South Central Reporter

State Rep. Charlie Meier (R-Highland) could hardly recognize the Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker outlined in his recent State of the State Address.

“Gov. Pritzker tried painting a rosy picture of Illinois’ fiscal condition, but the fact is Illinois is in bad financial shape and still has the worst credit score in the country,” Meier posted on Twitter. “While state revenue is declining, Pritzker’s spending is drastically increasing.”

Pritzker’s $45 billion spending plan calls for up to $300 in property tax rebates, suspending the grocery sales tax for a year and sets asides $500 million for the state’s long-troubled pension system while adding spending for education and health care.

Again, Meier takes issue.

“His proposed property tax rebate and tax cuts are unfortunately only temporary and nothing more than an election-year gimmick,” he said in a post on his website. “The state is broke. While state revenue is declining, Pritzker’s spending is drastically increasing. Things only appear to look good right now because the state was bailed out with $8 billion from the federal government. The budget proposed today is full of smoke and mirrors, lacking a real plan to dig Illinois out of debt and provide long-term tax relief.”

While highlighting a $1.7 billion surplus in his address from the Old State Capitol, even Pritzker acknowledged that people would attribute the surplus to federal money from COVID relief.

Meier was recently elected chairman of the Downstate GOP, a fundraising committee. Meier said his mission is “to continue electing more downstate Republicans to the State House and work towards gaining the majority in the House of Representatives.”

With the Downstate GOP having picked up two seats in 2020 when he served as vice-chairman, Meier said, “the people we represent downstate have had enough of Chicago’s leadership. We got rid of Madigan, however zero anti-corruption reforms have received a vote in the House. The people we represent demand the legislature enact legislation to stop corruption, pass a balanced budget and bring back the jobs we lost since the beginning of the pandemic. When we take back the majority in the next election, Illinois will see a Republican House work for the people, not the politicians."