Illinois House Democrats acknowledge ‘it isn’t easy’ to come together before early morning vote sending $50.6 billion state budget to Gov. J.B. Pritzker
Thank you for supporting our journalism. This article is available exclusively for our subscribers, who help fund our work at the Chicago Tribune.The House of Representatives during the legislative session at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield on May 19, 2023.
Gordon-Booth also acknowledged during the early morning debate that not everyone would be completely satisfied with the final product, but argued that the spending plan seeks to ensure the state can keep its promises. Welch’s election to the speaker’s post promised a transformational and transparent House operation after years of Madigan’s tightfisted control over his members.
State Rep. Greg Harris speaks on his final day in office at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield on Jan. 10, 2023. Shortly before the Senate adjourned early Friday for the final time this spring, the tension and emotional nature of the issue burst into the open when state Sen. Celina Villanueva, a Chicago Democrat, slammed critics, including those in the GOP, who’ve questioned the funding for the health care program.She talked about how her mother, before she died of cancer, was sick and needed to have surgery.
During the House debate early Saturday, Republicans voiced their perennial objections about being excluded from budget talks. “The budget presented here today undoubtedly represents a further expansion and growth of state government at a time when Illinois itself is contracted,” Curran said. Those raises would come after a separate raise given to lawmakers in January that boosted the annual salaries of rank-and-file lawmakers to $85,000 from $72,906, a nearly 17% increase.On Thursday, state Sen. Elgie Sims, a Chicago Democrat and the Senate’s chief budget negotiator, insisted the Democrats are “not trying to hide anything or do anything nefarious” with the new raises, saying they’re merely part of a cost-of-living adjustment.
Aside from the contention over the funding for the immigrant health care program, there were also differences over whether to extend a $75 million tax credit program for private school scholarship donors, which was left out of the final budget package.
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