The political finger-pointing over who’s to blame when lawmakers leave the Capitol for summer break without a budget deal ratcheted up Friday, as Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner argued there was plenty of time to reach an agreement before Sunday’s adjournment while Democrats who control the legislature scoffed at that timeline.
Rauner said he would not sign the $36.3 billion spending plan that’s being finalized, contending Democrats are leaving it at least $3 billion short to try to force a tax increase. The governor said taxpayers shouldn’t be asked to pony up more unless lawmakers first approve portions of his agenda such as a property tax freeze and changes to the workers’ compensation system to help businesses save money.
“There is an interest in passing an unbalanced budget and trying to push a significant tax hike onto the people of Illinois,” Rauner said during his first news conference in two weeks, which took place in the yard of the governor’s mansion. “For me, that is completely unacceptable. It’s unreasonable. We’ve already had phony budgets in the past. I cannot sign a fake budget, a phony budget, an out-of-balance budget. The people of Illinois deserve better.”
Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan has noted that the budget plan Rauner introduced in February also was short several billion dollars. Rauner’s approach counted on $2.2 billion of savings from pension reforms that were unlikely to pass and now seem doomed by an Illinois Supreme Court ruling that holds government worker retirement benefits can’t be reduced once they’re granted.
Despite previously threatening to keep lawmakers in Springfield over the summer, Rauner said he would not call them into special session to take up his legislative wish list after they depart Sunday. Rauner said it’s an expensive process — 177 lawmakers get $111 per diems and mileage reimbursement — and instead he will focus on cutting a deal with Democratic leaders behind the scenes before bringing lawmakers back to vote on it.
The comments followed the first face-to-face meeting in two months between Rauner and the four legislative leaders. Rauner has been at odds with Democrats who’ve accused him of hijacking the annual budget-making process in an effort to win his political agenda, which they say would benefit corporations at the expense of middle-class workers.
Rauner had convened groups of lawmakers to try to negotiate an agreement, but Democrats instead spent much of May voting down most of the governor’s proposals. The meeting Friday allowed Rauner to say he made one last effort to push for an agreement and gave Democrats the ability to say they haven’t walked away from the table.
As such, Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, said he’s “willing to compromise” but it was unlikely they’d reach common ground by Sunday.
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“That would be very difficult to get an agreement on the language on a number of those proposals in that short period of time and we’ve kind of acknowledged that,” Cullerton said after meeting with Rauner. “We just said we’re willing to compromise, which means everybody is willing to change.”
Rauner said he was “encouraged” by Cullerton’s comments, but said Democrats must provide a sign of movement by Sunday.
“There has never been true effort at compromise coming the other way,” Rauner said. “There are now statements today that they’re willing to talk about compromise. But we’ll know by Sunday night. We’ll either have a deal Sunday night or we won’t. And anybody who says, ‘Well, we didn’t have enough time,’ that’s baloney.”
Rauner would not specify what has to happen to satisfy his demands, but he did point to two key issues he’s pushed: a freeze on local property taxes and a specific change to the workers’ compensation system that would put in place tougher standards for employees to prove they were injured on the job.
Speaker Madigan did not address reporters after meeting with Rauner, but he called the governor’s agenda “extreme” during a Friday taping of “At Issue,” which airs at 9:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. Sunday on WBBM AM 780.
“Many people in the legislature have core beliefs which say they’re not interested in advancing issues that reduce the standard of living from the middle-class people of Illinois,” Madigan said. “They’re interested in improving the condition of middle-class people in Illinois by adopting a spending plan that provides support for local schools, local police, local roads and streets. They’re not interested in functioning in the extreme.”
Emanuel pension push
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to fix Chicago’s police and fire pension systems cleared its first hurdle at the Capitol on Friday, an approach that requires all city revenue from a Chicago casino to be paid into the funds and gives the city more time to restore the funds’ financial health.
Key to Emanuel’s plan: Instead of requiring the city to pay a whopping $549 million more for police and fire pensions next year, payments would increase by just $330 million. That would provide the mayor some breathing room as he tries to put together a 2016 budget this fall.
The catch, of course, is that Chicago does not yet have a casino. Backers of gambling expansion are trying to put together a deal that would bring one to Chicago and other cities as well as provide slot machines for horse-racing tracks, but that is unlikely to be accomplished before lawmakers go home for the summer.
“You’re essentially in fantasy land here assuming you’re going to get a casino,” said Rep. Jeanne Ives, R-Wheaton.
Deputy Mayor Steve Koch said lawmakers helped create the problem when they voted to accelerate the payment schedule. If a casino doesn’t materialize, the city will raise money some other way, he said. The city’s pension debt has hurt its credit rating, which in turn has cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in extra borrowing costs.
Even if the city got its long-coveted casino, it might not bring in enough money to cover the police and fire pension tab. The mayor backs a broadening of the state sales tax to include some services, and he still might have to consider a politically unpopular property tax increase.
Also Friday, the Senate voted 34-19 to send Rauner a measure to ban conversion therapy on minors — a controversial practice aimed at changing a person’s sexual orientation from gay to straight. Backers said the practice is widely denounced by mental health organizations, while opponents expressed concerns the bill would restrict youths from seeking help for unwanted same-sex attractions.
baiduhai’s Jesse Hellmann and Rick Pearson contributed. Dardick reported from Chicago.