(The Center Square) – Illinois lawmakers have introduced legislation that calls for transparency in government spending on non-citizen residents.
Republican state Sens. John Curran, R-Downers Grove, Li Arellano, R-Dixon, and Craig Wilcox, R-Woodstock, sponsored Senate Bill 1699, which was filed this week. The measure would require an annual report to the General Assembly detailing all state spending on non-citizen populations.
State Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Cherry Valley, said Gov. J.B. Pritzker promised to make Illinois the most welcoming state in the nation for non-citizens.
“Now the bill for that promise is coming due, and Illinois taxpayers are asked to pick up the bill,” Syverson said.
Syverson said lawmakers and taxpayers are being kept in the dark about how much is really being spent on non-citizen programs.
“There’s been a clear urgency the last few years to ensure that non-citizen programs get fully funded, but where is that same concern for issues that are impacting Illinois’ working families?” Syverson asked.
With the governor’s budget address just two weeks away, Syverson said the new spending plan must not include more taxes or fee increases, but it must include more transparency.
Syverson said the state is facing a budget hole of up to $3.5 billion fueled by years of bad spending decisions by the governor and majority Democrats at the Illinois Statehouse. Syverson said taxpayers have been asked to pay more than $1 billion on non-citizen residents, and much of the spending has fallen under repeated emergency declarations by the governor.
The governor made his 30th such emergency declaration last Friday, Syverson noted.
Arellano said Pritzker has bypassed the legislature with emergency declarations.
“How much taxpayer money has been spent on housing, on healthcare and education for this population?” Arellano asked.
As the former mayor of Dixon, Illinois, Arellano said he knows what a lack of transparency in government can do.
“Governor Pritzker has done an endless series of disaster proclamations. It’s created an environment where billions of taxpayer dollars can be shifted around without meaningful oversight, and no one knows for sure where it is going,” Arellano said.
State Sen. Jill Tracy, R-Quincy, said the people of Illinois deserve to know how much of their money is being spent on Pritzker’s non-citizen welfare programs. Tracy said Pritzker has used executive power and transfer authority to move funds without transparency or accountability.
“Leaving lawmakers out of these decisions is ignoring the voice of Illinoisans,” Tracy said.
