A day after Gov. Bruce Rauner said the state would have had a budget in place many weeks ago if not for the obstruction of House Speaker Michael Madigan, the Democratic leader of the Illinois Senate provided a starkly different perspective.
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In a Wednesday morning news conference, Cullerton said Rauner needs to send them a spending plan or risk another downgrading of Iliinois’ bond rating, which is already among the lowest in the country.
“President Cullerton made clear today that his view of a balanced budget is a budget that makes no spending reforms, no pension reform and only raises taxes”, said Rauner spokesman Lance Trover. She says there can’t be a “reset” on the budget if Democrats haven’t “moved an inch”.
He says it’s up to Rauner to decide how he thinks the rest of the money should be spent. The Democrat says many of Rauner’s proposed agenda items are “extreme”.
Senate President John Cullerton has offered bills that approach some of Governor Rauner’s priorities – like freezing property taxes. Cullerton said the newly-elected, political neophyte does not understand Illinois government: “This is a super majority of Democrats and a bunch of pro-union Republicans in this state”, Cullerton said. Neither Rauner nor the Democrats who control the General Assembly have presented a balanced spending plan to account for a projected $4 billion revenue shortfall.
But Cullerton dismissed that notion at a Chicago news conference Wednesday, saying Rauner isn’t negotiating with him. On Tuesday, Rauner told reporters that if he and Cullerton could negotiate a deal on their own, “we would have this done”. “The budget piece of this is the easy part of the problem”.
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Asked about that Wednesday, Cullerton said: “I don’t know what he’s talking about”.
