Democrats, upon the bill’s passage, said in times of economic crisis, government needs to continue to spend instead of balancing the budget on the backs of the less fortunate.

Pritzker echoed the argument Sunday.

“There was a strong look at, you know, what could be cut,” Pritzker said. “Remember, though, this was all in the frame of a vastly increased need by families, workers, individuals all across the state.”

Republicans, however, called the budget balanced only on “a wing and a prayer.”

In House debate Saturday, Rep. Tom Demmer, R-Dixon, the GOP’s chief budget negotiator in the House, said there were billions of dollars, including some from the federal CARES Act, to be spent at Pritzker’s discretion with only limited guidance included in the budget.

“The ability for an administration to engage in emergency rulemaking and have control of more than $7 billion of state funds, with only broad strokes, broad umbrellas of programs and allocations for those dollars, I think should give members of this body pause,” Demmer said.

Rep. Gregory Harris, D-Chicago, said during debate the fact that the Legislature passed a full budget instead of a lump sum appropriation showed that it was exercising more oversight than other states were doing for their governors.