Illinois State House District 102 issued the following announcement on June 7
State Representative Brad Halbrook (R-Shelbyville) says the state’s new $40 billion Fiscal Year 2020 budget raises taxes and increases spending and lacks any solutions to the state’s underlying fiscal problems and will hurt Illinois families.
“The budget the House approved goes beyond even what the Governor proposed and adds $1 billion in spending to his original budget plan,” Halbrook said. “If the goal is to spend money and raise taxes, then the Democrat leadership succeeded. But if the goal is to provide Illinois with a fiscally responsible budget and a plan to deal with the pension crisis and the backlog of unpaid bills, then they failed miserably.”
The House also approved a Capital spending plan that relies on several tax increases including doubling the state’s motor fuel tax from 19 cents per gallon to 38 cents per gallon and increasing license plate renewal fees by $50.
“These tax increases are going to hurt rural families who have to drive long distances virtually every time they get in the car,” Halbrook said. “These tax increases are also going to hurt convenience stores in communities in close proximity to the state’s border. We are incentivizing people who live along Illinois borders to cross state lines to purchase their motor fuel. Instead of jumping at the chance to raise taxes, we should have waited to see what is going to happen at the federal level with President Trump’s proposed $2 trillion infrastructure plan. We might not have had to raise taxes to fix our roads.”
Halbrook said the budget plan caps off a contentious session in which far left Governor JB Pritzker got virtually everything he wanted.
“Our government has taken sharp turn to the left,” Halbrook said. “We expanded abortion services and state funding for abortions and when the Governor signs the bill, we will have the most extreme pro-abortion laws in the nation. Taxes on virtually everything were raised with no accompanying reforms or budget cuts. The new budget breaks previous spending records. Everything that happened this spring is only serving to build momentum for the New Illinois initiative. It has been a very disappointing five months. Now more than ever, we need concerned citizens to take a stand to stop the Governor’s far left agenda.”
Original source can be found here.
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