Illinois lawmakers are finalizing the state’s budget for the next fiscal year. But it’s not happening without some challenges.

Gov. JB Pritzker is proposing a $55.2 billion budget as watchdogs sound the alarm on the state’s projected $3.2 billion deficit.

While Republicans say the state needs to cut spending and lower taxes, Democrats are raising concerns about cuts to services they say families depend on.

Advocates have also been raising concerns about the potential impact of federal funding uncertainties as the Trump administration continues to target Illinois and Chicago for their policies.

Adam Slade, fiscal policy director at the Illinois Black Advocacy Initiative, said community-based organizations are bracing for more cuts in areas like the U.S. Department of Education, Head Start and Medicaid. He said it’s what has made this budget season so challenging for groups like his.

His group has been pushing for several things in the budget, including funding for universities and K-12 education, early child care and expanded health and human services — all of which are at stake this budget season.

“One of the big problems that we have this budget cycle is the federal uncertainty that we’re all facing,” Slade said. “Black community organizations, policy organizations all over Illinois are scrambling to try to forecast what federal money will be clawed back. We’ve already seen some of that done in particular with health and human services at the federal level, as well as the Department of Education.”

Jade Dill, budget analysis director with the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, said if federal funding is cut, Illinois wouldn’t be able to make up for it.

“You just never know with this current administration what’s going to happen,” Dill said. “So it’s kind of hard to predict fiscally what the state could incur. I don’t foresee the state being able to pick up these kinds of major cuts to federal programs.”

Pritzker faces pressure points on the local scale as well — both from Republicans who say the budget spends too much and from Democrats and advocates who say the state should raise taxes to keep services running. The state is facing the challenge of finding more revenue sources to pay for programs and services that get more expensive every year.

Dill said raising taxes — specifically expanding the state’s service tax and increasing the state income tax — would help the state address the growing deficit.

“Overall, there hasn’t been the willingness to increase taxes, and so that has kept us pretty stagnant with the revenue,” Dill said. “The state of Illinois does not tax services at the rate that our surrounding or our neighboring states do, and so we’re missing out on a lot of tax revenue that we could be getting that could help fund some of these programs, specifically pertaining to services that could definitely help be invested into our Black communities across the state.”

Ted Dabrowski, president of Wirepoints, a nonpartisan fiscal commentary website, said raising taxes wouldn’t fix the state’s deep-rooted money problems.

“There’s so much money flowing around and yet irresponsibly they can’t figure out how to manage a budget,” Dabrowski said. “Now if they want more tax hikes, that’s a big problem and it’s always the little guy that loses when these tax hikes come up. Even if we’re trying to make somebody else pay for them, if you try to make the rich pay for them, it hurts jobs and job creation. It chases wealthy people away from the state. Fewer investors and fewer wealthy people in Illinois means less investment in jobs.”

Chicago is also dealing with its own fiscal challenges, including its own $1.12 billion budget gap. Mayor Brandon Johnson went to Springfield on Wednesday to push Pritzker for more funding for transportation, homelessness and education.

While advocates worry that a lack of federal funding support will trickle down locally to Illinois’ cities, Dabrowski said state and local organizations should become less dependent on the federal government. He said he’s concerned about the lack of transparency in how money is spent and whether it improves conditions for marginalized communities.

“We need to talk about (the fact that we have) the second-highest gas taxes in the country,” Dabrowski said. “Where’s that money going? So we need to look at things where we’re just bloated in our government. A lot of that has to do with pensions, of course. Too many units of government. We have the most units of government in the country. That means lots of bureaucrats, lots of pensions, lots of big salaries. Nobody talks about that. Instead, we just keep taxing people more.”

There have already been some cuts made in the budget. When Pritzker gave his budget address, some advocates pushed back against proposed cuts to health care for some undocumented people.

Slade said while he understands the tough reality the state faces, he’s remaining optimistic as lawmakers wrap up the budget negotiations.

“Do I want to shoot for the moon, or do I want to be more realistic, or do I want to prevent catastrophic harm?” Slade said. “This is the balance that we have to think about. So I am, of course, going to advocate for shooting for the moon and getting us everything we need. But there are still priorities when we get to the dollars and cents of it all as we move forward.”

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