“They’ve basically threatened to hold up the entire funding process and the budget process for a bailout of CPS”, Rauner said.
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There is less than one week left before Illinois’ fiscal year ends.
Senate President John Cullerton told members Thursday they should return to Springfield on Wednesday.
Naperville Mayor Steve Chirico called the stopgap budget a “good idea”, while acknowleding it wasn’t a solution but a bridge that will take schoolchildren off the bargaining table.
July 1 will be the two-year mark since IL last adopted a budget.
Senate Democrats plan to put forward an education funding plan Tuesday that increases money for public schools this fall by $750 million.
Lawmakers ended their spring session on May 31 without passing a new budget, raising questions over Illinois’ ability to operate for a second straight fiscal year without a spending plan. So the schools issue remains unsettled.
A new survey from the United Way of IL shows that almost 1 million people statewide have lost services due to the inability of Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Democratic-controlled General Assembly to reach a compromise.
Gov. Rauner says he will not approve a budget until Democrats adopt some items in his turnaround agenda. “Don’t do blackmail on the people of IL, holding up the schools’ opening to bail out CPS”. The second bill – dealing with school funding – is going to be much more hard.
The Democrats’ proposal also includes $75 million in additional funding for early childhood education, matching the level Rauner proposed, and $112 million to pay some of the employer’s portion of Chicago teachers’ pensions.
The plan released to The Associated Press late Monday would pump $286 million more into Chicago Public Schools.
Gov. Bruce Rauner says they appear close to a deal but whether to give more money to Chicago Public Schools is a sticking point.
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The nation’s fifth-largest state has limped through the current fiscal year without a complete budget, relying on court-ordered spending and ongoing and stopgap appropriations to operate in the wake of an impasse between the Republican governor and Democrats who control the legislature. Rank-and-file lawmakers have negotiated behind the scenes during June. But Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan’s top lieutenant Monday said Democrats will only agree if there is more funding than that.
