Pritzker Says Illinois Is 'On Guard' for Any Trump Hit to Budget

Source: Yahoo! News/Bloomberg

Wed, January 8, 2025 at 6:24 PM EST


(Bloomberg) -- Illinois Governor JB Pritzker on Wednesday said his administration is preparing for potential budget hits from the incoming Trump administration, following a similar warning from California’s Gavin Newsom earlier this week.

Pritzker, a second-term governor, is expected to propose a spending plan for the year starting July 1 in just over a month, and his budget office’s five-year analysis is projecting a deficit of about $3 billion for fiscal 2026. Pritzker described the upcoming budget as “challenging” but added that since taking office, he’s addressed a number of fiscal crises in Illinois.

“We are doing the best that we can to try to predict the things that might happen,” Pritzker told reporters in Springfield, the state capital, on Wednesday. He said he’s weighing the possibility that potential changes “will create another hole in the budget,” adding that President Donald Trump’s actions are “so unpredictable.”

The billionaire Democrat said he’s concerned about whether changes may be made to Medicaid and what impact the Department of Government Efficiency may have on the electric vehicle industry, which he has sought to expand in Illinois. Electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc.’s co-founder Elon Musk is one of the two heads of the new department created by Trump. “We are all going to have to be on guard,” Pritzker said.

Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/pritzker-says-illinois-guard-trump-232442909.html