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This is The Players, your update on who's who in Illinois politics and what they're up to. We encourage you to comment on Illinois leadership.Amanda Vinicky curates this blog that will provide follow-up to full-length stories, links to other reports of interest, statistics, and conversations with you about the issues and stories.

"Expect A Very Long Extra Session" - Gov. Rauner

Amanda Vinicky
/
WUIS / Illinois Issues
Gov. Bruce Rauner unveiled his budget in mid-February; months later there's no agreement. Democrats are working on a plan, but Rauner's priority appears to be restructuring government.

Gov. Bruce Rauner has stayed out of the public eye for the past couple of days. But he's making his feelings on the budget known in an op-ed that came out late Wednesday night.

Illinois' legislative session is set to end on May 31st, but Rauner's signaling he's prepared to keep it going much longer. Rauner -- the first Republican governor Illinois has had in a dozen years -- penned an op-ed in Springfield's State Journal Register.

In it, he says "if legislators are willing to reform how we do business, they will find me an eager partner. If they are not, they should expect a very long extra session."

Rauner's piece includes political keywords and phrases, like shrinking waste, change and reform; he calls out government insiders and special interests.

The column went online just before midnight, so reaction from Democrats -- who control the Illinois House and Senate -- wasn't immediately available.

But Democrats like Rep. Lou Lang have already said there's not enough support for Rauner's pro-business, anti-union agenda, saying earlier this week that Rauner's "list of 10 or 15 things are just not going to happen."

Lang went on to say compare Rauner's treatment of the General Assembly to former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's -- Blagojevich had a notoriously toxic relationship with legislators.

The House has voted down measures -- like the creation of right-to-work zones -- mirroring Rauner's plans, and is expected to do more of that today when it debates workers' compensation and putting restrictions on lawsuits. Republicans say those votes are shams, designed by Democrats to embarrass Rauner.

"They need to get to the table and have a serious discussion about reforms, and then we can have a serious discussion about revenue and the state budget," Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno said.

The "phony bills" are designed to put GOP legislators in a "trick box," Rep. Ron Sandack, a top House Republican, said, noting that Democrats have already sent out negative brochures slamming some Republicans for voting agasint a property tax freeze proposal (a conservative organization typically aligned with Republicans, Americans for Prosperity, separately sent out its own mailers).

But Democrats point out that while Rauner has spent months touring the state in campaign mode to promote his so-called "Turnaround Agenda" talking about his agenda, he's never actually introduced plans for them to vote on.

That characterizes finger-pointing that ramped up on Tuesday when the General Assembly's Republican leaders called a press conference to scold Democrats for what they describe as stonewalling negotiations; it's a characterization Democrats, who claim to be cooperative, deny. Democrats say it's past time for Rauner to turn his focus to the budget. In lieu of a compromise, Democrats on Wednesday appeared to have been moving forward behind the scenes with their own spending plan.

2015-05-BudgetShapeUp-wrap.mp3
Hear from the Senate's leaders on one possible path to a budget bill

Senate President John Cullerton said just what the budget will look like is still being negotiated.

"We don't have a balanced budget from the governor and he's saying he has some other agenda that don't relate to the budget. In the meantime, somebody's got to go forward with the budget, so that's what we're trying to do," he said.

The budget proposal Rauner introduced over the winter was full of huge cuts -- 30-percent reductions to state universities, millions of dollars from Amtrak, and de-funding some human services programs.

Insiders, including legislators, say the Democratic version is shaping up to contain cuts too, but drastically smaller ones. Rep. Ken Dunkin, D-Chicago, who chairs the House Higher Education Appropriations committee, says universities will see cuts of less than ten-percent.

"This is where our talent gets trained and educated, and for us to dismiss them in a such a way -- or to write them off ... is not the right message that we need to send," Dunkin said.

What appears to be missing from the equation, so far at least, is a way to pay for that spending, given that it'll be the first full budget year with the new, lower tax rates. Democrats could be content to send Gov. Rauner a budget that dares him to make the drastic cuts he'd outlined.

While there's been no action on revenue enhancers like a higher income tax rate, retirement tax, adding a sales tax to services (as Gov. Rauner had promoted during his campaign), there are revenue options.

Gambling is a possibility -- a legislator involved with those negotiations say a proposal with five casinos (in Chicago, Lake County, the south suburbs, Rockford and Danville) is shaping up. The House Speaker, Michael Madigan, is also keeping alive a "millionaires’ tax"; a constitutional amendment that could lead to the surcharge on income over a million dollars advanced out of a House committee. It's opposed by Gov. Rauner and his business allies.

Amanda Vinicky moved to Chicago Tonight on WTTW-TV PBS in 2017.
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