Details of $55.9B budget begin to take shape with 12 hours left in session

SPRINGFIELD — The Illinois Senate filed a more than 3,500-page spending plan late Saturday night but how it will be paid for has not been made public.

The plan filed as an amendment to House Bill 111 would keep spending roughly flat in Fiscal Year 2027 from what the state expects to spend in the current fiscal year at $55.9 billion, according to Senate Democratic budget leader Elgie Sims, D-Chicago. The revenue and new taxes to support the spending plan have not yet been made public, though it will also total about $55.9 billion, Sims said.

“There are no tax increases on everyday working families,” Sims said in a morning appropriations committee. “In fact, every day working families as a result of this budget will see their lives get easier.”

The committee debate marked the beginning of a process that’s become the norm in Springfield. Supermajority Democrats negotiate a budget behind closed doors, file a massive amendment in the session’s final days, then debate the spending while the rest of the package is finalized.

While it makes analyzing the full scope of the plan nearly impossible with just 12 hours left until lawmakers are slated to adjourn, Sims told reporters negotiations are still ongoing on the tax plan, though he declined to specify exactly what new taxes will be included. Lawmakers aim to pass it by midnight Monday morning; if they miss that mark, they’ll need three-fifths majorities for it to take effect in time for the July 1 start of next fiscal year.

In an appropriations hearing Sunday morning, Sims teased a sales tax holiday on school supplies and temporary suspension of the 1.3-cent increase of the gas tax that’s slated to take effect July 1, though he did not say for how long. Lawmakers approved similar tax relief measures four years ago, the last time state constitutional officers faced reelection.

But the tax relief is not good enough for some Republicans, as the budget also calls for transferring $150 million in sales tax revenue from gas to the General Revenue Fund once public transportation is fully funded.

“We ought to be suspending the sales tax on motor fuel right now – not diverting it to the General Revenue Fund, and not diverting it, oddly to the exact same dollar amount that we got for illegal immigrants and welcoming centers,” Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, told the committee.

That state plans to spend $143 million on a healthcare program for undocumented immigrant seniors and another $4 million on welcoming centers that provide services to immigrants arriving in Illinois.

Local governments will not receive a lower percentage of income tax revenue from the state like Gov. JB Pritzker proposed. Instead, the percentage will remain the same, meaning that with higher revenue, local governments will ultimately get more funding. Mayors vigorously lobbied lawmakers this spring not to cut the percentage.

“That was a priority as identified by our caucus,” Sims told reporters. “Listening to and talking to our local communities and our local mayors, that was a priority for them, so it was a priority that we wanted to address in this budget.”

The bill also fully funds pensions and appears to include full funding for the state’s Evidence-Based Funding model for K-12 education, including a property tax relief component. However, districts will need to forgo property tax increases for three years, rather than two as current law requires, to receive property tax relief grants, Sims said.

A separate bill, known as the Budget Implementation Bill, would establish a program to help people who have lost Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits as the federal government institutes new restrictions on eligibility. Under Illinois’ new Families Receiving Emergency Support for Hunger, or FRESH Program, people who have lost or seen their SNAP benefits reduced would be eligible for a one-time $400 payment. The program is scheduled to last just one year. It was estimated to cost about $70 million.

But it’s not clear how the budget addresses higher SNAP costs the state will be required to cover beginning in October 2027.

“Let’s find out why they no longer qualify before we decide to start handing out $400,” Sen. Don DeWitte, R-St. Charles, said.

Illinois lawmakers are also in line for a roughly 3% pay raise, which will bring their base salaries to $101,450. State law indexes their pay each year to the rate of inflation.

Other spending in the budget appears to rely on numerous fund sweeps that redirect money from one program to another or to the state’s General Revenue Fund. One of those sweeps includes transferring $70 million from the BRIDGE program — created last year to allow Pritzker to allocate funding to programs that fall short in funding because of federal cuts ­— to the Fund for Illinois’ Future for infrastructure projects and other grants. Money in that fund is typically earmarked for specific projects in Democratic legislative districts.

Sims demurred when Rose repeatedly questioned him about the presence of funding in the budget for Democratic projects.

“So, is it about 100 million at least for member projects?” Rose asked after a line of questioning.

“What is a member project? What’s that?” Sims responded.

The implementation plan also shows that direct service providers would receive a 60-cent wage increase, which aligns with Pritzker’s introduced budget, though Rose said that still falls short.

This story will be updated.

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