East Central Reporter

State Sen. Chapin Rose (R-Mahomet) believes Gov. J.B. Pritzker's (D-IL) latest budget proposal resembled those under ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich because it's "so completely disconnected from reality."

Rose's comments came after Pritzker announced his plan for the state's budget during his State of the State address on Feb. 2. 

"Here you have a governor who is creating permanent spending dollars while only providing temporary relief," Rose said. 

Pritzker had outlined his plan to increase state spending on education, public safety and small businesses while making big payments into the rainy day fund and state pensions, a press release from the governor's office stated. 

"He has done nothing about crime but throw more money at it. He refuses to lock up violent offenders walking our streets, but where he's really disconnected from reality, Pritzker is using the federal Biden bucks to make everything appear that all is well, but people are going to wake up next year with a heck of a hangover when that money dries up and they're left with reckless spending," Rose said. 

Pritzker also proposed providing some relief to taxpayers by offering a one-time payment in the form of a property tax rebate while both freezing the grocery tax and temporarily suspending the upcoming hike in gas taxes.

"$2.5 billion in new spending and he thinks the people of Illinois who are suffering from inflation,  he thinks they should only get one-time help," Rose said. "That is so disconnected from the reality of the people I represent every day."

The total for the state budget as proposed by Pritzker comes in at $112.5 billion, according to a report published by Patch.

The article pointed out that less than half of that total would come from the state's general revenue fund, with the rest funded by federal money Illinois received.

It also highlighted that a large portion of the budget was for public employee pensions.