Illinois Democrats struggled to reach consensus on a budget before the Senate dropped a bill late Friday. But it was unclear how much support it had or when it would come to a vote.
SPRINGFIELD — The challenges of reaching consensus among the various factions of the big-tent Democratic supermajorities in the Illinois legislature were on full display Friday as lawmakers blew past a self-imposed deadline for passing a state budget and negotiations continued into Memorial Day weekend.
“We need to make sure the spending priorities reflect the will of the body,” Senate President Don Harmon, an Oak Park Democrat, said shortly before the budget plan was filed. “And this year, we’ve had to look at a variety of the revenue items the governor proposed. And there’s been some pushback, some suggestions to do things in slightly different ways.
Among Pritzker’s priorities that found their way into the Senate measure were a pilot program to purchase Illinois residents’ medical debt at a discount, which the governor’s office says could fund exponential debt relief for hundreds of thousands of families. Also included were funds for the Department of Early Childhood, the new agency that both chambers voted to create this session.
Asked about Pritzker’s proposed tax increases, Sen. Celina Villanueva, a Chicago Democrat, said, “We’ve been looking at a bunch of different options.” But she noted the state is up against many challenges, with underfunded pensions that need attention, as well as a looming $700 million-plus transit funding crisis.
Pritzker, who included the proposal in his budget blueprint in February, dug in his heels in the face of strong opposition from local leaders who worried about the impact it would have on their coffers. To make up for the lost revenue, municipalities — both those with broader home rule powers to raise taxes on their own and non-home-rule communities — would be granted the ability to levy their own 1% tax on groceries. Towns without home rule would be given the ability to tack on an additional 1 percentage point tax on general retail sales.
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