Kankakee Times

Disappointed that Gov. J.B. Pritzker did not remove the salary increases for lawmakers in the omnibus appropriation bill for the fiscal year 2022, state Sen. Jason Barickman (R-Bloomington) was consistent in opposing Senate Bill 2800.

He called out the governor for wasting his powers.

“You could have used your veto authority here and taken care of, not only the pork that sits in the budget, but those pay raises that you all even said you don’t want, supposedly,” Barickman said. “The governor could’ve used his amendatory veto and struck those pay raises right out of here. He could have stood up for Illinoisans and said 'you know what. I'm for you, the people,' but yet again the governor caved to the political class to help out the majority who passed a budget in the middle of the night. It was so wrecked and damaged that we evidently had to come back and fix it. I urge a no vote.”

Barickman, who also previously called out lawmakers for playing politics, sought transparency.

“Let’s be clear about what’s going on here,” he said. “This side of the aisle has said on countless occasions that the manner in which complex and controversial legislation is passed need not be done in the way that it's being done these days. We have a legislative process that is designed to give transparency and allow people to have input in that process, but instead of embracing this ... what we see is a continuous desire to operate through an expeditious process in the dark of the night without any transparency that results in things like this. Chaos.”

Barickman accused Pritzker to have once again failed the public. It was the governor’s "chance to impress upon Illinoisans that he was different."

“It's important to note that it need not be this way. What does it say about the legislature and about the majority that while countless people were sleeping in the state you rushed through a $42 billion budget so fatally flawed that you had to use a procedural mechanism that even speaker Madigan wouldn't use to rescue it?” he said. “And even further, what does it say about the governor? You told all those voters 'don't worry guys and gals I'll be different. I'll be a reformer. I'll stand up to the shows and the charades and the political class and the status quo.'”

To fix what Barickman called the bill's flaws, Pritzker had recommended “replacing the effective date provisions of the bill, which did not specify effective dates for certain appropriations, with provisions giving supplemental appropriations an immediate effective date and FY22 appropriations a July 1, 2021 effective date.”

The governor said that if both chambers would concur to his amendatory veto, Senate Bill 2800 would have his approval.

The bill passed the Senate by a 36-21vote.