Republican candidate for treasurer, Jim Dodge
Republican candidate for treasurer, Jim Dodge
Republican candidate for treasurer, Jim Dodge, sees the recently passed 2019 budget proposal as merely the precursor to what really has to happen.
“The good news is that this budget proposal has been adopted with bipartisan support, meaning we avoid another prolonged impasse,” Dodge told the Prairie State Wire. “Everyone knows it’s really the question of this election that will really decide what’s next for Illinois over the long term.”
Lawmakers from both chambers of the legislature recently overwhelmingly passed the $38.5 billion spending plan that already has the backing of Gov. Bruce Rauner, who signed it into law on June 4 as his re-election campaign against Democrat J.B. Pritzker kicks into high gear.
“I think everyone wanted to see more reform on taxation as part of the budget policy, but this is a workable compromise,” said Dodge, an Orland Park Republican who is running for state treasurer in November’s general election. "I would have preferred more reform along the lines of what the governor has been long talking about, but, again, that will be fought out with the election.”
Beyond that, Dodge said it’s critical that voters realize that not all the state’s deeply rooted issues can be solved in just one budget undertaking.
“All these challenges and financial hurdles [that] Illinois now faces were years in the making,” he said. “We can’t clear them all in just one budget, but this had to be done.”
Dodge added that while it’s distressing that the state now finds itself in the shape that it is in, there is one silver lining as voters head to the polls in a few more months.
“We know courses, budgets and what have you can all be modified if you have a majority in Springfield and the support of a like-minded governor committed to real and substantial change,” he said.