Senate Republicans remained at the
negotiating table during the week, continuing their work to pass a long-term
budget solution with necessary reforms, despite some attempts to short-circuit
the talks, according to Senator Jim Oberweis.
“We are continuing our good-faith negotiations, hammering
out the necessary details of passing a full-year, balanced budget with commonsense
reforms like a property tax freeze, spending reform and caps, and jobs
creation,” Senator Oberweis said. “Finishing our work is our best option, as opposed to
calling the package before a full agreement is reached.”
Senate President John Cullerton called two legislative
measures for a vote on May 10, over the objections of Senate Republican Leader
Christine Radogno who asked that discussions be allowed to continue toward the
goal of reaching a compromise.
“I believe the two bills were good bills and I voted for
both. The bills were similar but one would only become effective if the rest of
the ‘grand compromise’ bills all passed,” Senator Oberweis said.
“Our talks are continuing. There are sincere, good faith
negotiations underway in the Senate on FY18 budget specifics and reforms
critical to Illinois’ economy,” Senator Radogno said. “Time is of the essence, but the
devil is always in the details and the minutiae of complicated proposals. We
are working through those now in an effort to advance the legislation as soon
as possible.”
Throughout the process, Senate Republicans have held firm to
their belief that the General Assembly must stop repeating mistakes of the
past. The Senate proposals provide new forward-looking ideas and solutions, as
opposed to the House Democrats’ stopgap budget based on the same tax-and-spend
principles that are the root of Illinois’ fiscal mess.
“The definition of fiscal ‘insanity’ is passing the same
types of budgets over and over again and expecting a different result. We need
to fix the roadblocks to economic growth that have forced businesses and their
jobs out of our state. We need to balance spending with revenues,” Senator Oberweis
said. “We need to counteract the House Speaker’s worn-out rhetoric and false
premise that we can tax our way out of this fiscal crisis.”