Illinois lawmakers worked late into the night Sunday going into Monday morning to pass this year’s state budget. The $56 billion budget includes some new taxes on cryptocurrency, prediction markets, social media companies and more. It also includes a few new pieces of spending such as one-time payments for Illinoisans who’ve lost access to food assistance.
There are progressives in the legislature who’d hoped for taxes on corporations and billionaires. Those didn’t make it in and Republicans in the super minority in both chambers voted against the budget, complaining about high spending and the new taxes.
Leaders from both sides of the aisle joined the 21st Show this week. Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch, state Senate president Don Harmon, House minority leader Tony McCombie, and Senate minority leader John Curran shared their thoughts on the recently passed budget including wins and criticisms.
Interview Highlights
On Pritzker’s relationship with the Trump administration
CURRAN: “This governor has chosen, on day one when this new administration came into office, to not work with the administration — to take an adversarial role in belief. I would assume that he thinks it positions himself better to run for president, but that was day one. There was no attempt to work with this administration, and we are seeing the result now that he chose to fight rather than to work and collaborate. So that’s unfortunate.”
On tax relief
MCCOMBIE: “Well, I think first we’ve been given some opportunities from the federal government to provide tax relief. But as you saw in this budget, and you saw in last year’s budget as well as throughout the year, the Democrats continued to decouple away from federal policy that’s actually going to make cuts better — whether that is, you know, for the tax on tips, the scholarship tax credits that we still haven’t weighed in on. Certainly, you know, our caucus continues to talk to the Republican delegation, as I know the Senate does as well, to make sure that we are fighting for Illinois families’ access to — you know, medical, certainly the Medicaid — there are concerns there — strong schools, whether or not, if the Department of Education goes away, we want to continue to make sure those dollars are put directly into those funds.”
On education funding
HARMON: “I would also say the single largest increase in a line item in our budget this year was for elementary and high school education. We are living up to our promise to continue to build the evidence-based funding formula model to make sure all of our schools are fairly funded, and we didn’t walk away from that commitment in a tough year, and we did all of that without raising the income tax, or the sales tax, or the other taxes real people see when they go to the store or go to their mailbox.”
On tech policies
WELCH: “And so there were some pieces with regard to AI regulation that passed both chambers and are headed to the governor’s desk. There’s some responsible things with regard to cell phones and social media use that’s headed to the governor’s desk, but we’re committed to continuing the conversations here over the summer and fall, and continuing to work toward other ways of regulating in the AI space.”
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