From the Office of GOP House Leader Tom Cross…
It was a good week for Illinois taxpayers. Due to our persistence over the years to control spending, leaders in the Illinois House are now working together in a bi-partisan manner to enact a series of bills that make tremendous strides towards crafting a responsible state budget that forces state government to live within its means.
House Republican Leader Tom Cross and House Speaker Michael Madigan worked together to lead the House in passing a number of measures that build off of House Resolution 110 which establishes a revenue estimate of $33.2 billion, nearly $2 billion less than Governor Quinn has proposed spending in FY12.
One of the bills HB 3639 requires the state to make the full pension payment to the Teachers’ Retirement System.
Click here to view Leader Cross comments on the House floor about House Bill 3639.
The House also passed HB 116, HB 117, HB 132, HB 3697 to fund the statutorily mandated pension payment and bond debt service payments, along with the yearly group insurance payment for state employees. Also included are statutory transfers for local government, the RTA, and lapse spending that were not in this legislative package. Total spending as a result of these actions are $9.324 billion.
This leaves lawmakers with $23.85 billion in General Revenue Funds to be allocated for the Fiscal Year 2012 budget.
House committees will be working on a final budget in the next few weeks. We will keep you posted.