Flowers Heralds Responsible, Compassionate State Budget

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Following a detailed negotiation process that stretched right up to the end of the spring legislative session, state Rep. Mary Flowers, D-Chicago, is highlighting some of the benefits for Illinois families and communities contained in the latest state budget.

“We’ve done a lot of work and, while much more remains to be done, the result is a balanced budget that addresses a number of issues important to families in our communities,” Flowers said. “No one effort can do everything, and this process involved a number of difficult decisions between often imperfect options, but it wasn’t that long ago that Bruce Rauner left us teetering on the edge of junk status. In light of that, we’re positioned better than anyone back in 2018 would have expected we would be.”

Flowers emphasized transformational funding for career and technical education to give ambitious young Illinoisans a high-paying alternative to traditional college, along with major investments in public education along with cities and villages that are aimed at providing more tools for local governments that want to get local property taxes under control.

She gave particular emphasis to measures modernizing reimbursement rates for caregivers and ambulance services in small towns and other underserved areas, as well as critical funding for “safety-net” health providers in at-risk communities. Flowers said these measures would be especially beneficial, respectively, to Illinoisans with disabilities as well as vulnerable healthcare populations such as Black women, who continue to have above average rates of maternal and infant mortality.

“We went line by line through this budget, prioritizing spending to enable us to build the smart, compassionate state we all want,” Flowers said. “We shouldn’t accept a choice between compassion and responsibility, we can and should choose both. And I’m happy to be able to say that that’s what we’ve begun to do here. Our job isn’t yet close to being finished, but we have a foundation here from which we can move forward.”

Flowers’ office can be reached at 773-471-5200 or tsnow@hds.ilga.gov.

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