Chambana Sun

State Sen. Chapin Rose (R-Mahomet) reacted to the budget dropped by the Democrats toward the end of the spring session.

Along with other Republicans in a news conference, Rose said the process he saw was unique.

“I have never seen anything like that before,” he said. “Last night we saw this massive 3,000-page budget that was filed in the house less than 20 minutes before the debate began. In fact, I talked to some of my House colleagues who indicated that it was so big and hadn't actually finished uploading to the system for them to even see the text of what it is they were being asked to vote upon…There wasn’t one budget hearing in the Senate. I've been doing this for far too long but I don't remember ever, ever, seeing a budget passed without going to a committee where you had a chance to ask questions.”

The over $600-billion budget, according to Rose included 'job-killing' tax increases, and pay increases for lawmakers.

“As we’re coming out of COVID-19, why on earth would you do this when we're trying to get people back to work,” he said. “There's a billion dollars in pork for Democrat lawmakers — just Democrat lawmakers — after we got into that the nitty-gritty, we started finding other things. Just in DHS alone, Department of Human Services, there are over 75 new programmatic creations, brand-new spending, brand-new items that I'm sure were requested by some Democratic lawmakers somewhere, and of course we talked about the pay raises for legislators.”

The Mahomet Republican questioned the priorities considered in the budget.

“So, when the Democrats talk to you about priorities, when they tell you that they care so much, then they put the taxpayers’ money where their mouth was, well they didn't do it for the developmentally disabled,” Rose stressed. “We are 47^th in the country in developmental disability funding, 47^th. There's a lawsuit in federal court. We are under a federal court order to do better. Are you going to stay 47^th in the nation on disability funding? That's what happens when you don't have a transparent process. That's what happens when you run budget bills that are 3,000 pages long on 20 minutes notice in the House.”

Rose claimed that the Democrats do not care for the people. “They are more worried about saving and protecting their own districts and to guarantee that their vice-like grip on this state continues – than they are about the actual people of Illinois!” he wrote in a statement.

He also said that by refusing to pass a fair map, Democrats have turned their back on Illinoisans.