A crowd of guests returned to the Illinois State Museum on Thursday night to celebrate a special occasion.
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IL lawmakers come up with a plan to keep schools open for at least another year.
IL schools will receive $500 million more than they did a year ago and as for social services, the plan allows for $673 million to be distributed to them.
IL has been struggling to find a way to ease its $111 billion unfunded pension liability in the wake of a 2015 state supreme court ruling that public sector worker retirement benefits are constitutionally protected and can not be reduced.
IL has a six-month spending plan in place, but lawmakers and Gov. Bruce Rauner want to reach a “grand compromise” this fall. It’s hard to say what could have happened.
“I don’t believe there’s any profiles in courage today”, he said.
Franks and McSweeney were among “no” tallies in the House’s 105-4 vote. The Senate approved it 54-0.
Retiring Sen. Dave Luechtefeld, R-Okawville, said those issues can’t wait until a new General Assembly is seated in January.
Legislative leaders met privately with Governor Bruce Rauner all day on Wednesday. House Speaker Mike Madigan noted Rauner set aside his agenda for changes to the business climate that Democrats oppose but acknowledged Democrats didn’t get everything they wanted either.
Rauner thanked Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel “for showing some flexibility and creativity in the negotiations”.
IL lawmakers have agreed to a last-minute spending plan that will fund essential services such as prisons and state police for the next six months, and schools for another year. Governor Rauner and Democrats agree on a bill to keep schools open for the year. They’re also negotiating six-month funding for human services, higher education institutions, and state operations to cover overdue utility bills and repairs to state vehicles.
But rank and file lawmakers waited for their leaders to work out a deal to keep the government operating and fund schools. The House approved it 105-4.
The stopgap budget includes money for universities, social services, prisons and other programs. Central District 104 can reportedly last throughout the entire school year.
The Senate is expected to vote on the bills later Thursday.
Those tax cuts for corporations and the richest IL residents amounted to a 25 percent reduction and ended the efforts by the previous governor to pay down the state’s ballooning debt while preserving education, road fix, and social services’ funding. Other parts of the deal include extending the internet lottery one year and a 1-year ban on legislative & executive pay raises. Additionally, the state will spend an extra $80 million on early childhood education and districts that serve low-income students would get a share of a $250 million poverty grant, with CPS estimated to receive about $131 million from those two funds.
Meanwhile, one bill in the budget package that would authorize new tax increment financing districts for Chicago to help pay for mass transit projects irked some lawmakers, who argued it was hastily put together without enough transparency. It then passed the House within a short time. Chicago would get a sizable chunk of that money.
The major sticking point for lawmakers returning to Springfield this week has been how much to increase money for elementary education, particularly CPS. They also held onto the CPS pension bill because Rauner wants a separate measure to cut state employee retirement costs before he’ll sign it.
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State Rep. Jay Hoffman (D-Belleville) praised the governor for agreeing to back away from linking his demand for government reforms to the budget plan.
