State Representative Norine Hammond of Macomb voted against the Fiscal Year 2021 state budget package. Representative Hammond highlighted the budget’s multi-billion dollar deficit and reliance on massive borrowing from the Federal government. Hammond also noted the Democrats’ giving of enormous budget powers to Governor J.B. Pritzker and prioritizing their projects in their districts while ignoring those of Republicans.
Hammond said “giving the Governor even more control and less oversight over Coronavirus response efforts is ridiculous, given his track record of ignoring input from lawmakers. Similarly, it’s incredibly unfair that a university and hospitals in Democratic districts get special treatment and increased funding, while those in Republican districts get none. For these and other reasons, I oppose this budget.”
The FY21 budget contains a $6.1 billion deficit and also increases funding for Chicago State University by $1.4 million, while state funding for several other public universities, including Western Illinois University, is held flat. Democrat lawmakers also gave $19.8 million in arbitrary grants to specific hospitals over and above the hospital assessment plan that a bipartisan group of lawmakers worked on for months.
