Suburban lawmakers sound off on Quinn’s budget

Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget proposal Wednesday was followed by an outpouring of reaction from lawmakers who will now start reviewing the plan — and changing it — before a final budget is approved. Here’s what some suburban lawmakers had to say.

“The problem we have here is he is spending 5 percent more next year than this year. What we’re seeing is more spending, more borrowing and we already have the higher taxes.”

— Sen. Matt Murphy, a Palatine Republican

“Springfield needs to understand generally accepted accounting principles, and I don’t think we do. You can’t treat borrowing as income or revenue. You cannot pay vendors with that and treat that as reduction of expenses.”

— Rep. Fred Crespo, a Hoffman Estates Democrat

“I want to be positive in one respect. I think his focus and interest in the jobs on innovation and technology is going in the right direction ... but we got into this mess because we spent money we didn’t have and it’s just a continuation. It’s the same old song.”

— House Republican Leader Tom Cross of Oswego

“I’d like there to be more focus on the cuts and efficiencies where we can find them, especially in education … His speech was very well planned and thought out and I appreciate it, but there is a lot of work to be done by the General Assembly.”

— Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia, an Aurora Republican

“I really commend him for taking a very conservative approach. ... Our focus this year has to be well thought out budget cuts.”

-Sen. Michael Noland, an Elgin Democrat

“There’s no way to get out of this hole without making real cuts to programs.”

— Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno of Lemont.

“Right now, it’s very important to make decisions based on programs that are making an impact.”

— Sen. Dan Kotowski, a Park Ridge Democrat

“I’m always encouraged when I hear anything about making some cuts. ... I want to see what happens as time goes on.”

— Sen. Suzi Schmidt, a Lake Villa Republican

“The only way we are going to get out of this is by combining an aggressive plan to create jobs with further spending cuts that eliminate waste. We owe it to the members of our community to hold the line on spending, further cut spending inefficiencies and pay our backlog of unpaid bills.”

— Sen. Linda Holmes, an Aurora Democrat

“Unfortunately, the vast majority of the speech was on how we’re going to spend money not how we’re going to save money ... Overall, a disappointing day but a few notes of optimism and some encouraging signs.”

— Rep. Chris Nybo, an Elmhurst Republican

“It has to be a priority this year to make sure that no new spending is incorporated in our budget, and that there are no new programs created. The only way that we can move toward economic recovery is to be responsible for what already exists.”

— Sen. Terry Link, a Waukegan Democrat

“I like his thoughts on investment and business, but it’s a little contradictory because he just raised taxes on them. ... It just sounded like a lot of rhetoric with bright ideas, but let’s put the pencil to the pad and get some work done.”

— Rep. Randy Ramey, a Carol Stream Republican