Illinois’ budget crisis remains to be a broken-record story as it’s now been two years since the state last had a balanced budget.
But there are other headlines emerging from the Capitol. The Illinois House yesterday passed a bill pertaining to abortion rights, ensuring that state law allows the procedure even if Roe-v-Wade is ever overturned.
Local State Representative C.D. Davidsmeyer shared his thoughts on a number of issues on WLDS’ AM Conversation today, including the abortion bill.
Davidsmeyer says he concerned about the financial aspect of the bill.
“The reality is that’s going to add an additional sixty million dollars to our budget that we don’t have already. Whether you’re pro-choice or pro-life, the reality is it costs money. How do we add more costs to the budget when we can’t fund the important things that we already have? It defies logic once again,” says Davidsmeyer.
Davidsmeyer also discussed Governor Rauner’s proposal to put caps on property taxes. Davidsmeyer explains how the issue relates to school funding and impacts local governments.
“As far property taxes go, I don’t want to pay any more property taxes, I totally understand that. But if the state isn’t willing to fund schools the way they’re supposed to be funded, we have to allow local governments the ability to make up for the shortfall. You can’t freeze property taxes while at the same time not provide the funding we need to provide a good education for our kids,” Davidsmeyer says.
As for the future of a balanced budget, Davidsmeyer says it’s disappointing that some representatives will serve entire terms without a state budget.