* Subscribers know more…

With only two weeks remaining in the 2019 regular session, Democrats in the Illinois House say they are close to securing the 71 votes needed to pass one of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s top priorities, a constitutional amendment to overhaul the state’s income tax system.

“I think we are rapidly closing in on 71, and I’m confident the governor will, with the personal meetings he’s having with members, get us over the hump,” said state Rep. Robert Martwick, a Chicago Democrat and the lead sponsor of the measure in the House. […]

State Rep. Michael Zalewski, a Riverside Democrat who chairs the Revenue and Finance Committee, also said he’s hopeful Pritzker can secure the votes needed in the House.

“I think the governor has had some productive conversations with members in the last week,” he said.

Zalewski’s committee is scheduled to meet Monday, May 20, and some observers believe the amendment could come up for a vote then, sending it to the full House.

The Senate’s rate bill, sponsored in the House by Rep. Zalewski, is also posted for that Monday hearing, but there’s no guarantee that both will receive roll calls.

* In other budget-related news…

Illinois House Republicans called a news conference Thursday to unveil a “fiscal year 2020 balanced budget proposal” in the form of a one-page document detailing $2.6 billion more in revenue than House working groups had previously planned for.

“The important part here is we’re not presenting a plan and saying ‘take it or leave it,’” Deputy Minority Leader Tom Demmer, R-Dixon, said. “We’re saying there are new dollars that are on the table, that individual members have not yet been given the chance to weigh out. We believe their priorities should be heard.”

Demmer said House working groups have been negotiating a balanced budget without new revenue that would be achieved by cuts of 6 percent to 10 percent from fiscal year 2019 expenditures across agencies.

But many of those cuts will not be needed, he said, because of increased fiscal year 2020 revenue estimates by the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability and the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget, as well as a handful of other new revenue streams Republicans stand ready to support.

As subscribers know, that $2.6 billion number is being disputed by the governor’s office.

* From the administration…

One good month does not mean that Illinois can walk away from our financial obligations, or start spending money twice. That’s the short-sighted thinking that got us here in the first place. In fact, Illinois’ dire finances mean that the state was on track to end the 2019 fiscal year with a $1.6 billion gap, to say nothing of our multi-billion dollar backlog of unpaid bills and $134 billion unfunded pension liabilities. The responsible choice, and the governor’s path, is to use the additional dollars to close our 2019 budget gap and to make our full 2020 pension payment. The Governor’s door is open for working with Republicans who want to join him in approaching our finances responsibly.

Subscribers know more.

* Finke…

Abudayyeh said Pritzker has had nearly two dozen individual meetings with leaders not counting eight cocktail parties he’s hosted at the Governor’s Mansion.

House Majority Leader Greg Harris of Chicago said the House Democrats were merely being cautious in crafting a spending plan.

“I think it’s really important to have waited this long to make sure we have the numbers right,” he said. “The one thing we don’t want to do as we move forward in closing out FY 19 and moving into FY 20 is use one-time revenues as a basis for ongoing budgeting.”

...Adding… I forgot to post Comptroller Mendoza’s react to the HGOP proposal…

April has historically been the state’s best month for revenues because that’s when people pay their state income taxes. Revenues for April came in about $1.5 billion higher than April 2018, so our office was able to pay down an extra $1.5 billion worth of bills on our backlog of bills, which now stands at $6.5 billion as of today. No one should confuse a $6.5 billion backlog of bills with a “surplus.”

* Illinois Public Radio…

There have been several budget frameworks this spring. Gov. J.B. Pritzker kicked off budget season in February with calls for more spending and increased taxes, while Democrats in the House began from a much more austere place, assuming none of the governor’s revenue ideas would come to pass.

Then came the April surprise — an unexpected $1.5 billion in tax collections. That has Republicans urging a middle ground.

While they say they’d support some new spending with that extra money, Rep. Grant Wehrli, a Republican from Naperville, says higher taxes should be out of the question.

“Income, cigarettes, bags, video-streaming, vaping — all those should be off the table until we do the hard work and come up with a balanced budget.”

Income tax revenue isn’t available for two years, video-streaming would likely be used for capital (if it can even pass and that’s doubtful) and they appear to be counting cigarette and e-cig tax money in their MCO assessment savings.

* Meanwhile…

[Rep. Thaddeus Jones, D-Calumet City] called Senate President John Cullerton’s proposal to raise Illinois’ usage tax on tobacco products “too unreasonable” at a time when the General Assembly is considering a slew of other tax hikes.

Cullerton announced last week he wants to increase the state’s tax on a pack of cigarettes by $1, to $2.98. That is about triple the 32 cents Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker introduced in his budget proposal. […]

“I appreciate President Cullerton for his advocacy, but this is the wrong way to go. We’ve gone through several phases of taxing cigarettes that now is driving businesses and driving people away from Illinois and driving them to border states, and we’ve got to stop it,” Jones said. “It’s not having the effect that the president wants. It’s not stopping people from smoking. What it’s doing is making people in my community who can least afford it, who are on a fixed income, choose to go to Indiana to make sure they get cigarettes.” […]

“[Polling shows that Illinoisans] support it because research shows it encourages people to quit smoking or, even better, never start, which would save taxpayers millions of dollars in reduced health care costs,” [John Patterson, a spokesman for the Senate president] said in an emailed statement. “That has always been the Senate president’s motivation, and it appears that’s why the public supports it, too.” […]

“That’s not what the governor introduced, so I don’t think there’s support to increase it to $1,” [Rep. Jones] said. “I think there’s support to look at a sensible way to do it — maybe 32 cents, like what the governor was proposing.”