Another spending measure was pushed through by Senate Democrats this week in the absence of a state budget. The Monetary Award Program (MAP), which provides grants to low-income college students, would see funding of $373.3 million this fiscal year under Senate Bill 2043.
Though Senate Republican lawmakers underscored their support for MAP, they raised red flags about the proposal. Senate GOP legislators stressed that cobbling together a spending package piece-by-piece will only exacerbate the state’s climbing deficit.
They stressed that approving state spending in a piecemeal fashion is closing the window on how to appropriately manage taxpayer dollars, and emphasized that without a balanced, sustainable budget in place to fund core services, Illinois will run out of money and these critical programs won’t be funded—or taxpayers will once again be asked to foot the bill for Democrat lawmakers’ unbridled spending. Senate Republicans once again called on their Democrat colleagues to engage in a tough discussion on how to reform state government, in order to place Illinois back on the path to fiscal solvency.