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| Reaction to Quinn's Budget Address |
(IRN)-Lawmakers had plenty to say after the governor unveiled his ideas for next year’s state budget.
"Here's a governor who in a lame duck session extracted one week's worth of pay from every hard working Illinois citizen on an annual basis," said State Senator Bill Brady (R-Bloomington). "And yet still, with the budget documents we've been given show he’s expanding spending by $1.7 billion. It's an un-reconciled budget and it’s relying on borrowing of over $8 billion, nearly $9 billion . You can't bring jobs to the state of Illinois to reduce unemployment by continuing to tax, borrow and spend."
"There seems to be general consensus among the media that the Republican caucus of the House and the Senate are adamantly opposed to (borrowing)," said State Rep Jim Sacia (R-Pecatonica). "I think what we’re saying is, we have 177 legislators. We need to sit down with both caucuses and lay on the table what our issues are."
State Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie (D-Chicago), the House majority leader, says the borrowing is necessary. "We owe these vendors interest," said Currie. "We’re treating them as our bankers, we're already borrowing money. So I think that you could make a good argument, that if we don't get our fiscal house in order, and part of that is borrowing from the real lenders, not from the vendors, that in fact we may end up paying a lot more in interest to those providers."
Still, Republicans insist more cuts are necessary, with some Democrats calling for them too.
"We're going to have to look at all these proposals of every department and see where we can cut," said State Sen. Bill Haine (D-Alton). "The people back home want us to cut. That’s the orders I get from my citizens, to cut!"
(Source: Illinois Radio Network) |
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| 02 17 11 by Newsroom |
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