State Senator Jason Plummer (IL-55) held an end-of-session town hall at the Kaskaskia College Education Center in Salem to discuss the concluded Spring 2024 session of state legislature. Plummer stressed that the purpose of this town hall was to focus on issues at the state level, not national, and centered the conversation on bills that were recently pushed through in Springfield.
Plummer received several questions concerning this year’s budget, which has been signed by Governor Pritzker. Plummer countered Pritzker’s claims of a balanced budget with sharp disagreement, claiming that Illinois is spending beyond its means with money that will not last.
“The Governor will tell you it’s a balanced budget, I promise you it’s not… We’re still spending some COVID dollars. We’re also still benefiting from some tax revenues which I believe are artificially inflated… I think you have artificially high sales tax revenue, I think you have artificially high incomes… We’ve created new programs, we’ve created a couple new departments, and we’ve created bigger government on money that’s not always going to be there.”
Plummer was critical of the Democrats’ tax updates in this budget, not only concerning increases in corporate taxes, but also in the planned cut of the grocery tax. Plummer called the grocery tax a “trick bag,” and said that while he has previously supported cutting the grocery tax, this version of the cut does more harm than good by shifting the burden to municipalities. Plummer would have preferred to cut the grocery tax without cutting funding to municipalities through the Local Government Distributive Fund. He says the legislation places municipalities in a difficult situation where they may be forced to raise taxes themselves to cover costs.
Asked about the money the state has allocated to spend on the ongoing migrant crisis, Plummer said the total is higher than some of his colleagues would like to admit. While acknowledging the number would be debated, Plummer claimed that upwards of $2 billion in the new budget is allocated toward immigrants, with the bulk of these expenses being for healthcare. According to Plummer, spending on immigration has grown out of control.
“(Democrats) acknowledge now that the programmed ballooned to 200 million, then ballooned to 500 million, and now conservatively everyone is saying it’s around 1.1 billion, and it’s probably going to be more… there are folks on the other side that still want to expand the program to cover more people… we can’t afford to do that, and if we want to do that, let’s take care of Illinoisans first.”
Plummer also expressed displeasure with a law passed that would prevent political parties from slating candidates in races where they did not run a candidate in the primary. Plummer took issue with the timing of this bill rather than its substance, calling it a blatant attempt by Illinois Democrats to change the rules in the middle of an election year to limit opposition. The law is currently facing challenges in court, and it is unclear whether it will ultimately be enforced for this year’s general election.
Estate tax and excessive property tax are two of Plummer’s targets to address, as he says that these high taxes are the culprits behind Illinois’ current outmigration trend. He expressed hope that Democrats will be willing to take a serious look at tax reform in the lame duck session following this November election. Plummer says Democrat leaders have been unsettled by the state’s decreasing population and that changes in tax policy designed to draw people back into the state could see bipartisan support.

A good crowd gathered to hear Jason Plummer at his Town Hall meeting in Salem on Wednesday night. Photo by Bruce Kropp.