Gov. JB Pritzker on Monday held up the largest budget in Illinois history as an example of state Democrats’ “fiscal responsibility” in the face of congressional Republicans, who he claimed are “spending wildly on tax cuts“ under President Donald Trump.
The $55.1 billion state spending plan signed into law by Pritzker marked one of the toughest budget seasons of his tenure, with a series of “difficult decisions” that the governor said lawmakers were forced into amid federal funding uncertainty.
Those decisions included some $400 million in cuts to state programs, with wholesale slashing of immigrant health care spending, while squeezing big corporations, online sportsbooks and nicotine users for more tax revenue.
But the state is still managing to increase K-12 education funding by $307 million, go beyond its required pension payment, add to the state’s “rainy day” fund and maintain “core investments for Illinois families, without raising their taxes,” Pritzker said.
“That’s hard to do while balancing the budget, but we did. Not everyone can say that,” Pritzker said before signing the budget package at a West Loop state office. “The Trump administration is spending wildly on tax cuts for their wealthy friends, while the Republicans in Congress are voting to gut health care and food assistance for working parents, for seniors and children.
“The Trump slump is affecting the entire nation,” Pritzker said. “You’re seeing red states and blue states across the country struggle this year, forced to grapple with lagging national economic growth estimates due to high tariffs and bad policy choices in Washington.”
Illinois Republicans, who unanimously opposed the budget, slammed it as “unprecedented taxpayer funded spending growth.”
The possibility of Trump targeting Democratic-led Illinois with funding cuts clouded budget negotiations that ended with Democratic supermajorities in the General Assembly passing the annual spending plan with just minutes to spare before a midnight deadline last month in Springfield. The spending plan includes a $100 million “bridge” reserve for unexpected shortfalls if federal dollars are yanked.
To close a $1 billion shortfall, state lawmakers implemented about $700 million in new taxes, including a $0.25 tax sportsbooks must pay for each of the first 20 million wagers they accept, and $0.50 for every bet beyond that.
Online sports betting giants FanDuel and DraftKings, saddled with hefty tax hikes last year, have said they’ll pass that cost onto bettors.
Lawmakers are also banking on another $50 million by raising taxes on cigarettes, e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches and chewing tobacco to 45%.
The Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults program proved to be the biggest cut, taking away state health coverage from some 30,000 people age 42-64 without legal status. A similar program for people 65 or older was retained at an estimated cost of $110 million.
“I do believe that everybody should have health care. I also know that we have to live within our means in the state of Illinois,” Pritzker said.
While he trumpeted his seventh consecutive balanced budget, Illinois Senate Minority Leader John Curran blasted the latest record-breaking budget amid inflation as rising costs.
“This unprecedented taxpayer funded spending growth has included no meaningful tax relief for Illinois families and will continue to hold our state back,” Curran said in a statement.
Civic Federation President Joe Ferguson said Republicans raised some fair points, but he noted small wins in the budget for Democrats.
It ultimately amounts to “an incomplete product, at an ambiguous moment, brought forward at the last minute,” said Ferguson, who has called on lawmakers to consider expanding sales taxes to more services while tweaking others to make them less regressive overall.
“They didn’t really dig into the hard stuff,” he said.
