Republican State Senator Jason Plummer and State Representative Blaine Wilhour were not pleased with what they heard when watching the Governor remotely deliver his budget address on Wednesday.
Plummer says the Governor is perpetuating the same failed gimmicks of the past, with the budget $1.7-billion out-of-balance while ignoring the hardships the citizens and businesses of the state have faced for the past year. He is unhappy the Governor is taking aim at the hardworking men and women of the state by imposing new tax increases on Illinois’ business community under the guise of “loopholes”. Plummer says those “loopholes” are the job creators and employees that are still working to recover from Pritzker’s imposed shutdowns that he unilaterally placed on the state for months.
Plummer says we should be focused on supporting the business community, not making it harder to do business in Illinois. He is calling for the state to pass a balanced budget that helps businesses, protects taxpayers, and makes Illinois more competitive with our neighbors.
Wilhour says the Governor likes to talk about hard choices, but the only hard choices the budget makes are raising $1-billion in taxes on job creators and eliminating education opportunity scholarships for working families at a time when the public education system is failing.
Wilhour says while agency cuts are important, they are a drop in the bucket compared to the need to completely transform how the state spends money. He feels now is the time to regroup and reprioritize the state’s spending. Wilhour says the proposed budget puts special interests ahead of the interests of taxpayers. He feels if Illinois is going to stop the exodus of people from Illinois, policy priorities need to change.
