IL was poised to enter a second year without a budget after lawmakers finished their legislative session Tuesday without agreement on a spending plan.
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That means any movement on a budget in the Senate isn’t likely to occur until evening, after the election field is set.
A House-passed budget that Rauner vowed to veto for being more than $7 billion short on revenue failed badly in a Senate vote.
Q: What does House Democrats’ budget do? IL also is “dead last in school funding percentage”. Mattie Hunter, D-Chicago, right, while on the Senate floor during the May 31 session at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, Ill.
A number of community colleges, state universities, and public service providers have operated with little or no funding over the past year. It would increase funding for K-12 education by $700 million and allows spending occurring under court order or consent decrees, such as Medicaid, to continue at current rates. Those there to hear the governor say they appreciate all the work that’s going into this, but with all this talking, they need some action before they can start to feel good about getting ready for the new school year.
With no bipartisan budget deal in sight, Rauner announced two stopgap funding bills earlier in the day that focused on funding K-12 education and other essential government services, like state colleges and social services.
Rauner was already preparing to blame Democrats if they can’t reach a deal. Democratic lawmakers failed to pass either bill because of cracks within the majority party. The Senate bill would add almost a billion dollars to schools at a time when the state is running a massive deficit. Democratic leaders, who are battling Republican Governor Bruce Rauner over his pro-business and labor-weakening reform agenda, also refused to immediately take up the governor’s short-term budget plan.
Rauner was meeting with legislative leaders in his office Tuesday morning.
Rauner’s proposal would fund public schools through next year and provide support for financially-strapped social service providers and higher-education institutions. The money would come from federal dollars, rainy-day funds, and not repaying $450 million of interfund borrowing.
This is an idea that Governor Rauner said he didn’t want just last week but today he says he is open to the idea. “I mean literally there are operational needs for government that need to be addressed”, Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno said.
IL has limped through fiscal 2016 as the only US state without a complete budget, operating under court-ordered spending, and continuing and stopgap appropriations. He asked that Democrats who have a super-majority of representatives and senators to approve a temporary state budget, that would also give direction to local school districts around the state as to how much state money they will be receiving.
The governor’s short-term spending plan would have breathed some relief into the struggling social services programs helping the elderly, the poor and the disabled, which haven’t received any state aid in almost a year.
“It will only be worse from here”, Nuding said.
They’ve gone nearly 11 months without agreeing on a plan for the current fiscal year.
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The Republican governor spoke Tuesday, with just hours remaining before the General Assembly’s scheduled adjournment.
