money saving idea?
from a pot state:
caption today, ;
Colorado town unanimously blocks sanctuary status for migrants (aka illegals) Not Using Tax Payers funds for this.
wake up BJ and libtard regime….
if the FJB regime won’t do it then the STATEs Can “Do It” its called Deport…
States cannot deport anyone. See: Constitution.
Texas can’t deport but they are arresting, jailing and after they serve sentence, are transported back to Port of Entry.
If they refuse to return, they are rearrested on a felony charge.
Constitution, Constitution, MAGAs don’t need no stinken Constitution.
Illinoisans who refused to care for our own people and assist our own cousins & neighbors, are apparently going to learn the hard way how to be a nation, only when we’re all stateless and roaming in a desert like the band of Hebrews who left Egypt when they found themselves no longer welcome there.