Local Legislators React to Budget Passage

All three local legislators voted against the state budget passed by the Illinois House early this morning in Springfield.

Democrats in the Illinois General Assembly celebrated their Memorial Day holiday by pushing through a new state budget that includes $1 billion in tax increases on Illinois families and businesses. The Democrats’ new $53.1 billion state budget for Fiscal Year 2025 (again the largest in Illinois history) also includes more money for illegal immigrants, stressed State Representative Brad Halbrook (R-Shelbyville).

(ST. REP. BRAD HALBROOK)

“While you were paying 10% more for your Memorial Day cookout this year, Democrats in the General Assembly marked the holiday by raising your taxes by $1 billion, and giving a staggering $1 billion more of your money to non-citizens who are here illegally,” Rep. Halbrook said. “This Governor and legislative majority have no plans to EVER make state government live within its means, and to allow you to keep more of the money you have worked hard for.”

State Representative Adam Niemerg (R-Dieterich) is calling out the majority party’s misguided priorities in the final state budget that raises taxes while directing hundreds of millions of dollars to fund programs and services for illegals.

(ST. REP. ADAM NIEMERG)

The Fiscal Year 2025 budget allocates $53.1 billion in spending and is being propped up by approximately $750 million in tax increases. The budget includes electric vehicle subsidies, abortion services funding, and pay raises for lawmakers. It also authorizes $622 million in spending for illegal immigrants.

“Working families are struggling to heat and cool their homes and pay for groceries and we are giving legislators a 5 percent pay increase,” Niemerg said. “This budget prioritizes the Democrats’ far left agenda and does nothing to help working people. The budget is nothing more than a goodie bag for the woke left.”

Niemerg noted the budget spends more than three times the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs budget on illegal immigrants.

“I understand why people want to come to the United States, but we have laws, and those laws should be enforced,” Niemerg said. “This spending is not sustainable. We must put our own citizens first. The idea that we would spend three times what we spend on services for veterans on programs for illegals shows the lack of empathy for our own citizens. The only thing that matters to the far-left is their woke agenda and they will stop at nothing to advance their policies. We deserve better.”

State Representative Blaine Wilhour (R-Beecher City) says the budget is an unmitigated disaster that does nothing to address long-term structural challenges and raises taxes to enable billions in unnecessary spending on illegal immigrants.

(ST. REP. BLAINE WILHOUR)

Wilhour voted against the $53.1 billion budget because it recklessly spends money the state does not have and sets up potentially even bigger budget holes in the near future. The budget includes $750 million in tax increases and allocates nearly a billion taxpayer dollars to programs and services for illegal immigrants.

“We can’t afford to continue sinking hundreds of millions of dollars into services for illegal immigrants. A state that cannot even do basic functions such as getting a professional license transferred in a timely fashion has no business trying to solve the immigration crisis.”

The budget also adds another pay increase for legislators and prioritizes subsidies for the failing electric vehicle industry as well as continued funding for abortion.

“This budget makes it clear that the elites in Springfield do not care about working people,” Wilhour said. “While working families struggle to pay bills and put food on the table, the political elites are giving themselves pay raises, funding illegal aliens and subsidizing efforts to build charging stations for electric vehicles working people don't want and cannot afford.”

“These spending levels are not sustainable. We need serious structural spending reforms and the longer we wait, the worse these problems will get. When you focus all your spending on special interest political priorities and illegal immigrants, there is not much left over to fund our schools, colleges, state parks, roads and bridges, state police, veterans’ programs, and other state agencies. It is time to get serious about reform.”