Grundy Reporter

Sen. Sue Rezin raised concerns about the upcoming budget for Illinois in the 2023 fiscal year, feeling like her Democratic colleagues made it with “fiscal carelessness.”

“The bungled handling of the Unemployment Insurance (UI) Trust Fund is another example of Democrat leaders’ fiscal carelessness,” Rezin said. “Majority party legislators shirked their fiscal responsibilities by not fully paying Illinois’ $4.5 billion UI trust fund deficit. Late in March, they approved a partial payment of $2.7 billion, leaving a $1.8 billion debt. Instead of using the once-in-a-lifetime flood of federal funds to fix the state’s UI deficit, Democrat leaders spent it on pork projects in their own districts.”

In a release from the Office of the Governor of Illinois, the state will allocate funding for hiring 300 state officers.

Rezin has been critical of the Democrats in the general assembly, especially when it comes to their financial decisions, the Illinois Valley Times reported.

Early this month, she took them to task for not funding the unemployment insurance trust fund fully. 

“I joined Sen. Win Stoller in Peoria for a press conference about the majority party’s failure to fully fund our state’s unemployment insurance trust fund,” Rezin said, according to the Illinois Valley Times. “This decision could lead to one of the largest tax increases on businesses in Illinois history as well as worker benefit reductions.”

The release added the budget will add a $96 million increase for transportation and special education district reimbursements for Pre K-12 and higher education budgets.

At that same press conference, Rezin also said, “We begged the governor and the Democratic lawmakers to use (American Rescue Plan Act) funds to fix the UI trust fund as soon as the feds announced that Illinois would be receiving over $8 billion. Instead of doing the responsible thing last year, they chose to wait and while they waited, they couldn’t help themselves and they spent the money. ARPA wasn’t intended for bigger government or pork projects. The federal government designed our budget to be used for COVID-19 relief and to help with the economic recovery. They approved these funds to be used on items like the UI trust fund.”

The release also added the budget will fund $230 million toward mental health and substance abuse treatments.

“This was avoidable,” Rezin said at a March 28 press conference. “The governor and his Democratic allies in the General Assembly had nearly a year to allocate federal ARPA dollars to fix the growing UI trust fund and the deficit that it had. Instead of being fiscally responsible and prioritizing our trust fund, they waited and decided to appropriate our one-time federal dollars on other programs and proposals, including $1 billion on personal pork projects in their districts. Now, after only paying off 60% of the trust fund debt, they are patting themselves on the back and calling themselves financially responsible while our state employees and employers are preparing to bear the burden for their failure to truly fix this problem. Spending sprees, pork projects, which is why we don't have enough ARPA dollars left.”