A local lawmaker has mixed reviews about the Illinois budget that was agreed to this week.

State Senator Sally Turner applauds the Republican budgeteers for advocating and getting some of the things they wanted in the budget but there were still some things absent that conservatives hoped for.

There was a line item in the budget from the settlement with the drug manufacturers filed by the Attorney's General office. The Lincoln Republican is weary of that line item because it gives the State the power to spend however they want.

That agreement was hammered out during House Democrats’ roughly four-hour caucus meeting Thursday afternoon, which concluded at about the same time the budget amendments were filed. 

If all goes according to that plan, the chambers will have approved a spending plan that’s substantially similar to the one Pritzker proposed in February – only with about $1 billion in additional spending. That’s despite April revenues plummeting more than $1.8 billion from one year ago.