South Central Reporter

State Rep. Blaine Wilhour (R-Effingham) recently spoke with state Rep. Brad Halbrook (R-Shelbyville) on the latter’s video conference along with other Republican lawmakers to discuss their thoughts on the latest budget plan from Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

Wilhour echoed his fellow Republicans’ sentiments when he said that Pritzker’s budget plan was detrimental to the state.

He said that the path Pritzker was taking with the state budget was a huge mistake. Making cuts to a lot of sectors of the state is not the solution that Illinois needs, according to Wilhour.

Wilhour added that those budget cuts are just a distraction. What would fix the current financial state of Illinois is to figure out what the state government should spend its money on.

Wilhour said, “So you know focusing on all of these cuts that’s the kind of [a] distraction from the real things that we need to do. [If] we’re going to turn the state of Illinois around, we need to totally transform the way we spend money. We need true spending reform in the state of Illinois that needs to be based on real priorities.”

 Many Illinois Republicans say that higher taxes on business owners will prompt corporations to leave the state and look for states where taxes are cheaper.