Rockford Sun

State Sen. Dave Syverson (R-Springfield) argues the numbers alone in Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s $112.5 billion spending plan don’t tell the whole story.

“The governor is talking about this massive increase in revenue that the state saw like he had something to do with it,” Syverson said in the wake of the governor’s 2023 fiscal year budget proposal. “As we know, most of this is one-time federal money that is coming into the businesses and to taxpayers but that's all ending, yet the governor's budget proposes a $2.5 billion increase in spending based on that money continuing forever. That's just not going to work.”

Syverson worries about the numbers adding up the way they governor is selling them.

“We're going to end up with a massive cliff after the election that unfortunately taxpayers are going to get stuck with,” he said. “We need the government to live within their means just like you and I as taxpayers have to.”

Of the $112.5 billion spending plan Pritzker laid out for fiscal year 2023, $45.5 billion would come from the state’s general revenue fund with the rest being federal passthrough funds. The plan also calls for providing up to $1 billion in tax relief, paying more than the minimum into public sector pensions and piling away millions in a state rainy day fund that Pritzker administration officials contend has known little investment over the last two-plus decades.

For fiscal year 2022, the governor laid out a budget plan totaling $95.5 billion, with $41.6 billion from state funds.

As part of the administration’s Illinois Family Relief Plan, almost $1 billion in tax relief is also being proposed, including a temporary freeze of the annual gas tax increase and the grocery tax, collectively totaling nearly $500 million.

Another proposal calls for offering up as much as $300 in property tax rebates for a total of $475 million.