Speaker Welch Releases Statement on Budget Address

Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch released a statement yesterday regarding Governor JB Pritzker’s budget address:

“As expected, given the challenges of COVID-19 and the accompanying job loss and business disruption, this year’s budget requires hard decisions by the legislature and the governor. As the governor said, we must always be grounded by equity and empathy.

Today’s address was the first step in a process that involves all of us coming to the table and working line-by-line to build a budget that reflects our priorities: our COVID-19 response, improving operations for the Illinois Department of Employment Security, funding veterans homes, and providing resources for schools and job training efforts. To do this, we need to close corporate tax loopholes that have made it easy for them to avoid paying their fair share.

All said, one thing is clear: we need federal assistance. For the past year, state and local governments have been hit with a host of new expenses as a result of COVID-19, such as testing, mitigation efforts, and vaccine distribution. I’m glad we finally have an administration that takes this seriously and understands that this is not a red versus blue issue.”