(CAPITOL CITY NOW) – Over the last several years, we have heard Illinois Republicans say, we don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem.

University of Illinois Chicago political science professor David Merriman says that’s all well and good, but “if the idea is that government should be smaller, we need to be explicit about what we would like to cut. The major categories of spending in Illinois are Medicaid and K-12 education, and those are things that are difficult to cut.”

Merriman has authored a new report, Illinois’ State Expenditures: Current Condition and Future Concerns, from the university’s Institute of Government and Public Affairs.

While Merriman describes revenues and expenditures in FY 25 in Illinois “roughly balanced,” he adds revenue will be challenged to keep up with expenditures as the federal government decreases support for Medicaid. And state employee health insurance premiums are expected to rise, too.