The Illinois state legislature passed a $55.2 billion budget in the final 48 hours of the legislative session, leaving little time for public review.
The four bills that made up the budget were part of a slew of legislation introduced and passed in the last two days of the state legislative session. Had lawmakers not been able to pass this by the June 1 deadline, it would have required a three-fifths majority to pass a budget, not just a simple majority, per the Illinois Constitution.
The Illinois House approved the final bill on Saturday at 11:53 p.m., a little more than a day after the first spending details were publicly revealed following months of negotiations behind closed doors.
Some state Republicans, who are in the minority in both chambers, were critical of the budget’s quick passage.
“We’re rushing this process like we always do. ‘Let’s hide this stuff. Let’s hide it so that the public doesn’t see it until it’s too late,’” Republican state Rep. John Cabello said.
The proposed spending plan will be funded by $55.3 billion of revenue, which includes a 3.9% spending increase from the current year. Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) touted the budget as the seventh consecutive balanced budget.
“We’ve been prudent this year about making cuts to government where we thought we could,” Pritzker said. “There are hundreds of millions of dollars of cuts.”
Pritzker and other state Democrats have said it was the best budget they could put forward in a difficult year that will likely be filled with uncertainties from the federal government.
State lawmakers included a provision giving the governor authority over a new $100 million “emergency” fund to address any pulled funding from the Trump administration.
“I am very pleased to be able to present a balanced budget crafted to be fiscally and socially responsible, because we see the decisions made in Washington right now are neither,” said House Majority Leader Robyn Gabel, a Democrat. “Erratic leadership in Washington has affected our economic outlook, our revenue projections, and even threatened federal funding for our most crucial services.”
Pritzker said, “Even in the face of Trump and Congressional Republicans stalling the national economy, our state budget delivers for working families without raising their taxes while protecting the progress we are making for our long-term fiscal health.”
The budget will expand state taxes on foreign and out-of-state income for businesses and raise tax rates on tobacco, vapes, and sports gambling. It will also eliminate fund balances from several lesser-known and underutilized state funds. Illinois lawmakers did not approve funding for the Chicago Bears to build a new stadium using tax dollars.
The state also did not agree on a solution to close a $770 million funding gap for transit services in the Chicago area. Transit officials have warned that this could result in decreased service and frequency.
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Pritzker said lawmakers will need to address transit funding as quickly as possible but expressed confidence that they will over the next few months.
“We need transit reform,” Pritzker said. “We need to make sure we’re addressing the needs of commuters, not just in the city of Chicago or Cook County or in the collar counties but all across the state.”