North Cook News

The stopgap budget passed by Illinois lawmakers last summer may have taken the pressure off of lawmakers for a while, but it is set to come back with a vengeance after the November election, Jessica Tucker, the Republican candidate for state House District 18 said during a recent candidates forum.

"It takes the pressure off the lawmakers and it puts the pressure on the tax payers when the bill comes due, as soon as this election is over, and the legislature reconvenes to see what they're going to do about it," Tucker said during a League of Women Voters candidates forum. "Now it looks like there'll be even more spending, deficit spending, with money we don't have."

Jessica Tucker, Republican Candidate for the state's 18th House District, speaking during a recent Wilmette, Glenview/Glencoe, Evanston and Winnetka-Northfield-Kenilworth League of Women Voters candidates forum.

Tucker made her comments during the Wilmette, Glenview/Glencoe, Evanston and Winnetka-Northfield-Kenilworth League of Women Voters candidate forum Oct. 15t, between Tucker and state House District 18 incumbent Rep. Robyn Gabel (D-Evanston).

Tucker told league members that the state has not had a real balanced budget, one without political gimmicks, since the 1980s, and that the general assembly failed in its constitutional duty when members failed to reach a balanced budget. Tucker also said reform is the way out of the state's fiscal problems.

"If we reformed Medicaid, if we reform pensions, if we look at more administrative cuts, if we reamortized our debt, we could balance our budget," Tucker said. "And so I think if we have the political will to look at our fiscal house and get our fiscal house in order, then we would be in much better shape going forward. Unfortunately, with this stopgap plan, we're going to be worse off."

Gabel, who is seeking her fourth term in the state House seat, said in her own comments that the stopgap budget was the result of an impasse between the state legislature and the office of Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's office. Gabel said there would have been widespread suffering in the state had the stopgap measure not been reached.

"I really look at people who were suffering without having a budget," Gabel said. "I was concerned about higher education, I was concerned about our schools not starting on time. I was concerned about elderly people in their homes not being able to get home health care. And I said, 'Let's at least appropriate some of the money.'"

The stopgap budget, which funded education and a very few essential services through year's end, was passed by state legislators last summer. While there had been calls for the legislature to return to session before the election, no progress in that direction ever occurred.

Gabel, who has represented Illinois' 18th stated House District since 2010, is a chair of the House Human Services Committee and vice-chair of the House Human Services Appropriations Committee. She also is a member of the House committees on Insurance, Environment, Mass Transit, Business Growth and Incentives, and Museums, Arts and Cultural Enhancements.

Before her time in the state House, Gabel was executive director of the Illinois Maternal and Child Health Coalition from 1988 to 2010.

Tucker, herself a member of the league, is an attorney and former mayor of Winnetka and first became a village trustee in 2004. She was elected to village president in 2009. She previously told the North Cook News she hadn't planned to run and she has since run a grass-roots campaign. Last week, Tucker received the Chicago Tribune's endorsement.

Illinois’ 18th District includes portions of Northbrook, Glencoe, Winnetka, Northfield, Kenilworth, Wilmette and Evanston.