Issue Position: Reforming the Budget Process

Issue Position

We must revamp the budget process, even if such a change is politically dangerous for the legislative leaders and rank and file members. It is unacceptable that the General Assembly left Springfield in May without a balanced budget. Illinois has a $13 billion deficit and our problems will only get worse if our elected officials continue to fail to address the budget crisis head on. If party leaders were more concerned with politics, the rank and file members should have stood up to the leaders and demanded that they stay in Springfield until the job they were elected to do was finished. Instead, they simply passed an unbalanced budget.

We must learn to live within our means and maximize every hard earned tax dollar. It is time to go through the budget line by line and reduce spending. We must put an end taxpayer funded programs that aren't working and taxpayer funded jobs that are unnecessary or duplicative. We must find and eliminate fraud and waste at all levels of government. Most importantly, the public and rank and file members should have a minimum of 7 days to review Illinois' multi-billion dollar budget. Legislative leaders should not have total control of the process - the days of legislative leaders drafting a budget in a backroom must end.

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