On a day when Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner vetoed a bill that would have provided $721.5 million to community colleges and financial aid to low-income students, Quad-City community and educational representatives gathered at Western Illinois University-Quad-Cities in Moline to demand immediate funding for education.
Advertisement
“[The bill] would explode the State’s budget deficit, exacerbate the State’s cash flow crisis, and place further strain on social service providers and recipients who are already suffering from the State’s deficit spending”, Rauner said in a statement.
IL is nearing the end of its eighth month without any state budget.
Higher education, as well as certain social services, are taking the brunt of the impasse.
Rauner vetoed legislation Friday that also gets money to community colleges… but which leaves out public universities. They’ve gone that entire time without dollars they’ve counted on from the state.
Earlier this week, Rauner’s budget address drew students from colleges across the state, including Chicago State University, a school in danger of closing.
“It’s very tragic situation, it’s very upsetting to me, it’s a failure of the government process that this is occurring”, Rauner said.
“I know I won’t see some of those students again if the state doesn’t finance the MAP grants”, Moreno, of East Moline, said after the event.
While the 67 votes are enough to move the bill to the Illinois Senate, they will fall short of the 71 needed to override the governor’s veto.
The bill passed in late-January without any Republican support.
A Republican measure would provide $1.6 billion for grants, community colleges and four-year universities.
Advertisement
Rauner and GOP legislative leaders say HB 2043, without funding, was a hollow promise, even a hoax on taxpayers.
