McHenry Times

State Rep. Dan Ugaste (R-Geneva) has called the fiscal year 2024 budget that Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed on June 7 the result of a “budgetary circus.”

“Delivered in the middle of the night and filled with gimmicks instead of structural changes to improve our state’s finances, the Democrats’ budget prioritizes new spending over existing commitments," Ugaste said in a statement. "We are seeing local government funding sleight-of-hand that shorts these governments and the state playing shell games with the General Revenue Fund and COVID costs to hide the actual spending. While our constituents continue to battle inflation, Democrats gave themselves an unconstitutional pay raise late on a Friday night. Illinoisans deserve better than smoke and mirrors and this disgraceful budgetary circus. We need a transparent, accountable budgeting process.”

The budget includes “projected revenues of $50.611 billion and expenditures of $50.428 billion, resulting in a $183 million surplus,” a press release from the governor said.

The budget includes over “$500 million in new state and federal funds to support the state's healthcare system,” and “$42.5 million for grants to counties and cities for their costs associated with asylum seekers,” the release said.

The new spending plan also includes a $350 million increase for the K-12 evidence-based funding formula, $100 million in additional Monetary Award Program (MAP) grant funding to help undergraduate students with tuition and mandatory fees, and a $100 million increase for public universities, the release said.

Pritzker said in the release billions of dollars have returned to Illinois taxpayers because of the state’s “firmer fiscal foundation.”

“Our budgets have allowed thousands more students to stay in Illinois because they can afford a college degree,” Pritzker said in the release. “Balanced budgets have allowed us to modernize our infrastructure, build nation-leading clean energy production, attract industries of the future like quantum computing, and prioritize childcare for working families and our youngest children.”