At a public event held Tuesday in Marion, Gov. Bruce Rauner was excited to brief state employees on the new fiscal year 2019 budget.
While the budget marks a breakthrough in political gridlock, there is still work to be done to address Illinois' troubled finances, including a pension liability of $201 billion from fiscal year 2016.
Rauner's opponent, venture capitalist J.B. Pritzker, has advocated temporarily raising taxes to help boost the budget.
But Rauner remains firm in his position that the solution is to broaden the tax base rather than raise rates for Illinoisans.
"If we raise the income tax on you and everybody else, people just leave. Business owners just leave. Texas doesn't even have an income tax. Tennessee doesn't have an income tax. Indiana just cut their income tax, Iowa just cut their income tax. We can't have Illinois going the other way. We raise our taxes here, you watch, we've been losing people now, you watch what happens."
