This week the Illinois House
Democrats passed a one-month budget even though Gov. Bruce Rauner said he
would not sign it, calling it a “mistake” and saying it would just continue the
cycle of spending more than the state can afford.
As House members debated both a
one-month budget and payment of state worker salaries, the discourse at times
became vitriolic and sophomoric, with name-calling, jeering and inflammatory
accusations all but dashing any hopes the budget standoff is nearing an end.
The beginning of the new fiscal
year was July 1. Without a budget,
ostensibly state workers, providers and others who are paid by the state will
not receive their money. Governor Rauner,
citing a court opinion from 2007 when there was also a budget stalemate, said
we should pay the workers despite not having a budget. Unsure, Democrat
Attorney General Lisa Madigan went to court to ask a judge for guidance on what
the state is legally allowed to do.
The request trigged a back and
forth between courtrooms, and jurisdictions, about whether or not state
employees could be paid. Both sides of
the political aisle, eager to show the workers they are on their side, introduced
bills providing the money to get them paid.
Republicans wanted their version called to a vote, but the Democrats who
control the House Chamber with a super majority, passed theirs instead tying it
to the one-month budget. It passed, on a
party line vote.
Unfortunately, Governor Rauner
said he would not sign a one-month budget because it allows a “$4 billion
deficit one month at a time.”
Republicans argued the Democrats tied the state worker pay to the
one-month budget knowing the Governor would veto it.
Democrats argued that a one-month
budget would give some breathing room to both sides and allow for negotiations for
a full budget to continue.
The bill now goes to the Senate
for a vote, but the Senate doesn’t reconvene until July 14.
