Daily Herald opinion: The elevation of restraint: Despite political asides, Pritzker’s primary theme lays the right foundation for budget talks

Strip Gov. JB Pritzker’s budget address last week of its anti-Trump political veneer, and you get a proposal that sounds very different from the spending sprees of recent years.

Whether you agree with the governor’s description of the proposal as “responsible and balanced” may depend on your personal political leanings. The $55.2 billion plan does call for roughly 3% higher spending in Fiscal Year 2026 and is based on shaky predictions that state revenues will reach $55.5 billion.

But, especially compared with prior budgets, there is little question the governor has built restraint into his ideas for the coming fiscal year. It cannot go unnoticed that some of the strongest criticisms of the proposal itself came from within Pritzker’s own Democratic Party or that some Republican lawmakers — despite bristling at his evocation of Nazi imagery in warnings of the impact on Illinois of potential federal aid cuts by President Donald Trump and Department of Government Efficiency adviser Elon Musk — found “opportunities for collaboration in government, which is what we’d like to see more of,” in the words of Peoria Republican Rep. Ryan Spain.

Indeed, the most animus in Republicans’ response to Pritzker’s proposals seemed to focus on political, rather than structural elements. The governor’s potential national ambitions are not irrelevant, of course, but speculating about them at the expense of his central budget ideas overlooks his core message — that revenue projections cannot justify levels of spending that have dominated recent years.

“If you come to the table looking to spend more — I’m going to ask you where you want to cut,” Pritzker said. “I have made difficult decisions — including to programs I have championed, which is hard for me, just as I know some of the difficult decisions you will have to make will be hard for you.”

It can be argued that Pritzker could have gone further, to be sure. Some critics, for example, acknowledged financial prudence in his elimination of Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults programs, but complained that his plan still seeks funding for such benefits for immigrant seniors.

But Hoffman Estates Rep. Fred Crespo, one of a handful of Democrats who opposed portions of Pritzker’s current budget, was encouraged by calls to balance budget cuts against spending increases, as was Glen Ellyn Democrat Terra Costa Howard.

“It’s a positive step toward acknowledging that the accountability of programs and the programs needs to be better before we pass the law,” Costa Howard told Capitol News Illinois.

Costa Howard’s remark, like Spain’s as well, recognizes an important truth about the governor’s budget proposal. It is a beginning for discussion, not an end. Much remains to be sorted out in the months before the final document is in place by the end of May. That includes the potential, however one chooses to characterize them, for federal actions to disrupt issues affecting Illinoisans and the opportunity for leaders seeking still more restraint to make their case.

Restraint has always been a central question in the fashioning of Illinois spending plans, even more of it may be required before every stakeholder can fully share the assessment of the state’s budget as “responsible.” But it is good at least that it is a defining point of argument in this year’s debate.