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The state budget has grown even less than I thought
Saturday, May 31, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller * Yesterday, we discussed an Illinois Policy Institute story about the increase in state government spending since Gov. JB Pritzker took office. Using the IPI’s numbers, I told you that spending had actually grown 10.5 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars since the beginning of FY20, the governor’s first budget. But a numbers wonk Democratic legislator I know put together numbers from the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability and the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget to show that the inflation-adjusted spending increase, including the governor’s proposed FY26 budget, is actually 8.6 percent since FY19, the last Bruce Rauner budget…  * More importantly, though, the legislator then factored in the evidence-based school funding formula and state pension contributions and discovered that the increase for everything else has been only 1.92 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars…  And these numbers do not include the money the state has put into its Rainy Day Fund. (For FY25 and FY26, inflation is measured from Jan 2019 through Jan 2025, instead of July to July, “due to data limitations,” so the overall increase is undoubtedly lower.)
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- walker - Saturday, May 31, 25 @ 9:05 am:
Thanks
- Proud Papa Bear - Saturday, May 31, 25 @ 9:15 am:
All this, plus repeated credit upgrades.
- Norseman - Saturday, May 31, 25 @ 9:49 am:
Well, smack me down with a wet noodle. You mean IPI was playing games with the numbers?
- low level - Saturday, May 31, 25 @ 10:17 am:
If you want fiscally conservative policies, vote Democratic.
- P. - Saturday, May 31, 25 @ 10:26 am:
Is rainy yet or is next year going to be more wet? A(lower) case could be made to yolo that multibillion mamajama and spend it down a skosh?
- Bob - Saturday, May 31, 25 @ 10:45 am:
$16 BILLION in increased spending since JB Pritzker took office. That’s real money.
- Phineas - Saturday, May 31, 25 @ 11:02 am:
Just think, with discipline like this at the federal level we could go back to Clinton-era budget surpluses. Yes, those were a thing.
- Jack in Chatham - Saturday, May 31, 25 @ 11:31 am:
The credit upgrades are more related to Governor Rauner’s rejection of budgets as part of his municipal bond value manipulation plan. Two years without a budget resulted in uncertainty among the Bond investment community in New York and Boston and multiple downgrades. It was pretty shameful Rauner repeatedly stating at press events that people should not buy Chicago School bonds or other Illinois related debt on the day or day before the bond issuance price was set. I really lost a lot of respect for the US Attorney offices in both Chicago and Springfield during the Rauner years or as many refer to it the Ruiner’s years. Governor Rauner never took his oath of office seriously. I imagine the remodeling and improvements at the Governor’s Mansion is one positive outcome of his four years in office.
- Rich Miller - Saturday, May 31, 25 @ 12:32 pm:
Bob, learn to read.
- Anyone Remember - Saturday, May 31, 25 @ 1:49 pm:
Thank you!
- Put it in the BIMP - Saturday, May 31, 25 @ 2:55 pm:
This is a refreshing analysis. Unfortunately this level of basic budget analysis is missing among the GA. Shout out to the wonky legislator.