With a deficit looming, Illinois Republicans ask Pritzker to pledge no new taxes
SPRINGFIELD — With the state facing a projected $3.2 billion deficit in the next fiscal year, Illinois Senate Republicans are asking Gov. JB Pritzker to pledge that he won't raise taxes — and to bring their party to the table during budget negotiations.
The Republicans' request came as lawmakers kicked off their annual fall session in Springfield. The two-week session is when lawmakers typically consider bills that were vetoed by the governor along with legislative items not addressed earlier in the year.
Since Pritzker did not veto any bills passed by the Democrat-controlled legislature this spring, this year's session features a less formal agenda.
"I'm calling on Gov. Pritzker to pledge to not increase taxes on Illinois families and businesses in this upcoming budget year," said Illinois Senate Republican Leader John Curran, R-Downers Grove, during a news conference on Tuesday. "Illinois has real problems right here that need to be dealt with. It is time for Gov. Pritzker to take a break from the national campaigns and to start to think Illinois."
The Republicans' call comes on the heels of a presidential election that saw President-elect Donald Trump perform better in Illinois than any Republican presidential candidate in two decades. Trump lost the state by about 10 percentage points to Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris.
Despite state legislative Republicans not gaining any seats this cycle, a result the Republicans chalked up to districts gerrymandered to favor Democrats, Curran said that the results were a signal for Pritzker and Democrats to "course correct" and work in a bipartisan manner, especially with a "distressing outlook" on the budget.
"Unlike other Democratic governors in other states, like Pennsylvania, that have approached the election results with calls for collaboration and working in a more bipartisan manner, Gov. Pritzker recently, with his press conference, has doubled down on his anti-Republican rhetoric, bashing Donald Trump and telling Illinoisans he was going to be protecting them from the incoming administration," Curran said.
"Despite the electoral outcome, he still does not seem to understand that he represents all Illinoisans, including the 2.4 million that voted for Donald Trump," Curran said.
Just days before Election Day, the Governor's Office of Management and Budget released its annual economic and fiscal policy report , which projected a $3.2 billion budget deficit in fiscal year 2026 and growing to more than $5 billion by 2028.
The GOMB report states that the fiscal challenge is "daunting" and, in a warning seemingly aimed at state legislators, lobbyists and advocacy organizations, that "the ability to fund new programs will be severely limited."
Pritzker has often cast doubt on the accuracy of the projections, including last week, when he told reporters flatly that "it's been wrong every year."
In a statement, Pritzker spokeswoman Olivia Kuncio said that "the governor will submit a balanced budget as he has done every year since taking office," adding that "he remains committed to taking steps to further improve Illinois' fiscal position and address any potential budgetary shortfalls that may arise."
"If Republicans in the General Assembly want to come to the table and work on a practical, balanced budget, they are always welcome to do so — but past experience shows that this sort of showy political theater is the extent of their actionable concern for our state's economy," Kuncio said.
Earlier this year, state lawmakers passed and Pritzker signed a budget containing a record $53.1 billion in spending . It relied on more than $750 million in tax increases and other revenue enhancements to be brought into balance.
Curran said that the state's fiscal woes were a result of Pritzker and Democrats' "gluttonous appetite for more spending," specifically criticizing the more than $640 million the state spent to address the migrant crisis last year. They also criticized $440 million in spending on a health care program for non-citizen adults who are not eligible for Medicaid.
The challenges will only grow moving forward with increased pressure to fund education beyond the additional $350 million that's been added in nearly every budget since the state's evidence-based funding law was enacted in 2017.
And Chicago area public transportation agencies face a $730 million fiscal cliff in the coming year as pandemic-era stimulus funds dry up.
There will also be added pressure to enhance Tier 2 pension benefits, which are the less generous benefits public employees hired after 2010 will receive upon retirement. Though the reform has helped address the state's pension crisis, the benefits may need to be sweetened in order to meet the minimum threshold required under the Social Security "safe harbor" test.
Curran, asked where Republicans would cut amid these cost pressures and a desire not to increase taxes, did not offer any definitive examples beyond cutting spending that benefits undocumented immigrants. That spending only makes up a fraction of the projected deficit.
"We are going to have to constrain spending," Curran said. "We're going to have to go line by line. Everything needs to be on the table for that. And that's a process that needs to start early."
The past few years, Republicans have largely been shut out of the budget process as Democrats, a factious supermajority, largely negotiated among themselves.
Quinn advocates for millionaires' tax
Meanwhile, former Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn also made an appearance at the Capitol this week to tout the passage of an advisory referendum question that asked voters if the state should pass a constitutional amendment enacting an additional 3% tax on income over $1 million. The revenue would then be used to grant property tax relief.
Quinn said that voters "spoke in a clear voice" by supporting the measure with 60% of the vote.
However, the likelihood of the policy actually being enacted is unlikely.
Democrats also voted to place an advisory question on the ballot in 2014 regarding a "millionaire's tax." It also passed.
But when voters had the opportunity in 2020 to change the constitution in a binding referendum to allow for a graduated income tax, they rejected it with 53% of the vote. Pritzker, the biggest proponent of the graduated rate, has subsequently said he would not advocate for a redo.
Senate Republicans also dismissed the idea.
Contact Brenden Moore at . :
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