Hewing closely to proposals from Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Illinois House Democrats on Wednesday made their opening public bid for a state budget and election-year tax relief but didn’t call the plan for a vote in the full chamber.
With two days remaining before the scheduled end of the legislature’s spring session, the House Executive Committee voted along party lines to send a $45.7 billion spending plan for the year that begins July 1 to the floor of the Democratic-controlled chamber. But the House adjourned hours later without taking up the measures as negotiations with Senate Democrats and the governor’s office continued.
Republicans on the House committee joined Democrats in voting to send a separate tax relief plan of more than $1.3 billion to the full House, despite characterizing some of its provisions as election-year gimmicks.
The House plan finds a middle ground between Pritzker’s $1 billion tax relief proposal and a $1.8 billion plan unveiled last week by Senate Democrats.
Although the governor’s office was still reviewing the budget and tax proposals, Pritzker said at a Wednesday morning news conference that he liked what he saw upon his initial review.
“My early observation is that House Democrats took a comprehensive approach and adhered to my goals of achieving a fiscally responsible balanced budget and delivering tax relief to the families that need it most,” Pritzker said. “I’m certainly pleased to see more ideas in the mix to cut taxes and give working families a break.”
Without getting into specifics, Senate President Don Harmon indicated late Wednesday that he and this team were still going over the House proposals, but that they’re very similar to what’s under consideration in the Senate.
“There’s obviously some open issues, but I’d say we’re in spitting distance on most of those,” the Oak Park Democrat said.
Harmon said he spoke with House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch on the budget earlier in the day, calling it “a very productive meeting.” Harmon said, “I expect we’ll be able to work collaboratively to land the plane.”
Like the plan Pritzker laid out in his February budget address, the House Democrats’ proposal would suspend the 1% state sales tax on groceries for a year, give homeowners a one-time property tax rebate of up to $300, and pause an inflation-based increase in the gas tax. The House plan also includes direct payments to taxpayers, but on a much more limited basis than the Senate plan.
Democrats, who are looking to maintain their total control of state government in November, have made tax relief a central part of their election-year message as state revenues continue to outperform projections while record inflation hits household budgets.
“Going beyond what’s in the spending plan, we need to support families in our state by returning some money to them to deal with the costs of inflation,” House Majority Leader Greg Harris, a Chicago Democrat and lead budget negotiator, said at a separate news conference.
“We know we can’t solve every problem,” Harris said. “But $1.3 billion can help in a lot of ways to solve some problems.”
The House plan would freeze the gas tax increase — estimated at 2.2 cents per gallon — for six months rather than the year Pritzker proposed, and it would make up the lost road fund revenue by shifting money from a separate fund dedicated to cleaning up leaking underground storage tanks.
Rather than send direct relief checks to the more than 97% of tax filers who would qualify under the Senate plan, the House would limit the payments to low- and moderate-income taxpayers who qualify for the state’s earned income tax credit.
The House also would permanently increase the size of the credit, which often produces tax refunds, and expand eligibility to include younger workers without children and those 65 and older, along with taxpaying immigrants.
“This plan is responsible. It’s balanced. It targets those who need the help the most during these times of high inflation,” said state Rep. Mike Zalewski, a Riverside Democrat.
Buoyed by increasingly strong revenue estimates, the House plan would spend close to $300 million more than what Pritzker proposed but still end the year with a projected surplus of more $390 million.
Roughly $200 million of that additional spending would go toward new public safety and law enforcement programs, several of which were approved in the House this week and await votes in the Senate.
Democrats have been pushing a wide variety of initiatives aimed at addressing rising crime and recruiting and retaining law enforcement officers to quell public fears about the issue and blunt attacks from Republicans, who’ve made public safety concerns a centerpiece of their election-year messaging.
Aside from their perennial complaints about being left in the dark during budget discussions and questioning line items that appear targeted toward the districts of specific Democratic lawmakers, minority-party Republicans on the House Executive Committee reserved much of their criticism for one small piece of the Democrats tax relief proposal: a provision that would require gas pumps across the state to display a sticker informing drivers of the gas-tax freeze.
“It does seem like electioneering, kind of giving further evidence to an election-year gimmick,” said Rep. Ryan Spain, a Peoria Republican.
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The House this week has passed a series of anti-crime measures pushed by Democrats, which in many cases place an emphasis on supporting law enforcement to go along with the party’s push for more holistic community-based approaches to fighting crime.
Part of the focus has been on the rise in carjackings, a crime that tripled in Chicago from 2019 through 2021.
Since many of the people arrested for the crime are under 18, one of the bills makes predatory vehicular hijacking — when an adult “knowingly commands or coerces” a minor to commit a carjacking — a Class 1 felony, punishable by four to 15 years in prison.
Another measure establishes a “co-responder” pilot program that requires police departments in East St. Louis, Peoria, Springfield and Waukegan to work with behavioral specialists in responding to mental health emergencies.
Other legislation increases the number of highway cameras by expanding the program beyond Cook County to 21 other Illinois counties, and allows law enforcement to retain the footage for six months. There are also bills to address police recruitment and retention, the creation of a child care program for first responders and increased funding for officer wellness.
Democratic Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth of Peoria said Wednesday that the House plan also included about $124 million for various police functions, such as body cameras, license plate readers and ballistic testing. About another $100 million would go toward initiatives such as witness protection programs, youth services for teens involved in carjackings and trauma recovery services for crime victims.
“When you are facing traumatic situations, oftentimes there’s a very thin line between victim and perpetrator,” Gordon-Booth said. “And so what we know is that we have to invest back into communities and ensure that we’re healing the wounds of the soul that do not heal themselves.”