Clock ticking for Illinois lawmakers to pass state budget, transit funding before spring session ends
With just hours until a crucial deadline, Illinois state lawmakers were working to pass a $55 billion state budget plan for the next fiscal year.
The budget plan unveiled Friday night by Democratic leadership would include new taxes on gambling as well as tobacco and vape products.
Another source of new revenue in the budget proposal is a delinquent tax payment incentive program. The program is designed to help the state recover overdue tax payments. The program was proposed by Gov. JB Pritzker and is estimated to generate about $198 million in revenue.
A health care program that provides benefits to undocumented immigrants in Illinois between ages 42 and 64 also appears to be eliminated. Pritzker proposed eliminating the program to save the state $330 million.
The proposed budget also provides $307 million in additional funding for K-12 schools, but does not include $43 million in property tax relief funds called for under the state's evidence-based school funding model.
Chicagoans also have been keeping an eye on additional state funding for the area's mass transit system.
Transit officials have said the system is facing a $770 million budget deficit in 2026, and if state lawmakers don't come up with that funding by the end of the spring legislative session Saturday night, CTA, Metra, and Pace must start laying out plans for service cuts of up to 40% for next year.
"I think right now, there's wide understanding that we can't have these draconian 40% cuts. I mean, it just would be very painful, disruptive for the city. The economy would really suffer at the same time," DePaul University professor and transportation expert Joe Schwieterman said.
Lawmakers spent hours Thursday debating another bill that would overhaul the state's mass transit system, but that bill did not include provisions to address the looming RTA fiscal cliff.
That bill, instead, focuses on reforming the structure and governance of the Chicago area's mass transit system, and would replace the RTA with a new organization called the Northern Illinois Transit Authority.
Technically, the money doesn't run out until the end of the year, and there will likely be a veto session that could provide another shot at an 11th-hour rescue. But transportation officials say they'll have to start laying out the specific cuts next week if the funding doesn't come through by then.
With no end yet in sight as of Saturday afternoon, Illinois Senate Republicans expressed their frustrations with the Democratic-led budget process.
"In less than nine hours, the Democrats are going to file over $1 billion in tax increases. The public are not going to see it until it is filed. They are going to pass it through the House and pass it through the Senate," Illinois Senate Republican Leader John Curran said.
The state's new fiscal year begins on July 1. If the House and Senate don't pass a balanced budget by midnight Saturday night, they will need a three-fifths majority to approve a budget plan, rather than a simple majority.
Ben Szalinski and Jerry Nowicki of Capitol News Illinois contributed to this report
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