In one of his first acts as Illinois' new governor, Republican Bruce Rauner Monday said he'll issue an executive order requiring all state agencies to stop spending money they don't have to.
The main theme of Rauner's campaign was that Illinois' finances are a mess, need fixing, and that he's the man to do it. He continued that message during his inaugural address, saying "we have an opportunity to accomplish something historic; to fix years of busted budgets and broken government."
For starters, he's ordering all state agencies to stop non-essential state spending. He didn't immediately specify, though, what counts as "essential."
"I don't know exactly what that means. And I don't know if he does either. But it sounds great," Democratic Senate President John Cullerton said.
He says Rauner -- who is a state government novice -- has an "incomplete" image of Springfield. Cullerton says lawmakers have spent the past six years making significant progress on Illinois' financial issues.
"We've made a lot of progress in cutting the state budget and in balancing budgets, and he's probably unaware of that. And when he gives his budget, he'll have an opportunity to learn that," Cullerton said, just after the ceremony. Rauner has just over a month before he must, by law, present a spending plan for the state. He's thus far provided little to no detail on what to do about the deficit he'll inherit, in part due to the rollback at the start of the year of the 2011 income tax hike.
Rauner also said in his inaugural speech at the Prairie Capital Convention Center in Springfield that he wants to review all contracts signed since November, when he won the election against outgoing Gov. Pat Quinn.
During his final minutes as governor, Quinn was busy taking actions such as appointing of his top aides to state boards; some of the part time positions pay $20,000 a year.
