Pritzker Unveils $45.4B Budget With Pension Fund, Rainy Day Cash

SPRINGFIELD, IL — Gov. J.B. Pritzker unveiled a $45.4 billion budget on Wednesday that will pump $500 million into the state’s pension fund, that will put hundreds of millions into a rainy-day fund while also saving Illinois taxpayers an estimated $1 billion by cutting taxes on groceries, car gas and property taxes.

The budget, which Pritzker trumpeted as his fourth consecutive balanced budget, allows for the state to finish in the black for the second straight year for the first time in more than two decades, the governor’s administration announced on Wednesday.

The budget includes provisions for the Family Relief Plan, which would provide $475 million in property tax rebates for Illinois families and an additional $360 million by freezing the state’s 1 percent grocery tax for a year. Taxpayers would also see a savings of $135 million at the gas pump, Pritzker announced.

In announcing the plan earlier this week, state officials said the budget is intended to help working-class families across the state whose pocketbooks have been hit hard by inflation rates of nearly 7 percent.

Over the next two fiscal years, the budget calls for $879 million to be placed into a “rainy-day” fund, the governor announced while $500 million would be placed directly into Illinois’ Pension Stabilization Fund, according to the new budget.

The added funds mark the first time the state has contributed to the fund in nearly two decades, but the plan calls for the fund to be added to by $79 million each year from the state’s cannabis tax receipts, officials said.

Pritzker said that the budget makes payments into the pension that are more than the state is required to pay. He said by adding the half-billion dollars into the pension fund, taxpayers across the state will save $1.8 billion in interest payments in coming years.

Pritzker said that $600 million of the $879 million that will go toward the “rainy day” fund would be paid out in the upcoming fiscal year with the remaining $200 million being paid out next year.

In a speech to a sparse number of lawmakers limited by the winter storm that caused Pritzker to declare a state emergency on Tuesday, the governor cited the state’s ability to rebound from COVID-19 pandemic-related hardships and a brighter economic outlook.

State budget officials are now anticipating the state finishing the fiscal year with a $1.7 billion surplus that will be put toward paying down the state’s debt load. Pritzker said the state would have finished in the black even without the benefit of federal funding that came through the American Rescue Plan.

He said that his administration, working with other state officials, has made concerted effort to “diligently and meticulously reverse the irresponsible decisions of the past” while making sure that responsible budgeting becomes the rule, not the exception.

Pritzker called on Democrats and Republicans to work together on fixing the state's problems and said too many times, individual agendas have gotten in the way of allowing the state to address necessary issues.

"During this budget cycle especially, seats at the grown-up table will be off-limits to those who aren't working in the public's best interests," Pritzker said on Wednesday.

Republicans called the Pritzker budget one directed at an election-year cycle, rather than addressing the need for structural reform.

“The governor's budget address is always a wish-list, and this year it's clear that the governor wishes to be reelected,” House Republican Leader Jim Durkin said in a statement in response to the budget. "The budget laid out by Governor Pritzker today is packed with gimmicks and one-time tricks, but no structural reforms. The people of Illinois deserve a governor who will be honest and work to actually fix things like property taxes and out-of-control crime."