Chicago City Wire

Legislation to make Juneteenth a state holiday has passed unanimously through the House and Senate. If the governor signs it, the date would be a school holiday and a paid day off for state workers. The paid holiday would cost the state $11.3 million and some see the expense as another example of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s out-of-control spending.

Acknowledged annually on June 19, Juneteenth commemorates the freeing of the last enslaved African American going back to 1865.  

Still, critics of the governor’s way of doing business argue they see little that justifies all his runaway spending.

“Today, Gov. Pritzker carried on his tradition of spending more than families can afford and punishing community businesses with tax hikes disguised as 'closing corporate loopholes,' Illinois Opportunity Project said in a post to its website. “After two years of unbalanced budgets, record spending during a damaging global pandemic, and a structural deficit, Gov. Pritzker proposed a status-quo budget that does nothing to improve Illinois’ underlying fiscal mess and will continue to drive families out of the state.”

The group laments such irresponsible budgeting has come to be known as the Pritzker way.

“Pritzker may be governor but he is not governing,” the group added. “When families desperately need innovative, solution-oriented leadership, Pritzker’s partisan speech was filled with cheap political attacks and blatant attempts to blame everyone else for the state’s budget disaster.”

Illinois Opportunity Project argues nothing’s changed as the state suffers through the throes of one of its toughest stretches in recent history.

“As if this year hasn’t been challenging enough for children and their families, Gov. Pritzker is fulfilling his campaign threat to gut the tax credit scholarship program,” the post added. “This program empowers thousands of low-income families to escape failing school districts and allows their children to get the education that best fits their needs.”

Meanwhile, criticism of the way Pritzker takes to budgeting is nothing new.

State Rep. Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur) recently took to a Facebook video conference hosted by Rep. Brad Halbrook (R-Shelbyville) to speak out against the governor over refusing to work with Republicans when making the budget plan.

Caulkins insists lawmakers were handed the governor’s 1,600-page budget plan with hardly enough time to review its content.

Caulkins said he still can’t see how Pritzker can expect Congress to bail out the state when its government has no firm plans for reforms.

“Why would you have a friend who’s an alcoholic coming to you for money time and time again?” he said. “I mean, at some point you have to cut him off to help them see [that] they need help. Maybe this COVID thing has amplified our problems, brought them to a national prominence and our congressional delegates, Republican all of them, will insist that if we’re going to get a bailout ... there has to be true reform.”