McLean County Times

State Sen. Sally Turner (R-Beason) recently addressed Gov. J.B. Pritzker's State of the State and Budget Address, during which he presented his fiscal year 2023 budget of $112.5 billion.

Turner expressed appreciation for numerous components of Pritzker's proposed budget, including more funding for public safety, a new crime lab in Decatur and increased funding for human services to address mental health problems.

 However, she expressed reservations regarding the budget's sustainability.

"Are we going to have enough money to fund these $3 billion of increases?" Turner asked in an interview with the McLean County Times, "Are they sustainable? Those are things that are really, really important that we need to look into."

Turner also said that she felt there was a lack of dialogue between Republicans and Democrats regarding how to handle matters that benefit the residents of Illinois.

"I think it's very important that we all work together in order to create a budget that's sustainable for all of us so that people want to come and live in Illinois and people want to stay in Illinois and raise their families here," Turner said.

Additionally, Turner wanted to discuss the possibility of eliminating the current tax on food and fuel, as she considered a one-year exemption insufficient.

"Our plan that we had proposed was a permanent relief," Turner said, "I would appreciate hearing more on that; both sides need to talk about those things and come up with better plans for the citizens of Illinois."

Pritzker said in his Feb. 2 address that inflation and rising costs to consumers, along with larger tax receipts, prompted the proposed grocery tax freeze, totaling $360 million, as well as a temporary freeze on the annual gas tax increase, totaling $135 million, according to a Patch report.

Of the proposed $112 billion, $45.5 billion would come from the state's general revenue fund, while the remaining funds would come from the federal government.

Another $1 billion would be dedicated to public sector pensions, bolstering the state's rainy day fund by hundreds of millions of dollars.