Lake County Gazette

State Sen. Dan McConchie (R-Hawthorn Woods) called out Democrat lawmakers in Illinois for their “ridiculousness” after the state’s $50 billion budget was delivered as a stack of 3,500 pages with an expectation for a quick vote. 

The budget later passed in the Senate on a 34-22 with all Republicans voting against it.

McConchie bemoaned that the budget in its entirety is incomplete until another equally sized stack is delivered regarding “budget implementation.” McConchie addressed the crowd with his hand on a stack of 3,500 pages just delivered to his office. 

“OK, everybody. So this is the budget,” McConchie said on a May 24 Facebook reel. “This just says how much money we're going to spend here in Illinois in the upcoming year, which we're told is going to be about $50 billion, billion with a B. OK. But this we have to go through, we have to read this tonight, but yet we don't have yet the budget implementation bill. And that bill is probably going to be a similar-sized stack, and it's going to say how that money gets spent. This is just how crazy Springfield is. We have a few hours to go through 3,500 pages and then another thousand, a couple thousand pages to say how it will be spent. This is the ridiculousness that is Springfield, Illinois, right now. Your tax dollars.” 

The delivery of a budget came after state Democrats missed a May 19 budget deadline. Legislators were moved into session May 24-26 when Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced a final budget. The General Assembly has until May 31 to pass a budget prior to the fiscal year ending June 30, according to Advantage News.

One thing missing from the 3,500 pages was funding for the Invest in Kids Tax Credit Scholarship Program. The program allows donors to receive a tax benefit for donating to a state-maintained scholarship program for private schools for low-income families. It serves more than 9,000 K-12 students who are the beneficiaries of the Invest in Kids Tax Credit. 

According to Prairie State Wire, Pritzker said that the program “is not something that’s been covered by the budget agreement. It’s something that still has time, potentially, but it’s not something that’s in the budget agreement.” 

A major point of contention is out-of-control spending over free health care for undocumented immigrants, which alone is worth over $1 billion of the projected budget of $50 billion, Peoria Standard reported. The program is for those aged 42 and older. Democrats sought to lower that bar to those 19 years old and older but have been unable to move the legislation.