By the end of this month, Illinois legislators are slated to be done with their work. That means passing a new budget. Amanda Vinicky checks in with how that's progressing -- including in the eyes of the state's new governor.
Late last night, an Op-Ed penned by Governor Bruce Rauner was published in Springfield's State Journal Register. In it, he complains that Illinois government is worse than he imagined.
If you didn't catch Bruce Rauner when he was traveling the state as a candidate for governor, you may well have gotten your chance since he was sworn in. Rauner's spent a lot of time traveling the stat selling what he calls his "Turnaround" agenda, with statements like "you know we've got a mess on our hands, we've got a financial crisis. But we're going to get through it. We're going to restructure the government.".
In the eyes of Democrats like Rep. Mike Zalewski of Riverside, Rauner's been doing too much of that. The House has voted on ideas from Rauner's wish-list, like creating local right-to-work zones, and came up way short of the 60 votes needed for it to pass..
"Down here it's the art of the possible," Zalewski said, "and you can only get 60 and 30 on certain things. And when you can't get 60 and you can't get 30, you move along.".
Move along and focus on the budget.
Democrats appear to be going on their own and crafting a spending plan. Though lawmakers are hesitant to be upfront about specifics, a proposal brewing would keep funding mostly level with this year's. It would cut back in many areas; pre-K through high school would see an increase, though.
"You know what the governor's been saying: that he hasn't really been working on a budget," Senate President John Cullerton said Wednesday. "He never gave us a balanced budget, when governor's normally do. So 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 wiht a budget, so that's what we're trying to do."
If you key in on what Cullerton said, it's not that Rauner hasn't introduced any budget -- he did, back in February. Just one that Cullerton says isn't balanced. Cullerton has said from the onset that Rauner's plan didn't add up because it relied on pension savings that were unattainable -- a Supreme Court decision tossing a law reducing workers' benefits makes that more so. Otherwise, Rauner's proposed budget relied on cuts. Lots and lots and lots of them.
Cuts that have prompted consistent rallies at the capitol, and hearing after hearing featuring testimony from people about how chopping programs would have consequence -- from Amtrak, to funding for the state board of elections, to a subsidy that helps low-income parents afford daycare, to cuts to universities that House Higher Education Appropriations Chair Ken Dunkin, a Democrat, says he won't stand for.
"To reduce them by 31 and a half percent is unconscionable. And I'm not going to be a part of discounting, devaluating, our respective institutions that we so - or should be - proud of,"Dunkin said; he says universities will be cut no more than ten-percent.
Democrats more than enough votes in the House and Senate to pass a budget on their own.
But here's the thing: part of the reason Rauner's budget proposes so many cuts in the first place was because, well, it sounds obvious -- Illinois doesn't have the money. Thanks to legislators' pre-election jitters, and Rauner's post-election insistence, a 2011 tax hike rolled back at the start of this year. Meaning the budget yet set to begin in July will be the first in years when billions extra won't be coming into state coffers.
While Democrats say a revenue hike is needed, they insist they won't do it without the GOP.
That sets up a scenarios where Democrats send Rauner a budget without deep cuts or any tax increase. Basically, leaving it to Rauner to sign -- or slash (that could put both parties in a political pickle. Democrats may look like the out-of-control spenders their critics paint them to be; Rauner could look like the cutthroat, out-of-touch millionaire. Will it be that Democrats throw the governor a hot potato, or will they play into his hands, making it easy on Rauner to throw the gauntlet?).
"What I think will happen with the budget is ... we'll pass one," Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia, D- said. "And people need to realize that we just give directive to the governor on .. how to spend the money. It's up to him to write the checks. And he can take our advice or he can ignore us.
" That'll leave things "in a big mess," Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno says."The fact of hte matter is, if they do that, the governor will manage it and that will hurt the very constituents tehy're talking about wanting to help. So it's very incongruous. I think it's very cynical. They need to get to the table and have a very serious discussion about reforms." And then, she says, Republicans will have a serious discussion about raising taxes that could stave off cuts.
But that's only after Rauner's pro-business, anti-union agenda advances.
Remember Democratic Rep. Zalewski, saying it's time for the governor to leave all the Turnaround talk behind and focus on the budget?
It's the opposite for Rauner. He wrote in a just-published Op-Ed that he wants legislators to focus on things like term limits, and what he calls "anti-growth policies."
Republican Sen. Ron Sandack of Downers Grove says Democrats stymying.
"The people of the state of Illinois have spoken and they wanted change. They want structural reformation. And that means some things that are going to upset the status quo," Dunkin said.
While Republican legislators are still greatly outnumbered in the General Assembly, they don't have just the governor's office now. In Rauner, they have a deep-pocketed Republican governor who's got a huge campaign fund he's been upfront saying he'll use to advance his position.
In the just-published Op-Ed, Gov. Rauner writes that that if legislators aren't willing to "reform how we do business" they won't be done this month. He says they should prepare for a "very long extra session".
