State report shows Illinois staring down $8 billion deficit
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The state of Illinois’ spending will outstrip what it brings in by nearly $8 billion this year despite a stopgap budget agreement last month, according to a government analysis first obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.
The Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability reviewed the budget deal that lawmakers and Gov. Bruce Rauner approved in June on the brink of the new fiscal year, which began this month, at the behest of Republican Rep. David McSweeney.
The report, provided to AP in advance of general release later Thursday, found that the state will spend $39.6 billion — including $3 billion in obligations that were not addressed in the six-month stop-gap budget agreed to by Democrats who control the Legislature and Rauner — but will bring in only $31.8 billion.
“We’re setting up a major disaster,” said McSweeney, a Barrington Hills legislator, who was one of a handful of “no” votes against the first major budget deal reached in a year. “A tax increase becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because with every day that goes by, the deficit is getting worse.”