Pritzker said the failure of his graduated-rate income tax would leave Illinois with two options. He’s eliminated both of them.

“It’s also reflective of the fact that the economy in Illinois has actually done better than people have expected, and businesses are up and running,” he said. “We’ve lost fewer jobs anyway than people expected, and the result of all that is more revenue to the states. The combination of the cuts that we proposed, the fact that we have a flat budget to last year and the fact that the economy has done better is what’s allowing us to balance the budget.”