A wave of yellow is poised to wash over the Capitol this afternoon during the Illinois Gun Owner Lobby Day.
“It’s a gathering of gun owners in the state of Illinois to speak to their legislators one on one about the Second Amendment rights,” Illinois State Rifle Association president Donald Moran said.
“We’ll flood the Capitol, and everyone will be wearing yellow shirts and yellow caps, so they’ll know who we are.”
Between 8,000 and 10,000 gun owners from across the state were expected to show up at the Prairie Capital Convention Center to march on the Statehouse, Moran said.
* The Senate Republicans held a press conference today to say they’ve studied the budget and that cuts must be made, but they adamantly refused to say where those cuts should be made. From a press release…
Radogno said a Senate Republican review of spending and revenue trends makes it apparent that it will take between $4 to $6 billion in additional spending reductions to the Governor’s proposed budget in order to put the state back on track.
Radogno and state senators Matt Murphy (R-Palatine) and Pamela Althoff (R-McHenry), the Senate Republicans’ top two budget experts, said a careful analysis of state spending and revenues shows that massive deficits will occur if lawmakers adopt the Governor’s proposed budget and adhere to “spending caps” that are in fact, far too generous and optimistic than the state’s revenues can sustain.
GOP Senators are working to identify realistic reductions, but before a discussion of cuts can occur, there needs to be a “reality check” so that the public understands how serious the situation is.
“Before you can move on to a solution, you need to define the problem. Unfortunately, too few people in the Statehouse are willing to face up to the problem,” Althoff said. “The spending plan that the Governor put before us would create a deficit every single year for the next five years – and that’s with the 67% tax increase.”
They’ve been saying for weeks that they’d come up with their own cuts, and all they really did today was punt. It’s also quite interesting that they didn’t use any of the highly specific Illinois Policy Institute’s budget cutting proposals.
* To be fair, Leader Radogno stressed today that they didn’t want to offer up their cuts because that would dominate the coverage. They wanted to get the deficit numbers out there instead.
We’ll just have to see whether the strategy worked and the stories generated by this presser will focus on their deficit projections or their refusal to identify any actual spending reductions. Here’s Radogno…
Senate Republicans are the ones that need a “reality check”. The time for Senate Republicans to begin looking for cuts has long since passed.
Governor Quinn has been asking Republicans for input and specific suggestions on ways we can reduce government spending for more than two years. And when cuts have been made in Republican districts, we have heard loud complaints about even the most commonsense cutbacks.
The Governor was the first one to say our fiscal house was on fire, and he has taken strong steps to start putting that fire out and move our state forward.
While Senate Republicans spend their time creating graphics for bombastic press releases, the Governor is continuing to work on a comprehensive strategy to fix our budget. An essential part of that plan is spending reductions, and Governor Quinn has been working with agencies - using budgeting for results measures - to identify areas of state government that can be reduced or eliminated.
As always, the Governor is open to specific, realistic, good-faith suggestions from Senate Republicans. And we look forward to hearing from them.
