Just a few short months ago, the general assembly was in turmoil after former, ousted Governor Rod Blagojevich was under fire for trying to sell president Barack's Obama's replacement seat in the U.S. senate. But Blagojevich also left behind a crumbling state budget. Some lawmakers we talked to believe his address was a step in the right direction, while others aren't all too impressed.

"I'm glad to see that he's come up with ways to try and balance the budget," said Illinois Senator John Sullivan.

"I enjoyed listening to the governor's speech today. The message was pretty much the same. We have a financial problem in the state of illinois. We need to find some additional revenue to meet expenses," said State Representative Rich Myers.

"I was disappointed because the rhetoric he gave sounded really good, but I had a chance to looks at an analysis and look over figures, it's going to greatly impact the middle class families, and middle class people maybe without children and state workers," State Representative Jil Tracy said.

Governor Quinn also addressed the under funded public pension systems, which he wants to reform by restructuring, but lawmakers find fault with that.

Rep. Myers," When you talk about revenue, when you add up everything that's in his budget, that's about $7 billion. We still have problems. We're not paying about $2.8 billion the next 10 years of our obligations to the pension plan."

Alexis: Do you think this proposal leaves some people out?

Sen Sullivan,"There's a lot in that budget that members of the general assembly and the public can find fault with...It's gonna take some difficult choices and pain from many people to get this state upright."

Governor Quinn also wants to increase the cigarette tax by a $1 over 2 years. He's proposing a 10 day sales tax holiday in August, when many families are shopping for back-to-school items and clothes.

The governor also wants to form a Taxpayer Action Board to root out waste and inefficiency in government.