What Governor Pritzker Should Say in his Budget Address
Governor JB Pritzker presents his FY 2026 budget address in Springfield last February. (Photo: Chicago Tribune)
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OPINION
Governor JB Pritzker is set to give his eighth combined State of the State and budget address Wednesday to a joint session of the General Assembly. (Though, only his sixth before a joint session of the General Assembly. He did his speech from a COVID-19 vaccination site at the State Fair in 2021 when the legislature wasn’t in session and from the Old State Capitol in 2022 when the General Assembly cancelled session due to a blizzard.)
I’ve prodded the Governor over the years for his need to be even just a little more moderate on these issues, so I thought I’d dust off my old speechwriting fingers take a little stab at what Governor Pritzker should say.
Ladies and gentlemen and to the good people of Illinois: today I report to you that the state of our state is strong, but on uncertain footing.
We have been dealt a difficult hand. Some of the cards come from elected leaders in Washington, who, either through bad policy or bad politics, have made decisions that make it harder to support our social service providers, rural hospitals, daycare and early childhood providers. Many of these decisions are being made by a vindictive, childish president who wants to embarrass those who disagree with him.
In America, we should make decisions based on policy and who it will help, not who it will hurt.
That’s what we’ve tried to do in Illinois. I stand before you proud of the decisions we’ve made and the seven budgets we’ve enacted so far. Every one has been balanced. Everyone has had the people of Illinois at the top of mind.
But we should recognize today that the people who reside in our state, from Zion to Cairo, are struggling. It is harder to afford to live in our state than it should be. It is harder to buy groceries or gasoline or pay property tax bills for too many of our neighbors in every corner of this great state.
They deserve better from us.
I’m a progressive, and you’ll never see me waver from the belief that government can be an agent for good in the lives of people who struggle.
Today, I challenge each and every member of the General Assembly to join me in this goal: 2026 will be the year of affordability in Springfield.
My door is open to members of each party. Come to me with your ideas and suggestions to make the lives of our neighbors more affordable. Leader McCombie and Leader Curran: I want Republicans involved, too. Affordability isn’t a one-way street and I know you all share my goal of reducing the cost of living in our state. When the legislature is in session, I want to meet with you weekly to hear your best ideas. We’re in this together.
We must get serious about property taxes. It is a crushing weight for homeowners and businesses around the state. And, yes, it has led to many of our neighbors leaving Illinois for states with lower property taxes. That’s unacceptable to me and should be to you. I know it isn’t an easy fix, but we can begin by reducing burdens that force our school districts to raise property taxes. I’ll be proposing unfunded mandates we can repeal that can help eliminate some of those unfunded mandates on our school districts.
Everything should be on the table. I am willing to entertain funding sources for schools to help shift education dollars away from property taxes and ways to make local government and school district consolidation easier so we need fewer administrative dollars to be funded by taxpayers.
We won’t fix the burden in one year. I’m planning to be here at least five more years. We can do this together.
We will, in 2026, make energy prices more affordable for our neighbors. I firmly believe in the goals laid out in the Clean Energy Jobs Act and I stand by those goals. But due to ongoing frustrations with our grid operators and demands of the growth of data centers, we need to act in the short term. Later today, I’ll sign an executive order encouraging the refiring of natural gas power plants around the state. More energy production will drive costs down. And I’ve asked Commonwealth Edison and Ameren to reduce as many fees as possible on consumers for at least the next year.
Balancing our budget won’t be easy. But we’re not putting more pressure on taxpayers. No way, no how. I’m confident our revenues will come in stronger than they did last year so we can continue to make our constitutionally mandated pension and K-12 funding increases in the evidence based formula. But our ideas of grandeur will have to wait.
If the Governor and legislative Democrats are serious about cost of living and making it easier to live here, it could go a long way in helping restore confidence many in the state have lost in state government.
