Davidsmeyer shares thoughts on news spending plan

By Gary Scott on April 7, 2017 at 1:02pm

A new stopgap spending plan was approved by state lawmakers yesterday as Illinois inches closer to two years without a state budget.

Democrats in the Illinois House are supporting a plan to spend $800-million dollars to help social service providers and the state’s universities survive the next several months.

WLDS-WEAI News caught up with local State Representative C.D. Davidsmeyer to get his take on the new spending plan. Davidsmeyer, a republican, says his party has been left out of the discussions thus far.

“If history shows you anything, the reality of the situation we’re in right now, if it doesn’t have the support from both parties, if it hasn’t been negotiated by both parties, it’s not going to amount to any type of spending. We weren’t asked to be involved in any of the negotiations, (Democrats) just came up with the bill. Even the people that benefit from this weren’t brought in to discuss what their needs were,” says Davidsmeyer.

Davidsmeyer believes the new spending plan will only delay an actual budget even further.

“It’s not a budget, in fact, it’ll just delay a real budget. The more we limp along with these little things, the less likely we are to have a budget. There’s a concern that we may not have a budget for the next two years…when we pass these little things, it’ll guarantee that we do not have a budget, and that’s not good enough for me,” says Davidsmeyer.

Davidsmeyer feels that, based on past years, it will require a bipartisan effort to put together any legitimate spending plan, and House Speaker Michael Madigan and Governor Bruce Rauner unable to negotiate, the next step is for Madigan to negotiate with House republicans.