Kankakee Times

State Sen. Jason Barickman (R-Bloomington) said Republicans are willing to sit down with Gov. J.B. Pritzker to discuss and negotiate the budget plan.

Barickman told Christine Hatfield of WGLT that “rather than sit down and negotiate it,” what Pritzker “would like to do is have a public, you know, chastising of the ideas that the Republicans put forward.”

“We don't know yet if the governor is going to engage in negotiation with us again, or if he's going to push us away from those negotiations,” Barrickman said. “We think that the governor's budget proposal needs to be reined in, that the state should be spending less money, that we need to reform the way in which our state spends the money that it has.”

“Ample public hearings and budget hearings,” according to Barrickman are also opportunities to discuss the governor’s budget which includes tax increases.

“There, you will see differences of opinion, even some Democrats won't agree with all the spending that Gov. Pritzker wishes to do,” he added. “But that's why we go through this process, and this process is designed to land hopefully with a bipartisan balanced budget by the end of May. That's our goal.”

Barickman has previously said that the governor’s budget proposal is reckless.