SPRINGFIELD - With 15 days remaining in the Illinois General Assembly’s regular legislative session, Governor Bruce Rauner writes in today’s Springfield State Journal-Register that Illinois must pass a budget that is truly balanced and makes job-creating changes to our broken system.
The following is an excerpt of the Op-Ed:
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Everyone seems to have a powerful lobbyist in Springfield but you, the taxpayers. That's why you elected me. I'm here to fight for you and stop career Chicago politicians from squeezing you dry.
For the last two years, the career Chicago politicians who run the General Assembly have been focused on one thing:raising your taxes without any fundamental changes to their broken system. No real spending reductions or hard spending caps to balance the budget for the long run. No economic reforms to grow our economy and bring high-paying jobs back to Illinois. No relief from skyrocketing property taxes or term limits on the career politicians. Just higher taxes to fuel more government spending and bailouts for Chicago. The Democrat majority has been in power for more than 30 years, and they’ve overseen our continuous deficits, frequent tax hikes, job losses and more than $180 billion in debt. […]
Two years into our state budget impasse, it's encouraging that some Democrats are finally willing to engage in serious negotiations to resolve our differences. But as we approach the end of session, many of them are buckling under enormous pressure from Speaker Madigan, powerful lobbyists and special interests who want to maintain the status quo. […]
Hundreds of millions of dollars are still needed to truly balance the budget. We want to reduce government spending to close the gap. Democrats want to raise taxes on groceries and prescription drugs instead. We've told them over and over, we absolutely won't do that. […]
Our administration genuinely wants to reach a budget deal. We've been trying to negotiate a good deal for taxpayers for more than two years. But we won't be pressured by special interests, insiders and career politicians to take a bad deal for taxpayers. […]
We have 15 days left to resolve our differences and reach a good deal for taxpayers. Our administration will remain at the table all 15 days, working around the clock to help all sides come together. […]
Now is the time to seal a good deal for taxpayers and put Illinois back on track. Let’s reduce the cost of government and grow the economy to keep our budgets balanced for the long term.
