State Senator Kyle McCarter has expressed trepidation towards a set of senate bills aimed at ending Illinois’ nearly two-year-old budget impasse. The package of bills includes pension, procurement, and workers comp reform along with a temporary property tax freeze and increased income taxes. However McCarter thinks the bill lacks the reforms that Illinois tax payers are expecting.
“I know it’s tempting to say ‘yeah, let’s just put something out there and say that we did our job.’ I don’t think that’s right,” McCarter said. “We’re not making decisions that are in the best interest of the state, and if it takes a little more time we should take it.”
McCarter said that the state should avoid voting for a bill with an income tax increase that doesn’t have sufficient reforms included.
“Why would a taxpayer pay one more dime to a government that’s not willing to control their spending?” he said. “This is the wrong thing to do.”
State Sen. Dale Righter said that the a budget deal won’t be pretty either way.
“I think anyone who believes that we could adopt solutions that were easy and real is fooling themselves,” he said. “So it’s going to be this way, or it’s going to be something like this.”
Voting on the deal could happen as early as Wednesday in the Senate.
Story courtesy of Greg Bishop of the Illinois Radio Network.