Senate Democrats sent Gov. Bruce Rauner a measure Wednesday that would spend nearly $4 billion on higher education and human services despite repeated threats he’d veto the legislation because it does not include a way to pay for the programs.
The bill represents the latest piecemeal spending bill Democrats have pushed through as they seek to keep political pressure on Rauner during the record-setting budget impasse, with neither side prepared to budge.
“Illinois does not have to be the laughingstock of the nation,” Sen. Donne Trotter, D-Chicago, said in arguing for the bill’s passage. “We do not have to be the only state left that doesn’t have a budget in place because people do not want to do their jobs because of some partisan reason.”
Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, shot back that the bill was meaningless because it “promises people money knowing that the bank is already closed.”
The action came after Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan targeted Rauner on the floor a day earlier, accusing the former private equity investor of trying to make good on an early campaign threat to shut down state government by pursuing a “personal agenda” aimed at harming the middle class.
So far, Rauner and his staff have avoided a direct response, though the governor did denounce partisanship in remarks Wednesday as he handed out volunteerism awards.
“The good Lord didn’t make us Democrats or Republicans. The good Lord put us on earth to do his work,” Rauner said. “My wife and I, my wife’s a liberal Democrat. I’m a pretty conservative Republican. Doesn’t matter. What matters is helping people.”