Spending cuts, pension reform, and prioritizing education are a few items that make up the balanced budget plan presented to the General Assembly on Feb. 14 during the annual Budget Address.
Also during the week, the tragic shooting death of a Chicago Police Department (CPD) commander and the Feb. 14 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, accompanied calls from some lawmakers to ban “bump stock” attachments on guns.
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SPRINGFIELD – Spending cuts, pension reform, and prioritizing education are a few items that make up the balanced budget plan presented to the General Assembly on Feb. 14 during the annual Budget Address.
Also during the week, the tragic shooting death of a Chicago Police Department (CPD) commander and the Feb. 14 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, accompanied calls from some lawmakers to ban “bump stock” attachments on guns. Gov. Rauner ordered flags to be lowered in remembrance of Commander Paul Bauer, the 31-year CPD veteran who was killed outside the Thompson Center on Feb. 13. These crimes are horrific.
Annual budget address
Presented to a joint session of legislators Feb. 14, the annual Budget Address outlines a starting point for budget negotiations for Fiscal Year 2019.
Lawmakers must reject the tax-and-spend fiscal policies of past years and pass a budget that balances spending and revenue, Efforts to pass a balanced budget have routinely been met with a lack of cooperation. Our citizens deserve better from their elected officials. This budget rejects the status quo of “tax and spend.” It prioritizes education, public safety, transportation and essential human services, and provides the kind of structural changes that will get Illinois on the road to fiscal health.