SPRINGFIELD – 118th District State Representative Patrick Windhorst (R-Metropolis) issued the following statement in response to Governor JB Pritzker’s combined 2021 State of the State and Budget Address.
“This address was the most partisan I’ve heard the Governor give to date. The Governor blaming Republicans for Illinois’ economic woes is designed to mislead and deflect responsibility, especially considering that the Democrats control the entirety of state government and the Governor has been operating the government by executive order for nearly a year.
In 2019, many House Republican members supported key economic reforms and business incentives that resulted in increased private investment in our State.
The Governor’s proposed FY 22 budget goes back on the agreement to support these programs. The kind of programs that spur the economic activity the Governor said is key to solving our state’s fiscal challenges. The Governor instead has proposed a $900 million increase in taxes on small businesses. Governor Pritzker may call these incentives for economic growth ‘loopholes’, but in reality, he is proposing a massive tax hike on small businesses when they can least afford it.
While the Governor has focused on increasing taxes, he should focus on spending in this $41 billion budget. More than a year ago, Governor Pritzker ordered his Deputy Governor Dan Hines and state agency directors to produce a list of across-the-board cuts. House Republicans have demanded to see the list of cuts. To my knowledge, no one has ever seen that list of cuts, yet the Governor called on Republicans in the super minority to produce our list of cuts.
The Constitution calls on the Governor to present a truly balanced budget. The FY 22 budget proposed by Governor Pritzker today relies on federal government money that may or may not come. That is the tactic used to pass last year’s budget and call it, ‘balanced’.
The Democrats’ recent practice of relying on revenues that have not yet passed and a bailout from Washington DC that never came resulted in a widening of our budget deficit. Democrats control every single lever of power in Illinois’ government. It would help all of our citizens if they would learn their lesson, stop spending money we don’t have and make the tough choices that are necessary to balance the budget.”
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