State Sen. Bill Brady (R-Bloomington) offered the following statement after the Illinois' Senate Democrat majority voted to raise income taxes for Illinois citizens, and to pass an out of balance state budget.

In recent weeks, I have been encouraged by the bipartisan, good-faith negotiations going on in the Senate, and I’m proud that we were able to find compromise on issues like pension and procurement reform.

Unfortunately, rather than continuing to work together, Democrats chose to pass an unbalanced budget along with an income-tax increase. I have said for weeks that any compromise we reach has to be a good deal for the taxpayers, and that means having a balanced budget and fundamental reforms that will move Illinois forward. That’s not what happened today.

I wish we had been able to come together, and continue negotiating a comprehensive solution to address the challenges Illinois faces. As these measures move over to the Illinois House I hope that my colleagues in that chamber will choose to negotiate, in good-faith, and finish the work we started but were not allowed to complete in the Senate.