Issue Position: Budget & Pension Reform

Issue Position

The COVID19 pandemic has utterly gutted our state budget to the tune of billions of dollars, placing our finances in an even more precarious position than the already dire circumstances they were in before. The problems are well known: we have an unfunded pension liability of as much as $250 billion. Our annual revenues continue to be insufficient to keep pace with out-of-control spending by Springfield. Our credit rating is the worst of any state in the country and is so bad that in the future Illinois may have difficulty borrowing money and, in any case, doing so will cost us dearly in interest payments on that debt.

The answer is clear: we must confront the Illinois spending addiction. I am a fiscal conservative and I know that the money in our state budget is YOUR money. I believe in a government that sets clear priorities, looks closely at reducing expenditures each year, and does not adopt costly new programs without having a way to pay for them. We face very difficult choices ahead and I am deeply concerned that the services that our most vulnerable depend on -- those benefitting the elderly, the disabled, and helpless victims - will face draconian and hurtful cuts as a result of the failure of leadership from generations of our elected officials.

This cannot be allowed to happen and as your state senator I will support strong spending reforms and will attack waste, fraud, and abuse to ensure that your money is no longer squandered. The General Assembly must adopt a professional approach to the budget that acknowledges financial reality and uses rigorous analytical tools to determine possible paths forward. In my view, this must include balancing the budget without raising taxes and undertaking an ambitious program to grow our economy to generate new sources of income for the state

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