By Haley Kosik/WJEZ News
As July 1 is right around the corner, for the fiscal year of 2016, the state budget hasn’t been decided.
According to State Representative Tom Bennett (R- Gibson City), this has, and will continue to cause issues to the people of Illinois.
Bennett said there are some major dates coming up and people need answers to go through with what they need to do and plan, otherwise if we have a budget, people won’t get paid.
The longer we go without a budget, more and more people will be impacted, said Bennett, and it’s not what he wants.
Bennett said currently, Springfield is at an indecisive halt. Gov. Bruce Rauner wants a $32 billion budget while House Speaker Michael Madigan wants a $36 billion budget. Rauner would like to see reforms and change, while House Speaker Michael Madigan wants everything to stay the same and to just bring in more taxes and revenues.
“Here in the state of Illinois, we have $32 billion that we cannot manage. We need to find a better way to improve things,” said Bennett.
Bennett explained we need to create a more economic-friendly environment to see growth in Illinois, the way we haven’t seen it grow in a while.
Not all is negative though – Bennett mentioned many good things happening. There are about 4,000 – 6,000 bills in the General Assembly, that in which 500 were sent to Rauner. He hasn’t received them yet, but when he does, he’ll have 60 days to sign them.
“I’m still hopeful, we still are going to keep fighting for what we need to be doing. We don’t have a solution yet, but we got to agree on at least one thing on what number to start from and then we’ll go from there. We are all Illinoisans and we are all impacted by this and we will be impacted by this whatever comes out of this,” said Bennett.
Bennett is appreciative all the conversation people have shared. He encourages people to stop by, or call his office locations in Watseka, Pontiac, or Springfield. He said he’d love to hear what’s on peoples’ minds.
Bennett said, “We are all Illinoisans and we are all impacted by this and we will be impacted by this, whatever comes out of this.”
