The program is the result of 2013 legislation that called for the state to provide aid to law enforcement agencies to relocate witnesses of violent crimes if they are at risk of danger, but it didn’t get funded until Pritzker allocated $30 million for it last year.
The more-than-3,400-page budget plan, filed by Sims, the Senate’s chief budget negotiator, also included $15 million for the state’s violent crime witness protection program, which is half of the $30 million that Pritzker proposed for the program in February. The governor’s office also emphasized a $20 million investment in a new Illinois Grocery Initiative to expand grocery access to urban neighborhoods and rural towns. The proposal also includes an additional $200 million to the state’s underfunded pension plans on top of the $9.8 billion required under state law. On Wednesday, the Pritzker administration highlighted elements of the budget including an additional $100 million for Monetary Award Program grant funding for college students an increase of $100 million in higher education funding and an increase of $85 million to support homelessness prevention, affordable housing and other programs related to a vision of “ending homelessness in the state.” There also have been differences over whether to extend a $75 million tax credit program for private school scholarship donors, which was left out of the budget package approved by the Senate and now going to the House. Projected spending on the program had spiraled to $1.1 billion, but Pritzker’s office said the proposal gives the administration “tools” to control the costs. While Croke said dissension within the Democratic ranks has eased over the last week, other party members privately acknowledged a lively debate over competing budget priorities, particularly after the announced budget deal increased spending for the immigrant health care program by more than $300 million from Pritzker’s initial budget proposal, which had pegged the price tag at $220 million. “The budget presented here today undoubtedly represents a further expansion and growth of state government at a time when Illinois itself is contracted,” Curran said.īefore the plan began to move forward Thursday, House Democrats acknowledged the challenge of balancing requests from the various caucuses within their record 78-member supermajority with the need to stay within the overall spending level agreed upon by Pritzker, Welch and Harmon.ĭemocrats had to grapple with skyrocketing costs in a program that provides Medicaid-style health benefits for immigrants who are in the country without legal permission or otherwise don’t qualify for the traditional insurance program for the poor. And he said the budget is not friendly to big business, reflecting why companies like Caterpillar and Boeing have relocated offices out of state. He criticized the budget for ignoring the “overwhelming call for relief” from tax and utility costs that he believes are “crushing” families and small- and medium-sized businesses following the COVID-19 pandemic. Moments before the budget passed through the Senate, Republican Leader John Curran said the Democrats’ inclusion of his caucus in budget talks was “a step forward in our working relationships.” But he indicated that the final product of the budget “does not reflect the entire state of Illinois.”
“I look forward to the House taking up this budget that will make child care and education more accessible, health care more affordable, and our state’s business and economic position even stronger,” Pritzker said.
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