State lawmakers offer partisan responses to Pritzker’s budget address

By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Illinois lawmakers are offering mixed reviews of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s budget address.

Following the governor’s State of the State speech on Wednesday, Illinois Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, said he gives the governor a lot of credit for prioritizing important programs.

“I heard a lot of shared priorities. We’re continuing to invest in public education. The governor is proposing more money for grants for college students,” Harmon said.

State Sen. Terri Bryant, R-Murphysboro, reacted to Pritzker’s assertion that the state’s gross domestic product increased from $881 billion when he took office to more than $1.2 trillion.

“Interesting that the governor uses a dollar amount and not the percentage, because the increase is 4% in Illinois. The rest of the country is 40-plus percent,” Bryant said.

Pritzker’s proposed fiscal year 2027 general funds appropriations of $54.8 million represent a decline from $55.2 billion in 2026, but the 2027 total is $56 billion when transfers to other state funds are included.

The speaker of the Illinois House has joined Pritzker by directing criticism toward the Trump administration, but a Republican state senator says the governor is the one making life more expensive.

Like Pritzker, Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside, directed criticism at President Donald Trump’s administration.

“Every day, we see how Donald Trump’s tariff schemes are taxing working people on every purchase, hurting small businesses and making everything more expensive,” Welch said.

State Sen. Andrew Chesney, R-Freeport, said it was the governor and not the president who raised government spending in Illinois.

“It is J.B. Pritzker, it is not Donald Trump who raised the gas tax, gave taxpayer-funded health care to transgenders and illegal immigrants, paid for taxpayer-funded abortions and killed school choice tax-credit programs,” Chesney said.

State Rep. Adam Niemerg, R-Dieterich, said the average employee’s salary has decreased 21% since Pritzker took office. Niemerg said utility bills have gone up 83% during the same period.

“These are working people’s problems. He is an out-of-touch billionaire and he will not be the next president of the United States,” Niemerg said.