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State Week: Special Session — Real Movement Or Just Marketing?

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Brian Mackey
/
NPR Illinois

Gov. Bruce Rauner has called 10 special sessions on the budget for the final days of the month. For the first time, he's publicly endorsed a specific set of tax increases to accompany the non-budget demands he's been making since he came into office. Does this represent real movement? Or is it just marketing?

In other news, three courts were involved in the budget crisis this week: the Fifth District Appellate Court, in southern Illinois, heard arguments over whether state workers should continue to be paid during the budget impasse. Meanwhile, a St. Clair County judge is considering whether to force the state to pay human service providers, who've been stiffed during the impasse. And the First District Appellate Court, in Chicago, rejected the claims of human service agencies in a separate but related case.

Sean Crawford hosts with regular panelists Charlie Wheeler and Brian Mackey, and guest Andrew Maloney of the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin.

Brian Mackey formerly reported on state government and politics for NPR Illinois and a dozen other public radio stations across the state. Before that, he was A&E editor at The State Journal-Register and Statehouse bureau chief for the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin.
The former director of the Public Affairs Reporting (PAR) graduate program is Professor Charles N. Wheeler III, a veteran newsman who came to the University of Illinois at Springfield following a 24-year career at the Chicago Sun-Times.
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