Peoria Standard

State Sen. Sally Turner (R-Lincoln) argues it’s time lawmakers in Springfield put citizens first when it comes to the way the state does business.

"What concerns me is what happens after the Biden bucks stop, are we going to have enough money to fund these $3 billion of increases?” Turner asked soon after Gov. J.B. Pritzker laid out his $112.5 billion spending plan for fiscal year 2023. Of the spending now being touted, $45.5 billion would come courtesy of the state's general revenue fund with the rest being federal passthrough funds.

“Are they sustainable,” Turner asked. “Those are things that are really, really important that we need to look into.”

The budget also calls for providing up to $1 billion in tax relief by freezing the gas and grocery tax, pumping more than the minimum required into the long-troubled public pension system and putting hundreds of millions of dollars into the state's depleted rainy day fund.

Turner said another thing she would have liked to have seen changed in the name of doing the best thing for residents is the partisanship that seems to color every vote. 

“I've been in office for a year now and I came in on the last part of the budget of last year,” she said. “I felt like there wasn't any discussion between both sides of the aisle so that we could all offer good ideas and thoughtful plans on how to address things that are helpful to the citizens of Illinois. I think it's very important that we all work together in order to create a budget that's sustainable for all of us, so that people want to come and live in Illinois and people want to stay in Illinois and raise their families here.”

Turner thinks the tax freezes now being proposed need to be just the start.

“That's another thing that I hope we'll have further discussion on that because one year isn't enough for relief,” she said. “Our plan that we had proposed was a permanent relief. I think that's really something that we need to have a discussion on. I would appreciate hearing more on that. Both sides need to talk about those things and come up with better plans for the citizens of Illinois.”