Lake County Gazette

Illinois state government spending is "out of control," said State Sen. Dan McConchie (R-Hawthorne Woods).

"Spending in Illinois is out of control, and it has been for too long," the senator said in a recent Facebook post. "I'll continue to fight against spending increases and creative accounting tricks that leave your family paying more in taxes."

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) summary on May 11 which showed that in April prices had increased by 8.3% in the last twelve-month period. Costs rose by 0.3% in the month of April this year after increasing by 1.2% in March. 

Food prices rose by 0.9% in April, the BLS report said. Food costs have increased by 9.4% in the last twelve months, representing the largest rise in prices since 1982. And in the last twelve months, the price of new vehicles rose by 13.2%, while the price of used vehicles rose by 22.7%.         

As of 2019, Illinois had the fourth-highest outstanding government debt in the country, a report from Statista said. Illinois' debt stood at $165.1 billion, behind only California, New York and Texas. Forty-four states and Washington D.C. have combined outstanding debts of less than $100 billion. Thirty-two states and the district have outstanding debts of less than $50 billion.                    

Governments with large debts and deficits run the risk of exacerbating inflation, a Forbes report said. Inflation functions as an additional tax on consumers while also causing uncertainty for investors, which results in slowed economic growth.    

Illinois was ranked as the seventh-highest spender in 2021 by U.S. Government Spending, with the state government accounting for an estimated $76.6 billion and local governments spending approximately $87 billion, for a total of more than $163 billion.