Dupage Policy Journal

State Rep. Deanne Mazzochi (R-Elmhurst) questions Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s budget for FY2022, stating that last year was an “unaffordable spending spree” and “now the Governor and his majority want to double down, again.”  

She pointed out that this year’s budget is another unbalanced budget similar to the one presented a year ago. 

“We had a budget that wasn’t balanced last year and it won’t be balanced this year.  A nearly $5 billion bill backlog proves it.”

Mazzochi continues to question the proposal that the governor referred to as closing the corporate loopholes in which tax relief is being cut from businesses.

“We get bureaucratic babble that the Governor is just decoupling present year expenditures in Illinois from the federal standard,” she said. “Explain to the people, governor, what you really mean by that. It’s not a loophole, it means if you’re a business, and you made a capital investment in Illinois, we’re raising your tax bill.”  

The state representative went on criticizing Pritzker who said, “I asked Republicans in the General Assembly for their proposals to close this year’s budget deficit. I was met with silence. Apparently, their idea of bipartisanship ends when hard choices must be made.”

“The Governor wants Republican ideas for spending cuts?”  Mazzochi said. “Here’s two, number one, no more legislator pay raises.  Number two, end no-bid contracts like the one his campaign worker Forrest Ashby got. The guy praised in emails for keeping his mouth shut about ghost payrollers and a rape in Champaign.” 

She further said that last year's approach was “an insult to anyone who has had to sit around their own kitchen table trying to make ends meet,” and this year is “yet another disconnect with reality.”