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* Crain’s…
In surprisingly strong terms, Illinois House GOP Leader Tony McCombie is castigating her Democratic counterpart, Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, for his performance this spring in producing the state’s new $50.4 billion fiscal 2024 budget.
During an interview in which McCombie expanded on comments she made during the House budget debate, she not only called the budget unbalanced and preparatory to an eventual tax hike but went so far as to suggest former Speaker Mike Madigan was more candid in his dealings with the minority party than his successor has been.
“I think Madigan would have point blank said, ‘We don’t need you, want you. We’re going to pass our budget,’ ” McCombie said. “Whereas Welch kind of led us on.” […]
“It’s not a fiscally responsible budget,” the Savanna Republican charged. “I think it’s setting us up to revisit the graduated income tax,” which was rejected by voters in a 2020 referendum, she said.
* The article also quoted Speaker Welch’s spokesperson Jaclyn Driscoll. I asked her for her full statement. This sentence didn’t make it into the Crain’s story…
It’s almost remarkable that in just two years Republicans went from vilifying the former speaker at every opportunity to now wishing Speaker Welch was more like him.
Oof.
* The rest of Driscoll’s statement…
The fact is Speaker Welch met with Leader McCombie every time she requested and House Democrats held bipartisan budget meetings for weeks. It was made clear, early on in the process, that Republicans were not going to vote in favor of the budget. Unfortunately, when one group comes to the table only to say no, that disrupts the process for all of Illinois.
Democrats have passed five balanced budgets in a row and restored fiscal sanity to this state. Democrats have earned eight credit upgrades and returned Illinois back to an A-rating. Democrats have made sure that we are both financially responsible and compassionate. It’s up to the Republicans to decide whether they want to continue to try to obstruct this progress or work together. We hope they choose the latter.
As far as the Leader’s comments regarding this year’s budget, we’re going to take the word of economists who are already praising it.
* Back to Leader McCombie’s graduated income tax claim. Other House Republicans are making the same argument…
“We built into the agencies’ budget. We have, as you know, we have quite a number of agencies. We built in what we thought might be the appropriate amount of money for what we expect from that AFSCME negotiation,” Pritzker said.
The AFSCME contract is still being negotiated and there is yet to be a final number for the expense.
State Rep. Charlie Meier, R-Okawville, told The Center Square that there is no way to prepare for the final cost and that if the contract is not fully funded in the 2024 budget, Democrats could offer a new tax on residents.
“I’m still afraid this budget will have holes when it gets later into the year, and then you will hear the talk right after the first of the year that we are going to have to put the progressive income tax back on the ballot,” Meier said.
This is not a particularly new post-budget-signing warning. From a year ago…
“Democrats in Illinois, like they have in the last several years, will have no choice but to come back to taxpayers and say ‘we need yet another income tax increase,’” [Rep. Tom Demmer, R-Dixon] said.
posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Jun 9, 23 @ 10:16 am
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Typical MAGA GOP yada, yada, yada. People will pay attention when you bring something important to the table.
Comment by Norseman Friday, Jun 9, 23 @ 10:22 am
They are simply wish-casting. The return of the progressive income tax is the only way they can mobilize voters. They NEED it to come back.
Comment by supplied_demand Friday, Jun 9, 23 @ 10:24 am
Taxes.
The phoniness to Jim Nowlan starting the vertical integration to a tax increase, and now others trying to make it stick is predicated on the idea voters don’t understand 60/30 signature.
It’d be huge for Pritzker to sign any tax increase before November 2024, and even less likely (if Pritzker chooses to leave after 2 terms) Pritzker wants one of his last signatures as governor to be a tax increase either… and that’s saying there’d be 60/30 to get it *to* him to sign.
But, when you’re 0-8 statewide, 2-5 on the ILSC, super minoritied in both ILGA chambers… and have only 3 MOC that are Republicans from Illinois… it’s about fear, this party can’t sell telling women they are required to have pregnancies go to term, and call deaths by guns “regrettable”
Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Jun 9, 23 @ 10:25 am
The only party that has a proven track record of passing balanced budgets are the Dems. The GOP can lie all they want about some fantasy of what they think is going to happen with the budget, but the credit ratings agencies (i.e. experts) don’t agree with them. The Gov got a credit rating upgrade just for proposing his budget because it was so good. The Civic Committee endorsed his budget. The budget the GA passed was largely based on his. This budget isn’t unbalanced or setting us up for failure and the GOP knows it, they just have run out of things to complain about.
