Session Ends Without a State Budget

Date: June 02, 2016 Last Edit: June 16, 2016

Just before the Memorial Day holiday weekend, Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton emerged from a meeting with Governor Bruce Rauner and the Republican leaders to say time was running out and that they wanted to pass a budget to get past the November election, pushing a potential tax hike and passage of the governor’s economic reforms off, as well.

Governor Rauner and GOP Leaders, in turn, said both sides should double their efforts and get a balanced budget, including economic reforms, passed before the legislature adjourned on Tuesday, May 31.

That didn’t happen.

Instead, the House approved a massive budget bill on a party-line vote. The bill called for spending over $7 billion more in fiscal 2017 than the state is expected to collect in taxes.

The Democratic-sponsored, 500-page bill was introduced and presented before the Illinois House in a matter of hours, leaving House Republicans in disbelief. The anger was palpable on both sides of the aisle causing Speaker Madigan, in a rare mea culpa, to allow for another vote on the measure the next day.  The outcome was the same, however, with the bill passing by a narrow, party-line margin.

Democrat leaders acknowledged their bill lacked enough revenue, but said they didn’t want to leave the Capitol without passing something. They said it was up to Governor Rauner to tell them what additional revenues he would be willing to support.

Illinois Comptroller Leslie Munger, who is in charge of paying the state’s bills, called the proposed House budget “catastrophic” and said it would cause the state’s unpaid bills to surge past $15 billion, with payments delayed an unprecedented 8-9 months.

Democrats in the Senate were equally stunned by the action in the House with many vowing to not support the out-of-whack budget when it came to their chamber, although that sentiment appeared to change when President Cullerton hinted the Senate would vote on the House bill after all.

Governor Rauner and GOP leaders responded to all this by producing a temporary budget in an attempt to ensure that schools would open on time, vendors would get paid, construction work would continue, and universities would operate over the next six months.

This temporary budget was fully funded but didn’t include a tax increase or any of the governor’s economic reforms.

House and Senate Democrats promptly rejected the governor’s temporary budget, saying there wasn’t enough time to pass it. In turn, Governor Rauner threatened to veto the House budget if it reached his desk.

With just a few hours left before the May 31 deadline, it became clear most of the Senate Democrats were still unhappy with the House budget and couldn’t be persuaded to support it. The House budget garnered only 17 votes in the Senate.

The Senate passed a standalone K-12 funding bill, at the governor’s request, but it was also out of balance by almost $1 billion ,causing Republicans to vote no.

The legislative session ended without passing a budget, meaning the state will continue to limp along without a budget. The governor is taking his argument for a temporary budget on the road, hoping to drum up grassroots support to persuade the Democrats to return to Springfield and work on a six-month budget.

Governor Rauner has not given up on his economic agenda, and the working groups he set up will continue to work on his key items as well as the budget. Clearly, Illinois is in unchartered waters with all eyes on the governor and legislative leaders to see what, if anything, they can agree on before serious damage is done.

Related Content: Small Business News | Economy | Illinois

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