From the office of Illinois GOP House leader Tom Cross…
For years, House Republicans have driven the discussion on the need for fiscal discipline and to stop spending money we don’t have. Today we took a dramatic step forward passing the first budget in years that actually forces the state to live within its means; and actually spends less than we did the year before. We are pleased that our friends across the aisle joined us in this fiscal discipline.
See the video HERE.
It is never easy to make cuts, but the budgets we passed this week will keep our promise to spend no more than our revenue estimate of $33.2 billion. This is the only way we’re ever going to get our bills paid and get our state finances back on track.
For the past several weeks, members of both sides of aisle worked together reviewing the budget line-by-line in committee and making the difficult decisions about where cuts could be made that would cause the least pain. We started by cutting pay raises and administrative costs wherever possible.
This isn’t going to be a one year process. If we hope to get out of the hole and stay out of the hole this is the way we need to approach the budget every year. It is going to take continued discipline to truly change the culture of spending which got us into this mess.
The budget bills we passed spend $2.2 billion less than the Governor’s proposed spending projection of $35.4 billion, which relied on higher taxes and borrowing to support.
We hope that our colleagues in the Senate and Governor Quinn will join us in passing into law the first responsible budget in years.