Comment by LOL Friday, Jun 9, 23 @ 10:28 am
“there is no way to prepare for the final cost” - What absolute BS. The Pritzker administration knows what AFSCME is asking for in terms of pay raises, healthcare coverage costs, pension costs, PTO, etc. They also know what their own proposals will cost. They might not know at this point exactly what the final agreement will be, but they can easily plan for what the maximum cost will be if they meet every AFSCME demand, what the minimum cost will be if AFSCME agrees to the state’s proposals, and what a likely cost will be somewhere in the middle. It’s not hard to estimate that the final cost will be somewhat higher than what the state is aiming for, without expecting that AFSCME will get everything it wants.
Comment by ToddAF Friday, Jun 9, 23 @ 10:30 am
I doubt Dems are looking to be burned again this soon. They should, I would love if they had the courage of their convictions. If they don’t get a progressive tax amendment passed then we probably WILL be looking at a general tax hike. But this is just more posturing from R’s, making things up because that’s all they can do.
Comment by Perrid Friday, Jun 9, 23 @ 10:35 am
Proof this outfit has no idea what it wants but it sure doesn’t want to lead.
Comment by Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter Friday, Jun 9, 23 @ 11:00 am
The Republicans continue to show why they will never be anything but the minority party. If whining is all you have then people are going to dismiss you as unserious, and rightfully so. Maybe take a good hard look at yourselves Republicans and ask yourself why you continue to say the same things over and over again when you’ve been rejected so many times. Maybe take the hint and get some new arguments and ideas and stop whining.
Comment by Demoralized Friday, Jun 9, 23 @ 11:01 am
This is just tired and sad. It will be hard to go against the national grain, but when the IL GOP presented moderate candidates, it worked. Note my CapFax moniker.
Comment by levivotedforjudy Friday, Jun 9, 23 @ 11:14 am
If McCombie really feels that excluded, she can always negotiate in public. The sticking point is that they won’t get to yes. So simply release a budget proposal that her caucus would vote for and go from there.
Comment by vern Friday, Jun 9, 23 @ 11:45 am
“It was made clear, early on in the process, that Republicans were not going to vote in favor of the budget.”
Voting against budgets and to starve the state is a terrible signal to voters. And for what, to oppose more child care and education assistance during improved financial management? No one must want to win in the ILGOP.
Comment by Grandson of Man Friday, Jun 9, 23 @ 11:52 am
At least they had a budget to vote against.
Under the last dude not so much.
Comment by Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter Friday, Jun 9, 23 @ 12:35 pm
Sounds like Welch outmaneuvered McCombie and her caucus. Of course that’s a fairly easy accomplishment when the other side has no interest in participating in the process.
The real question for McCombie is what are she and the rest of her party doing to achieve some sense of relevancy in this state?
Comment by Pundent Friday, Jun 9, 23 @ 12:37 pm
===‘we need yet another income tax increase,’===
The GOP is incredibly uncreative at messaging. It is the same thing, over, and over, and over again. They’re stuck with railing against taxes and are incapable at proposing which programs they would like to have cut. The Illinois GOP has in lockstep moved to support seditious activities and to support their own members who have openly declared war against the People of the United States of America. They complain about fiscal matters as a way to distract from their efforts to strip women, minorities, and gay people of their rights, and the support they have had for banning books.
Even if we ignore all of this, and pretend like their concern about taxes is sincere — what they’re missing is that the People of Illinois are okay with paying taxes for things that we think are a good thing and we seem to get quite upset when the State isn’t able to solve the problems that we want our government to solve.
I will happily pay more taxes if the State of Illinois is spending those funds to improve my life, the lives of my neighbors, or the vitality of our communities.
Even Tom Demmer seems okay with spending public money to line the pockets of private businesses that consider moving to Lee County, so clearly he’s willing to support using public funds to improve lives too.
They’re against all taxes all the time. Let they produce their own proposed cuts. Lets see how that goes.
Comment by Candy Dogood Friday, Jun 9, 23 @ 1:27 pm
It appears that a number of Republicans are only interested in fear mongering and control. Leadership is so much more than that. And a lot of Republicans don’t grasp that.
Comment by Appears Friday, Jun 9, 23 @ 1:35 pm
There is a meeting in Quincy tonight in order to try to make Quincy into an abortion-free sanctuary city (like Danville attempted to do).
Comment by Appears Friday, Jun 9, 23 @ 1:39 pm
=It’s almost remarkable that in just two years Republicans went from vilifying the former speaker at every opportunity to now wishing Speaker Welch was more like him.=
Restaurant quality! (insert Chef’s kiss emoji)
Comment by Chito Friday, Jun 9, 23 @ 2:06 pm
Jaclyn Driscoll wins the day with that quote. Perfect.
Comment by Voter Friday, Jun 9, 23 @ 4:27 pm