Will County Gazette

Rep. Jim Durkin held a press conference May 12 to criticize the creation of the fiscal year 2023 budget. He said the Democratic lawmakers have been breaking their vow of open government for decades.

"Now, the Democrats talk a real good game on open governments but they never follow through and do just the opposite," Durkin said. "We saw it this year under Speaker Welch and I've seen it for decades with Mike Madigan. Nothing has changed. You'd think they'd learn a lesson. The budget compromise that the Democrats announced to myself and also sent to the minority leader in the Senate minutes before it was announced to the press. J.B. Pritzker and the guys just wanted to check off the box. It was a joke. It lasted 10 minutes. Even then we didn't see the details until more than a day later, just hours before we were asked to vote on a 3000-page $46.3 billion spending plan in Illinois. This is not how good government works. We're seeing that play out in the federal court day in and day out in as they said earlier you would hope they learn a lesson, but they don't."

Republicans have been critical of the budget that Democrats assembled, accusing them of packing it with pork projects for Democratic-leaning districts.

"Today, Democrats passed a budget focused more on the upcoming election than the needs and responsibilities of the state," Assistant Republican Leader C.D. Davidsmeyer (R-Jacksonville) posted on his website April 9. "They wrote a bill to delay their gas tax increase, conveniently until after the election. They included delayed tax increases on businesses and cuts in unemployment benefits, conveniently until after the election. These taxes will be increased; the Democrats just wanted to ensure that it didn't happen before the election. This budget includes $1.6 billion in pork projects in Democrat-only legislative districts. These include all sorts of things like a 'pilot program' for guaranteed minimum income for women in East St. Louis. This and all of the other projects amount to election-year bribes for their re-election, paid for by all Illinois taxpayers."

 Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy also spoke on the budget, according to Fox Illinois, saying, "Instead of permanent solutions for working families like real tax cuts and reduced spending, Democrats passed temporary election-year gimmicks, a massive increase in spending, and pay raises for politicians. In the face of record inflation and a crushing tax burden, Democrats gave taxpayers a handful of candy and told them to suck it up. They failed to provide real relief to taxpayers and all but guaranteed tax increases when the federal bailout money goes away."