Rep. Norine Hammond - Rep. Hammond votes against largest budget in state history

Five days after the General Assembly was scheduled to adjourn its spring session, the Illinois House finally passed a State Budget for Fiscal Year 2025 early Wednesday morning.

The partisan-crafted $53.1 billion budget passed by Illinois Democrats is the largest spending plan in state history. The new State budget is over $13 billion more than the $40 billion budget passed during Governor JB Pritzker’s first year in office (2019) and is $400 million more than what the Governor himself proposed back in February.

Deputy Republican Leader Norine Hammond (R-Macomb), the chief budgeteer for the House Republican Caucus, voted against the record-high State budget and criticized the tax hikes and bloated spending contained within the Democrats’ plan.

Attached is the audio from Leader Hammond’s floor speech during debate.