McLean County Times

State Sen. Chapin Rose (R-Mohamet) believes Gov. J.B. Pritzker's (D-IL) latest budget proposal only proves how "disconnected from reality" the governor is from the citizens of Illinois.

"Here you have a governor who is creating permanent spending dollars while only providing temporary relief," Rose said. "He has done nothing about crime but throw more money at it. He refuses to lock up violent offenders walking our streets."

Under Pritzker's proposal, more money would be put toward education, public safety, and small businesses. According to a press release from the governor's office, "unprecedented payments" would also be made to the state's rainy day fund and state pensions.

"Pritzker is using the federal Biden bucks to make everything appear that all is well, but people are going to wake up next year with a heck of hangover when that money dries up and they're left with his reckless spending," Rose said.

Pritzker also introduced temporary tax relief which included a one-time payment in the form of a property tax rebate, freezing the grocery tax, and temporarily pausing the upcoming hike in the gas tax, the release stated.

"$2.5 billion in new spendings and he thinks the people of Illinois who are suffering from inflation, and he thinks they should only get a one-time help," Rose said. "That is so disconnected from the reality of the people I represent every day."

According to a report published on Patch, the cost of Pritzker's budget adds up to around $112.5 billion.

The article pointed out that a majority of the budget would be funded by federal dollars received by the state, with only $45.5 billion coming from the state's general revenue fund.

It also noted that a large portion of the budget was set aside for public employee pensions.