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Pritzker’s Budget Blame Game Won’t Make Life More Affordable for Illinois Families. Governor JB Pritzker delivered his annual Budget/State of the State Address Wednesday to a joint session of the Illinois General Assembly.
Governor Pritzker’s proposed Fiscal Year 2027 Budget is a record-high $56 billion, nearly a billion dollars more than last year’s enacted budget. Pritzker’s spending plan relies on $728 million in new revenue, including new taxes on social media platforms and higher gaming taxes.
House Minority Leader Tony McCombie released the following statement following Governor JB Pritzker’s annual State of the State and Budget Address:
“For Governor Pritzker, this budget is about blame. It is clear the Governor is more focused on his presidential ambitions than delivering for Illinois families. He emphasized that everything is ‘too d*mn expensive,’ while proposing higher taxes, more spending, and expanded government. There’s nothing affordable about this budget proposal.”
Deputy Republican Leader Norine Hammond issued the following statement in response to Gov. Pritzker’s budget address:
“Today was déjà vu all over again, as Governor Pritzker doubled down on his political attacks on President Trump. Pritzker remains focused on running for president rather than working to address the many problems facing Illinois.
“When President Trump and Republicans in Congress delivered tax relief for the American people, JB Pritzker and Democrat leaders said, ‘Not in Illinois.’
o Permanent tax relief for working families and seniors – Not in Illinois
o Real relief for everyone, from small businesses to tipped workers – Not in Illinois
o Education scholarship tax credits – Not in Illinois
“Governor Pritzker needs to stop blaming President Trump for the problems Pritzker created here in Illinois:
o Record spending, billions in new taxes and fees, skyrocketing energy costs, and an economy that is failing our families
o 550,000 illegal immigrants that cost Illinois taxpayers billions in healthcare benefits
o High error rates in our Medicaid and SNAP programs, that could cost us billions more.
“Rather than cut the waste, fraud, and abuse in the system, Pritzker again chose to blame Trump. Governor Pritzker’s blame game won’t make life more affordable for Illinois families.”
Deputy Republican Leader Ryan Spain gave the following statement after the conclusion of Governor Pritzker’s combined State of the State and Budget Address.
“JB Pritzker and Democrats want to gloss over their own actions, which have cost Illinois taxpayers over $16 billion over JB Pritzker’s two terms as Governor,” said Spain. “This is the largest budget in Illinois history. The State Budget has ballooned by 40% under JB Pritzker. Let’s not pretend all Illinois’ problems are new or caused by Washington, D.C.- Democrats have made a mess all on their own.”
State Representative Amy Elik, House Republicans’ Deputy Budgeteer, issued the following statement after the governor’s budget proposal:
“The Governor’s budget proposes another increase in state spending, making this another record amount, financed by more targeted taxes and fees. The speech today was short on details on actual budget items but did acknowledge the fact that Illinoisans are struggling with high prices. I appreciated the proposal to speed up building new clean nuclear energy in Illinois, in order to produce our own to keep up with demand. The devil is in the details and the Governor hints that he could take more local control from our communities to carry out his proposals. I’m ready to work for real solutions and will offer my expertise to make life more affordable for Illinois families.”
House Republicans will continue to advocate for real solutions that address affordability by reining in out-of-control spending, cutting taxes for working families and seniors, and opposing the Democrats’ tax hikes.
Illinois families deserve real relief, not another bill to pay.
CHICAGO BEARS
While Pritzker fumbles, Indiana advances Bears stadium legislation. On Thursday, the Indiana House Ways & Means Committ.ee unanimously approved legislation creating a Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority for a proposed Bears stadium in Hammond, Indiana. Meanwhile, the Illinois House Revenue & Finance Committee canceled a planned Thursday hearing on proposed Bears stadium/mega-projects legislation.
Gov. JB Pritzker said he was disappointed after his team met with the Bears on Wednesday.
“We completed more than three hours, my team did, of discussions with the Bears, very positive discussions and, indeed, mostly agreed on a bill,” Pritzker said.
The governor said the legislation would have moved Thursday morning, but the Bears asked that it be held so some tweaks could be worked out.
“Again I’m surprised, dismayed, very disappointed at what I saw in a statement. The Bears, post that, have said, ‘Well, we didn’t really mean that they’re moving to Indiana,’ which is kind of the implication of it,” Pritzker said.
