Invoking the Great Depression, Gov. J.B. Pritzker delivers first budget proposal amid $3.2 billion deficit – Chicago Tribune

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Comparing Illinois’ financial morass to the challenges the state faced during the Great Depression, Gov. J.B. Pritzker used his first budget address Wednesday to lay out the initial stages of a multiyear road map that ultimately depends upon voters approving a graduated income tax.

In a 37-minute speech, Pritzker vowed to end the days of ideological warfare that fueled a record budget impasse under his defeated predecessor, Republican Bruce Rauner. He sought both compromise and patience — asking Republicans to work with the state’s one-party Democratic rule and urging all legislators to take the long view by enacting multiyear fiscal changes to stabilize Illinois’ shaky finances.

“Budgeting will not be done anymore by taking the state hostage, or by court orders, consent decrees and continuing appropriations but instead by debate and compromise and a return to regular order. We will work together earnestly to solve the state’s problems. We will disagree at times on important things, but the work we all came here to do will get done,” Pritzker said.

“To get to fiscal stability and eliminate our structural deficit, there’s no quick fix. It took decades to get us into this mess. It will take at least several years to get us out of it,” he said. “We must therefore embrace a multiyear approach with fair principles and smart investments in our people. Our state does well when our people do well.”

Source Article from https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-met-pritzker-state-budget-preview-20190219-story.html

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