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Local senators react to the chamber passing a new budget

Terri Bryant
ilga.gov
Sen. Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro)

The Illinois Senate has passed a more than $50 billion new state budget.

The spending plan is for the fiscal year that begins July first and passed along party lines.

Republican State Senator Terri Bryant from Murphysboro is critical of much of the new state budget approved by the chamber.

She says instead of providing Illinois' developmentally disabled communities with the funding they need, democrats chose to spend over a hundred million dollars on immigrant welcome centers and hundreds of millions of dollars for their totally free undocumented immigrant healthcare program.

"By taking 120 souls from Choate Mental Health and moving them to a different facility, a place they didn't want to go, sometimes as much as 50-60 miles away from their homes because the money wasn't set aside to fix the problems that were at that facility."

State Senator Dale Fowler of Harrisburg says he appreciates money budgeted to help food deserts across the state, but the democrats missed the mark in fully funding Illinois' developmentally disabled community and bringing much needed relief to working families suffering from high inflation costs.

"You laugh at people when they say they want to get away from Illinois, you pretend like you don't understand it, this budget should freaking explain it as perfectly as it needs to be explained," said Sen. Jason Plummer (R-Edwardsville). "Your priorities are very transparent in this budget. Your unwillingness to work with us is apparent in this budget process."

The House will consider the budget next.

As a news producer and news anchor on All Things Considered, Brad provides the listeners with a recap of the day's top local and state news as well as breaking news at any given time. Contact WSIU Radio at 618-453-6101 or email wsiunews@wsiu.org
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