Senator Connelly: Governor has no good reason to delay budget address

SPRINGFIELD – Gov. Pat Quinn is playing politics with Illinois finances, asking lawmakers to delay his annual budget address until the week after the March 18 primary election, according to State Sen. Michael Connelly (R-Naperville).
    Lawmakers are in Springfield this week mainly to vote on Senate Bill 1227, which moves the date of the Governor’s Budget Address from February 19 to March 26.
    “Governor Quinn has no good reason, governmental or procedural, to delay his budget address by five weeks. He has known for a year that his budget address was scheduled for February 19,” Connelly said. “This is a very important budget year, which will require careful analysis and difficult decisions, as the ‘temporary’ income tax is scheduled to be reduced in the middle of Fiscal Year 2015. Yet, the Governor is effectively cutting the public debate period in half.”
Connelly said by delaying the budget address until after the March 18 primary, Quinn will know who the Republican candidate for Governor will be when he gives the speech.
    “Why else would he ask for a delay? In his State of the State address just a week ago, he said Illinois is ‘making a comeback.’ On what figures did he base that assessment, and what has changed in the ensuing week? The answer is ‘nothing.’ Nothing has changed since Pat Quinn’s rosy State of the State assessment,” he said. “Nothing has happened to justify such a delay in presenting his budget address – the longest since 2003 when Rod Blagojevich moved it back to April 9 in his first year in office.”
Illinois lawmakers have in the past supported moving the budget address under specific circumstances, such as when a new Governor has taken office and needs more time to assess the state’s fiscal status. Connelly said this courtesy was extended to Gov. Quinn when Rod Blagojevich was removed from office.
    Senate Bill 1227 was passed by a 62-48 vote of the House of Representatives on Feb. 4 and by a 37-15 vote of the Senate on Feb. 5.