Prairie State Wire

Illinois' Republican members of Congress oppose a federal request by state Senate President Don Harmon (D-Oak Park) for over $41 billion as way of stabilizing the state's economy under the guise of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Chicago Tribune reports all five GOP legislators belonging to the Illinois congressional delegation have blasted the proposal a blatant attempt to wash over years of mismanagement by the democratic majority in Springfield.

“We will fight for more aid to support the state and local governments in Illinois, but your letter assumes the federal government will approve aid that is beyond this immediate crisis,” said a letter addressed to Harmon and signed by U.S. Reps. John Shimkus of Collinsville, Adam Kinzinger of Channahon, Darin LaHood of Peoria, Rodney Davis of Taylorville, and Mike Bost of Murphysboro. “We fully support federal assistance to help defray some of the state’s losses, but we oppose using the crisis as an opportunity for a full-scale bailout."

The fiery words came after Harmon penned a letter of his own to the state’s Washington delegation asking members to co-sign on his $41.6 billion federal request for state assistance, which they noted just so happens to match the $42 billion state budget Gov. J.B. Pritzker proposed roughly two months earlier.

“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 to the delegation.

In opposing the proposal, GOP members pointed out that much of the state’s debt preceded any hint of the pandemic, including the $10 million requested for the state’s long troubled and underfunded public pension system.

“This pandemic has not caused a pension crisis; it has further illuminated the one that already existed," the Republican lawmakers said. "This crisis will not convince representatives of other states to pay for pension plans that Illinois has mismanaged.”

Instead, GOP members have countered that democrats need to abandon all their tax and spend ways, starting with the progressive tax proposal Pritzker has proposed that will be on the ballot in November in the form of a referendum.