Chung Passes Comprehensive, Compassionate Budget and Sends Several Bills to Governor

SPRINGFIELD, Ill.— Working to make life easier and lower everyday costs for Illinois families, state Rep. Sharon Chung, Bloomington, helped pass another fiscally smart budget, creating no new taxes on working families and no severe service cuts, while advancing her own legislation.

“After countless hours of hard work and collaboration, we have finally passed another budget and we close out another legislative session,” said Chung. “These are some of the most important and impactful, yet long and stressful days of the year. All the late nights and tough conversations are worth it when we see a balanced budget that truly helps everyone in our community.”

Because of chaos in Washington, families across the state are struggling to make ends meet while facing a growing list of social concerns. Chung continues to advocate for her community by demanding intentional investments to solve the problems Illinois households are experiencing daily.

This year’s budget fully funds:

• Safety net hospitals, providing care regardless of health insurance status,
• After school programs, supporting working families, and
• The Local Government Distributive Fund, creating more tools for local governments to deliver property tax relief.

Highlights of the budget include investments in:

• The Fresh Act, giving Illinoisans who lost SNAP benefits a one time SNAP credit,
• State social services by reducing government operational costs to make up federal funding losses, and
• Families and students by supporting a Back to School Tax Relief program and investing in affordable school lunches.
• Working class people by temporarily freezing the gas tax, beginning in July

In addition to budgeting to create stability in Illinois despite chaos in Washington, Chung is sending several of her initiatives to the governor to be signed into law.

 

Chung focused on constituent-led legislation, passing measures to:

1. Improve workplace safety measures for nurses,
2. Ensure full-time public media staff have true freedoms of speech and press
3. Support local clinicians and specialists with the Transparency in Downcoding Act, and more.

“This year, I was proud to run bills almost exclusively brought to me by constituents,” said Chung. “I’m even more proud to have passed eight of those bills in both the House and the Senate, and I look forward to each one becoming law. Now, it’s time to head back to our district for the summer to find out how I can best support our community.”