SPRINGFIELD -State Rep. Adam Niemerg (R-Dieterich) issued a statement following legislative action on a marathon final day of Session. Niemerg says the FY 23 budget, a 3,500-page behemoth, spends more than $46 billion. Niemerg cited increased Democrat pork-barrel spending, pay raises for politicians, and the failure to satisfy outstanding unemployment insurance debt at a time Illinoisans are experiencing record inflation.
“While most Illinoisans were either sleeping or more likely tossing and turning worried about how they are going to afford gas to go to work on Monday and buy groceries to feed their families, Illinois Democrats went on a spending spree,” Niemerg said. “Democrats are leveraging our future financial stability by going it alone on a pork-laden budget full of a billion dollars in pet projects for their own districts, pay raises for themselves, and ignoring a huge debt left in the unemployment insurance fund.”
Niemerg voted against the spending measure, as did all House Republicans. Illinois Senate Republicans also voted no on the FY 23 budget, meaning Democrats in the supermajority once again failed to earn bipartisan support for their multi-billion dollar spending plan.
“The process stinks, quite frankly,” Niemerg said. “The budget gets dropped after midnight, contains thousands of pages with billions in spending, and we’re given the spending plan as a take-it-or-leave-it proposition. I cannot vote for this kind of spending with so little time to read and review the details, and I think it is very irresponsible for Democrat politicians to go along with this process and the flawed product it eventually produced.”
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