On Wednesday, Governor Pritzker gave his annual state budget address, which includes almost $900 million in tax hikes. The $52.7 billion election-year budget is something House Republicans emphasized as unbalanced and called a hardship on families and taxpayers across Illinois.
Much of Pritzker’s speech was directed at the federal government and made House Minority Leader question if the Governor was running for President this cycle or next. At the same time, the Chicago Tribune called Pritzker’s rhetoric reflective of “his efforts to increase his footprint on the national political stage, from acting as a surrogate for President Joe Biden’s reelection effort to looking at his own potential future in the White House by playing host to this summer’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago.”
Overall, Pritzker’s proposal for the 2025 fiscal year that begins July 1st would raise spending by $2.3 billion compared to last year’s budget. Read more on the proposed budget here.