Democrats think the governor’s budget address was lacking while Republicans thought the governor knocked it out of the park.

Democratic Senator Toi Hutchinson says Governor Bruce Rauner’s second budget address had a more positive tone and she’s hopeful there will be true negotiations, but says there were some things lacking from the speech.

Hutchinson also says there are some fundamental philosophical differences Democrats must iron out with Rauner and the Republicans. However, Republican Senator Kyle McCarter says the governor provided the best approach to fixing Illinois’s budget problems by reforming the state’s business climate.

McCarter echoed the governor’s call for reforms to workers’ comp, tort law, and less regulations as a way to increase the tax base through economic growth.

In other State news, the Illinois Chamber of Commerce says reforms to workers’ comp, among other reforms, could help stem mass layoff in the Land of Lincoln.

The Chamber made the plea after the most recent mass layoff report from the Illinois Department of Employment Security. The Illinois Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, Act report for January has a dozen businesses reporting more than 1,100 layoffs combined over the next few months. Illinois Chamber of Commerce CEO and President Todd Maisch (MY-shh) says he can’t speak for each business, but says some mass layoff could be avoided by cutting employer costs from workers’ comp.

Speaker Michael Madigan said there are pending reforms to Illinois’ workers comp, but only focusing on regulating rates, not addressing so-called causation. Meanwhile the Chamber says there needs to be pro-investment tax incentives for small businesses.