Illinois Republicans have been saying ever since a state budget deal was announced by the majority Democrats that not enough money was appropriated for fiscal year 2024 to pay for the new AFSCME Council 31 employee union contract. Some have even predicted that the contract plus other spending pressures, including health care for undocumented immigrants, will eventually lead to a tax hike.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker said in June, weeks before the contract was finalized, that the GOP claim was “one of those false things that Republicans like to say about the budget.” In fact, he said, “We built in what we thought might be the appropriate amount of money for what we expect from that AFSCME negotiation.”
