Democrats agree on election-year state budget with $1.8 billion in largely temporary tax relief
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Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Democratic legislative leaders announced an agreement Thursday on an election-year state budget that would include more than $1.8 billion in largely temporary tax relief while paying down $1.2 billion in debt.
The relief plan includes one-time direct payments to most taxpayers, along with short-term breaks on gas, groceries and real estate taxes.
Joined by House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch of Hillside and Senate President Don Harmon of Oak Park outside his Capitol office, Pritzker promised passage of the roughly $45 billion state spending plan Friday, the final scheduled day of the General Assembly’s truncated spring session.
“Over the last few weeks, especially over the last 48 hours, we have engaged in a true give-and-take, which led to genuine compromise,” Pritzker said. “It honestly felt that we all came into this process committed to a fiscally responsible spending plan that improves our state’s finances and helps people in an hour of genuine need.”
Democrats are looking to defend their control of state government in November and are eager to present a unified front during an election year when the state’s financial picture is brighter than it has been in decades.
But the party faces potential headwinds from rising inflation and crime, issues Republicans have been hammering all year as they seek to cut into the Democrats’ legislative supermajorities and recapture a statewide office.
The relief plan the Democrats say they have agreed upon, which critics have dismissed as gimmickry aimed at winning votes in a tough campaign season, would suspend an inflation-based increase in the gas tax — estimated at 2.2 cents per gallon — for six months, freeze the 1% state sales tax on groceries for a year, and send property tax rebate checks of up to $300 to homeowners — all ideas Pritzker proposed in his February budget address.
“We have seen prices increasing across the state, across the nation and, indeed, across the world,” Pritzker said. “These are pressures that people are feeling at the gas pump, at the grocery checkout line, really everywhere that they go.”
Taking from a plan Senate Democrats proposed last week, the proposal also would send direct payments to individual taxpayers earning less than $200,000 annually and joint filers earning less than $400,000. Taxpayers would receive $50 each, plus $100 per dependent child, up to three children.
The final major piece of the proposal is a permanent increase of the state earned income tax credit, which lowers tax bills and often produces refunds for low- and moderate-income workers.
On the debt reduction side, Democrats propose depositing $1 billion into the state’s depleted rainy day fund and making an additional $200 million payment into the severely underfunded pension systems, on top of the required annual pension payment and another $300 million approved in a separate measure Pritzker signed last month.
The Democratic leaders said they are able to offer tax relief and pay down debts while balancing the budget due to a strong flow of revenue into the state treasury.
Absent from the budget announcement were any Republican lawmakers.
Senate Republican leader Dan McConchie of Hawthorn Woods issued a statement condemning increased government spending as Democratic leadership telling Illinoisans “they think they know how to better spend your money.”
Two hours before Democrats unveiled their budget agreement, Senate Republicans criticized them for excluding GOP lawmakers from budget negotiations and ignoring the minority party’s budget proposals.
The GOP lawmakers presented a $2.2 billion tax relief plan that would make permanent the Democratic-proposed cuts at the gas pump and in grocery stores.
“We can even do the earned income tax credit increase that the governor proposed on a permanent basis,” said Republican Sen. Chapin Rose of Mahomet, “not election-year gimmicks, not designed to go away after the election is over, but on a permanent basis for the people of Illinois.”
Welch disputed the notion that Republican lawmakers weren’t included in budget talks, saying House Republicans participated in budget hearings Wednesday and Thursday and voted in favor of the Democrats’ revenue proposal.
“They haven’t been left out of the process,” Welch said. “When they choose to participate is totally up to them.”
The budget also calls for a $200 million spending increase for public safety initiative Democrats are pushing in response to rising crime — and election-year jitters about the issue.
With one day remaining in the scheduled session, Democrats still are trying to cobble together crime package that satisfies both their progressive and moderate members.
“We’re working together and working together very well,” Harmon said. “I expect that before we adjourn tomorrow, you’ll see a comprehensive package of public safety legislation moved through both chambers.”
Without any opposition, the Senate on Thursday passed its own versions of anti-crime bills introduced by the House this week. It was unclear which versions would be part of the final package.
The Senate passed a bill requiring people to keep records of the sales of catalytic converters, car parts that are often stolen from vehicles and resold as recyclable metal.
The chamber also voted to codify that carjacking or vehicle theft victims wouldn’t have to pay for tows, speeding tickets and other fees that accumulate on their vehicles after they’re stolen.
“The intention of this bill is so that there’s some economic justice, if it’s a small portion, to those folks that have already lived this traumatic incident of having been a victim of a carjacking,” said state Sen. Omar Aquino, a Chicago Democrat who co-sponsored the measure.
GOP Sen. Jason Barickman of Bloomington said that while he supports this proposal, carjacking victims can likely already solve those issues through municipalities. He also said the majority party hasn’t done an effective enough job in passing legislation to hold criminals accountable.
“The point is that that side of the aisle needs to get serious about the crime that exists in this state,” Barickman said. “And if you want people to stop stealing cars, you need to do more than make sure that the victims don’t have to pay the fines for the crimes committed by the thief.”
In another attempt to address carjackings, Democratic Sen. Robert Martwick argued in the Senate Executive Committee for a measure that would bring in metropolitan enforcement groups to help local law enforcement.
The enforcement groups work across jurisdictions and have seen success in tackling drug and human trafficking, said Martwick, of Chicago. Adding carjackings to the list of crimes involving the enforcement groups would add “another tool in the law enforcement tool box,” he said.
Committee members unanimously supported the measure, though GOP lawmakers voiced “doubts” as to whether such a partnership would be effective. The bill is expected to be called for a vote in the full Senate before it adjourns Friday.
Also Thursday, the Senate passed a bill to allow grants to be awarded to towns in direst need of hiring more cops or retraining their officers. GOP lawmakers largely supported the pro-law enforcement measures from Democrats, while complaining such efforts are simply workarounds for last year’s sweeping criminal justice overhaul Republicans have criticized as being anti-police.
The Senate also passed a bill to extend until 2027 a law that lets police use eavesdropping devices during criminal investigations, and extending the state’s street gang racketeering law by one year. In response to a question from one Senate Republican about why the bill can’t be made permanent, its Senate sponsor, Patrick Joyce, a Democrat from Essex, said “other General Assemblies and future changes in society would allow us to have a debate on types of issues going forward.”
State Rep. Eva-Dina Delgado, a Chicago Democrat, made the same point when asked about the 2026 expiration date on her proposal to codify the offense of predatory vehicular hijacking, which would hold adults accountable for coaxing minors into committing a carjacking.
“We ... want to put some guardrails around what we’re doing to make sure that we can do a check-in,” she told the Tribune. “Is this working? Is it doing what we thought it was going to do?”
Differences among Democrats on crime became evident. State Rep. Curtis Tarver, a Chicago Democrat took issue with a House bill that expands the use of expressway surveillance cameras to 21 counties, aside from Cook County, where they’ve been installed over the last few years. Among other things, Tarver criticized making the footage exempt from public disclosure.
He also disagreed with a provision in the bill that establishes a pilot program to award $100 to homeowners who provide video footage to law enforcement from their home security systems if the footage leads to a criminal conviction. Tarver noted the bill doesn’t provide an incentive for homeowners if their footage were to capture acts of police misconduct.
“Public safety has to go both ways,” Tarver said.
House Democrats have passed several other bills touching on crime, including mental health grants for first responders and funding to build up off-hour child care programs for officers and others who work late into the evening or overnight.
