According to apress releasefrom the office of the governor, the Illinois General Assembly passed Governor JB Pritzker’s eighth consecutive balanced budget, totaling $55.9 billion for Fiscal Year 2027. The plan focuses on making Illinois more affordable for working families, fully funding the state’s pension obligations, and investing in education, all while keeping discretionary spending increases below 1%.
Senate President Don Harmon (D-Oak Park) praised the budget, calling it a choice for “stability, responsibility and compassion” amid economic uncertainty and federal spending cuts. He said the plan supports working families, protects access to hospitals and health care, provides more than $300 million in new funding for public education, and includes a sales tax-free shopping holiday for parents, while avoiding increases in the state income tax or sales tax.
Similar to many Democratic spending claims, it includes terms such as “protects access to hospitals and health care.” Of course, no one was denying anyone access to hospitals. Hospitals are open, they remain open, and no one was being denied entry. Ostensibly, this is code for taxpayer-funded welfare programs continuing.
It is also telling that Democrats often refer tofederal spending cutsas irresponsible. Just as Democrats become angry about the termination of temporary programs, such as the temporaryfree lunch programor temporary protections under DACA, once money has been spent or a particular policy has been put in place, they argue that it must continue indefinitely.
Pritzker claims that although he is reducing government revenue through tax cuts and increasing government spending through expanded social-benefit programs, he has produceda balanced budget. His office frames this as “fiscal discipline,” but a quick review of the state’s books shows that while he cut taxes in some areas, he increased them in others. The state continues to carry both massive debt and a deficit. Additionally, state pension contributions are structured under a ramp formula that underfunds what actuaries actually require.
A “balanced budget” in state government parlance means only that projected revenues equal projected expenditures for that fiscal year, an annual operating measure, not a gauge of overall fiscal health. Illinois is constitutionally required to pass a balanced budget each year, so the claim is partly definitional. It says nothing about accumulated obligations.
On revenue, the picture is mixed. Pritzker eliminated the1% state grocery taxeffective January 2026 and expanded a child tax credit, but simultaneously required$1.1 billion in new taxesin FY2025 through corporate tax changes, sports wagering levies, and limits on business loss deductions. The net effect has been higher overall revenue extraction.
General Funds revenuestotaled $53.998 billion in FY2025, and the legislature’s nonpartisanCommission on Government Forecasting and Accountability(COGFA) projects FY2027 revenues at $55.5 billion, $550 million below the governor’s own estimate of $56.05 billion, a gap that is itself a point of dispute.
On spending, thestate budgetexpanded from roughly $35.4 billion in FY2015 to $53.07 billion in FY2025 — a 30%-plus increase. The FY2027 proposal totals $56.03 billion, leaving a nominal surplus of just $24 million against the governor’s revenue estimate. Of that spending,roughly 64%is fixed or nondiscretionary, pensions, debt service, Medicaid, and education mandates, before lawmakers spend a dollar on discretionary programs.
The deficit picture depends on whose revenue numbers are used. Under the governor’s figures, FY2026 produces asurplus of $75 million. Under COGFA’s independent projections, the same budget produces a$673 million deficit.
Source: The Gateway Pundit
