State Senator Jason Plummer spoke to Salem residents at an end-of-session town hall event at the Kaskaskia College education center in Salem Monday evening. Plummer spoke to residents about the results of the spring legislative session, raising concerns about the FY2027 budget, the largest in state history.
“I’m willing and happy to pay taxes if I think the money is being spent productively and on the right things,” Plummer said. “I think we can all agree there are core functions of government and important things we need to be spending money on. What frustrates me with this budget, beyond the lack of transparency, is our spending priorities.”
Plummer says that this budget is not truly balanced, and he expects Illinois will not take in all of the revenue it is expecting on paper.
Addressing one of the most high-profile issues of this year’s session, Plummer blamed the failure to incentivize the Chicago Bears to remain in Illinois on incompetence on the part of lawmakers. Plummer says it is now uncertain whether Illinois will be able to keep the Bears in the state.
“On the Bears, I think it’s 50-50. I don’t think they’re dead set on going to Indiana. I think there’s still movement for Illinois to come up with something, but only in Illinois could we be this inept and not get people to the table. I would say a lot like the budget, there was just completely absent leadership.”
As he answered questions from the audience, Plummer talked about the impact of gerrymandering on the state’s political landscape. He believes a lack of competitive elections leads to deeper divisions between democrats and republicans.
“Then you get candidates that tend to have a feeling of what’s going to happen, so they don’t do as much as they should. They don’t reach out to the other side as much as they should, which is unhealthy for democracy and which is why some of the very obvious structural issues facing the state aren’t going to get resolved. The number one thing we can do in Illinois isn’t passing a certain piece of legislation or getting any one person elected, it’s fixing the way we draw our districts.”
Plummer says he will continue looking for ways to make his voice heard in Springfield and bring about change with bipartisan effort.
