In a recent interview with the Illinois Radio Network (IRN), Governor Bruce Rauner continued to emphasize the severity of the budget problems facing Illinois. According to Rauner, dealing with the cumulative effects of years of tax-and-spend budgets and questionable fiscal practices is one of his primary concerns, and one that will be difficult to fix.
Rauner said that the current fiscal year budget is nowhere near balanced, and the state is running out of money with five full months still left in the fiscal year. The Governor noted the previous administration didn’t appropriate enough money to some departments, then told agencies to ignore what was appropriated and spend what they needed to – promising that they would address the revenue shortfall at a later date.
“…that’s a problem that I’ve got to fix, and I will fix it, but it’s going to be hard to do,” Rauner said to IRN.
Rauner has indicated that he will push for reforms to the state’s tax code. The Governor’s State of the State is on Feb. 4, and the Budget Address is scheduled for Feb. 18.