CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Governor Pritzker will formally outline his 2022 budget proposal Wednesday afternoon that he’s already said will be painful.
We already know the headlines. Governor Pritzker estimates Illinois is facing a more than $3-billion deficit, and he’s proposing a budget that does not raise the flat income tax rate, but does include some $700-million in cuts.
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State Comptroller Susana Mendoza calls it a starting point.
"Illinois has a pretty severe structural deficit. Obviously, not being able to pass the Fair Tax Amendment did absolutely nothing to try to help us to close that structural deficit, but I think the governor is going to have to put forth a budget that at least meets the most basic needs of the many different people we serve here in this state," she said.
Illinois House Republicans have challenged Democratic Governor Pritzker to balance his 2022 budget on what they call “reality…not wishful thinking.”
Mendoza calls on Republicans who’ve criticized Pritzker to make proposals of their own. They’ve been reluctant to suggest specific cuts.
"The irony here is that the Republicans have been calling for cuts. The governor laid out his cuts, department by department, as mentioned earlier - $700 million worth of cuts. They have only critiqued those cuts, yet have been unwilling to present even $1 worth of cuts," she said.
Mendoza said she’s hoping for more coronavirus relief aid from Washington, to help balance Governor Pritzker’s budget, but is afraid of what lawmakers will try to do with the money.
She pointed out Illinois borrowed some $2 billion to pay down its medical bills in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. And she said she and the Governor agreed that any stimulus money that comes to the state would first go to pay that debt.
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But, Mendoza worries about how the legislature will react to a seeming windfall from Washington, D.C.
"I would just tell everybody to calm down, to not get excited, because this will not be Christmas morning. We won't be waking up to presents under the tree. There won't be a shiny Lexus with a bow in our driveway. Essentially what this means is just that they are not going to repossess our family pickup truck," she said.
Governor Pritzker will outline his priorities in a virtual State of the State Address on Wednesday at noon.