State Representative Dave Severin (R-Benton) is reacting to Governor JB Pritzker’s combined Budget and State of the State speech by warning Illinois residents that the annual speech quite often does not reflect the reality of budgeting in Illinois.
“The Governor’s job is to introduce his priorities for spending in the next year in an annual speech. The speech always gets a lot of attention, but I have seen this movie before,” Severin said. “When the news clips are done covering the speech, House and Senate Democrats will get to work behind closed doors, crafting the ‘real’ budget. They have shown no ability in recent years to hold the line on spending, and they have a long history of raising taxes on Illinoisans to pay for spending increases every year. Governor Pritzker has signed numerous tax hikes to support record-spending budgets.”
Severin says Illinois state government spending has risen by 40% since Gov. Pritzker took office in January 2019.
“Year after year, it’s more spending, more taxes, more people and jobs leaving, and the Democrats keep doubling down,” Severin said. “We owe it to our taxpayers to hold Democrats accountable for the affordability crisis they have caused. Keep your eye on the end of May, when House and Senate Democrats will almost surely drop thousands of pages that spend billions of dollars in the middle of the night on the last day of Session. Our taxpayers deserve better.”
