Springfield...On May 15th State Representative Josh Harms and fellow Republicans in the House of Representatives fought against over 70 new bills proposed by the majority party that expanded state budget expenditures beyond the agreed upon revenue estimate. With about $3 billion being spent over the initial balanced agreement of $34.495 billion, the new proposed budget indicates that the tax increase of 2011 will continue in order to satisfy the majority party's need to overspend taxpayer money.

Representative Harms said, "This budget is clearly unconstitutional, as it is a clear violation of our State's balanced budget requirement. It includes an apparent tax increase we've yet to hear about because these unbalanced, unconstitutional numbers will need funding somehow. There are unprotected lump sums of taxpayer money riddled throughout these budget bills. Do we really want to give the Quinn administration another political slush fund? Have we learned nothing from the Neighborhood Recovery Initiative scandal?"

The entire Republican House caucus is asking interested constituents to sign their petition, found at member websites (www.repharms.org), to eliminate the tax increase of 2011, and thereby urge the majority party to adhere to Illinois' constitutional right for a well-balanced budget.