PEORIA (25News Now) – State senators came to Peoria on Tuesday to speak to city leaders about challenges regarding to business, budget, and growth in Illinois.

The luncheon was hosted at the Pere Marquette hotel by the Peoria Chamber of Commerce. A major talking point was the almost $55 billion state budget signed earlier this year and how lawmakers can ensure continued and sustainable growth without burdening taxpayers.

State Chief Budgetee and Democratic Senator Elgie Sims (D-Chicago) said the high budget amount is an investment in the state’s future, making sure that Illinois is a competitive destination for people to live and visit.

“The reason our economy has topped one trillion dollars is because we made those investments,” Sims said. “We focused on having an economy that’s future focused, not just the Illinois that we are today, but the one we’re going to become tomorrow.”

Senate Minority Leader and Republican John Curran (R-Downers Grove) said Illinois has historically experienced budget challenges. He said he believes taxing more to support the state’s recent spending arc will not help increase growth.

“[State] GPD has gone up five percent since 2019, and nationally the average is 15%,” Curran said. “That’s where Illinois ultimately has to get more competitive. You’re not going to do that through increased state spending and the taxes it will reacquire to support that increased spending.”

Another major topic of discussion was the state housing crisis. A recent study from The Illinois Economic Policy Institute reports that the state needs about 140,000 housing units per year to address the need.

Sims said low wages aren’t helping the issue.

“You are talking about million dollar homes in an area where folks used to live that they could afford,” he said. “We’ve got to recognize that this is a challenge, and we’re pushing people out of their communities.”

Curran said increasing costs for developers in Illinois are preventing enough new housing from being built.

“As policymakers, if we want more units developed we have to make sure we’re not putting more burden on developers because they’re just going look to another state,” he said.

Curran also said he believes seniors holding onto cheaper mortgages are not leaving their homes and downsizing, creating a stagnant housing market.

“When they’re looking at the senior housing options that are being built right now, they’re quite expensive. They’re expensive because of high impact fees and entitlement costs,” he said. “Yes the developers are business people, and they’re going to want to pursue the highest profit model, but it is difficult to have, without intervention by the state, affordable new senior housing.”

The two senators did agree that DEI is important in providing equal opportunity, especially when it comes to business development.

“When you think about over the last 10 years, the top 1% of wage earners have seen their wealth increase by 145%, but the bottom 90% have only seen their wages increase about 16%,” Sims said. “The focus has not been on making sure that everyone has the opportunity to have a seat at the table, but instead making sure that the same folks are receiving the opportunities over and over again. We need more folks at the table making sure that we’re facing those issues head-on.”

“Why is there success here? Why are we not achieving success at a statewide level,” Curran said. “I think it’s probably something we need to take a very close look at and adjust, but ultimately at the end of the day we’re trying to make sure we have a fair, competitive, competent playing field for all business to succeed in Illinois.”

Right now, Illinois’ goal is to have at least 30% of state contract dollars awarded to business owned by minorities, females, and persons with disabilities; however, the state is only at 13%.

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