Illinois Budget Talk With John Tillman of IPI [AUDIO]

Riley & I have spent a lot of time over the past few weeks discussing the Illinois budget situation and the chances for a permanent tax hike being voted into law. It's all coming to a head this week with lawmakers set to finish up on Saturday.

John Tillman is the CEO of the Illinois Policy Institute, a nonpartisan, free-market research organization. He joined us again this week to talk about the budget discussions in Springfield and the push to increase taxes in Illinois again. Despite some victories during the Spring session he believes there still could be some hurdles thrown up toward the end of the year.

We asked John what he thought of the spending plan that did clear the House earlier this week, which spends at least $300 million more than last year's budget:

It'll be one of the biggest budgets this state has ever had, so the idea of draconian cuts and "doomsday budgets" is just a lie. And what I think is so amazing about this is when people talk about "doomsday budgets" in Springfield, they never talk about the household "doomsday budgets" in Rockford...they never talk about the family's "doomsday budget" when the government takes even more money.

Here's the audio of our full conversation with John Tillman: