Senator Don Harmon, an Oak Park Democrat and president pro tempore of the Illinois Senate, issued the following statement regarding today’s Senate vote to advance a balanced budget proposal and establish desperately needed fiscal stability in Illinois:

“Gov. Rauner often brags about how he’s causing a crisis to create “opportunity.” What he’s really doing is inflicting pain every day on the good, hard-working people of Illinois who eventually have to pay for the cost of his mismanagement.

“Today, Senate Democrats passed a balanced, responsible, full-year budget that offers stability and attempts to blunt the pain of Gov. Rauner’s hostage-taking. We cut $3 billion in government spending and added no new programs – because that’s the right thing to do when asking taxpayers to kick in a little more.

“Having witnessed last week that Republicans won’t even support their own budget plan, Democrats put forth a budget that better reflects our priorities and those of our constituents, including health care for the poor, funding for public schools and universities, tax credits for the working poor and for teachers, and vital services for those who need our help the most.

“And because we also passed a series of good-government reforms – including my government purchasing reform bill, a government consolidation bill and a term limit rule for Senate leadership –this is a budget Gov. Rauner should be able to sign into law when it gets to his desk.

“I look forward to the day when we can move on to addressing other important matters facing state government and put this ugly chapter in Illinois history behind us.”