IL

Tom Jones: Pritzker and his party will insist, from the taxpayers in all 50 states, on a bailout - reflecting years of overspending, by blaming much of Illinois' fiscal ills on the coronavirus. This issue will have to be resolved between Pritzker, Congress, and the Trump Asministration before Pritzker returns Illinois to some level of post-virus normalcy. He will be holding Illinoisans "hostage" - while other states re-open business - until the feds cooperate. As one can see clearly, Pritzker and his cohorts embrace a philosophy of socialism - communism.

SPRINGFIELD — Democratic Illinois Senate President Don Harmon is asking federal lawmakers to provide more than $41 billion to the state as part of the next coronavirus relief package, including $10 billion to stabilize a massively underfunded pension system.

“I realize I’ve asked for a lot, but this is an unprecedented situation, and we face the reality that there likely will be additional, unanticipated costs that could result in future requests for assistance,” Harmon wrote in a Tuesday letter to members of the state’s congressional delegation.

With the nation’s economy largely shuttered, the pandemic’s effects on state budgets has been huge. Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker forecast a $2.7 billion shortfall in state tax revenues for the budget year that ends June 30 and as much as $7.4 billion in revenue for the year that starts July 1 if voters do not enact a graduated-rate income tax system. That question is on the November ballot.

Harmon’s request of more than $41.6 billion in direct federal assistance is roughly the equivalent of the $42 billion budget Pritzker proposed in February, prior to the effects of the pandemic on Illinois and the nation.