Two potential sites for a proposed new Chicago Bears stadium could face legislative action soon. A substantial land parcel in Arlington Heights, Illinois, is already owned by the NFL football franchise. The former home of the Arlington Park horse racetrack, the suburban site has space to build hotel rooms for visitors and erect a Bears-oriented festival marketplace. It is convenient to highway and commuter train game-goers and is not far from O’Hare International Airport.
A second site in Hammond, Indiana, close to the state line and adjacent to heavily polluted Wolf Lake, is also on the table. Based on the declining activities of Northwest Indiana heavy industry in recent years, Hammond also has an adequate site for a stadium and festival-destination development. However, there is no airport near Hammond with commercial flight service. The highway that serves the Hammond site is a toll road.
Both sites have bills in their respective state legislatures that are poised to move forward. It is expected that if the Bears build a stadium in Illinois, Arlington Heights and other adjacent municipalities and taxing bodies would be asked to pick up some of the hosting responsibilities. One method to do so would be to agree to forego some of the property tax revenues that a privately-owned football stadium and hotel complex would otherwise generate.
No final decision had been announced at the end of this week as to the future home of the Chicago Bears. Debate on this question was expected to continue and intensify next week.
ENERGY
The challenge of electrical demand and the promise of nuclear power. In a time of unprecedented demand for electricity by both residential and commercial customers, and new data centers, Illinois – in policies headed by Gov. Pritzker – is continuing the process of shutting down most of its final coal-burning power plants. Next in the Pritzker crosshairs are natural gas generation plants. Natural gas generates more than 16% of all Illinois electricity, with this percentage spiking upward during “peaker” time periods of intensive demand for electricity.
Furthermore, Pritzker’s policies – which appear to be based on electricity from solar panels and wind farms that will generate inadequate supplies of electricity – will cost must more per kilowatt-hour than coal power or natural gas-fired power costs. This disparity is further worsened by the dependence of wind power and solar power upon an unproven network of giant batteries that are supposed to store electricity for use on calm nights when the sun is not shining. The developers of these battery farms, which have not been proved to work, say they cannot be built unless they are subsidized by Illinois electricity ratepayers. A recent new Illinois law to enact this subsidy could cost Illinois electricity customers at least $8 billion.
Illinois’ eleven nuclear generation reactors – spread out over six sites in Central and Northern Illinois – can generate thousands of megawatts of electricity, fulfilling more than 50% of our current electrical supply needs. Unfortunately, new Illinois reactor construction ceased in the 1980’s. After the Clinton Plant’s sole reactor opened in Central Illinois in 1987, the power production industry shifted towards the maintenance and safe operation of its existing plants.
The General Assembly has taken steps to change this. Laws passed in 2023 and in 2025 have lifted the “moratorium” on new nuclear power plant construction, and have encouraged the planning and rollout of small modular reactors (SMRs). Developers of the SMR concept say that because of the size and heat of these smaller reactors, they are physically unable to “melt down” in the ways understood by people who are concerned about nuclear power. The Illinois Emergency Management Agency – OHS is currently working on rules to plan for the physically safe operation of small modular reactors to help generate Illinois electricity.
TAXES
Governor Pritzker proposes new tax hikes for FY27 budget. Based on the soaring spending of the Pritzker Administration (up 40% since the current Governor took office in January 2019), existing Illinois taxes cannot match the $56 billion the Governor wants to spend. This gap has appeared even though Illinois’ sales tax rate – which is one of the highest in the nation – and its income taxes are generating record levels of cash flow to Springfield. Last October, the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget projected that, in the absence of further action, the State would have a $2.2 billion deficit in FY27
To completely close this gap and enable the presentation of an FY27 budget document this week to the General Assembly, additional new tax revenues and budget “gimmicks” were required. Key items of budget gimmickry and hidden tax increases included the following:
o $269 million in FY27 by limiting net loss carryforwards used by Illinois firms as part of their tax planning that allows them to use past losses to lower tax liabilities in future years
o A new $200 million Social Media Platform fee that would require social media platform companies to pay the State a fee-based tax based on Illinois users
o Raising taxes on Illinois casinos and their betting customers by $120 million/year, with the burden concentrated on use of table games and gaming play at the largest casinos
o Diverting $80 million from existing Illinois sales taxation on candy, confectionery, and sweetened soft drinks from paying for infrastructure costs, and instead depositing this money in State general funds
o Lowering the percentage of income tax collections that are shared with Illinois local governments by $60 million in FY27, which will likely result in property tax increases across local governments