“I was sent to Springfield to fix our problems, not to make them worse.”
SPRINGFIELD, IL…Assistant Minority Leader Norine K. Hammond (R-Macomb) released the following statement explaining her vote on Senate Bill 9:
“By voting today we’re protecting the disabled and senior citizens who are on Medicaid. We’re providing meals to senior citizens. We’re ensuring the public schools open on time. We’re ensuring necessary funds to improving infrastructure. We’re providing our local communities the money that they’re owed. We’re saving Western Illinois University and our local community colleges. We are ensuring the State of Illinois has a balanced budget.
Illinois is within days, if not hours, of earning junk bond status by New York bond houses that determine the rate of interest we pay on bonding. That rate affects all of us and inhibits our ability to refinance debt and dig ourselves out of this mess. We are currently paying $20 million in interest every day on $14 billion of unpaid bills. Those bills and the interest owed will grow to $24 billion in less than a year if we do nothing.
I was sent to Springfield to fix our problems, not to make them worse. My vote today was to keep the State of Illinois out of financial ruin. Nobody wants to take hard votes, but families in West-Central Illinois sent me here to get our State back on track.
This is a balanced budget that spends $2.5 billion less than what we’re currently spending. I took the hard vote today to save our state.
Our work, however, is far from finished. Our vote today was only the first step of many required in order to put our state on a path toward prosperity. I pledge to the citizens of the 93rd District to continue to work with my colleagues in the House on crucial reforms that are paramount to ensuring Illinois thrives for generations to come.”
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