Hammond Rejects Plan to Increase Spending, Borrow $5 Billion
Illinois' financial predicament is news to no one. In the face of COVID-19, it wasn't hard to see that state tax revenues would decrease in the final 9 months of calendar 2020. One would expect any financially responsible entity to tighten its belt and find a way to deliver to stakeholders without increasing spending.
That's not what the State of Illinois did. Madigan and Pritzker pushed through a budget that INCREASED spending by $2.2 billion and included $5 billion of new borrowing. This was in May of 2020, well after the impact of COVID-19 was known to lawmakers.
Rep. Norine Hammond was a leading voice against adding to the state debt. Hammond voted against the spending spree, while advocating for essential state services to be a priority in any reasonable budget proposal.
This follows in Hammond's track record of balancing the best interests of her district with the efficient delivery of state services. Hammond stood for the people of her District and other rural parts of the state in voting against the hike in gas taxes in 2019 and increased license fees in the same year.
Meanwhile, Hammond's opponent has accepted over $100,000 in campaign funds from embattled Speaker Mike Madigan, using those funds to express his support for Madigan's bloated budget. This highlights the clear choice that voters have in the 2020 election. Hammond represents a voice of fiscal sanity while her opponent has cemented his position as a "yes" vote for Madigan's plans to further burden future generations with financial peril.