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News Monday June 29th, 2015, 9:09pm

No Budget Resolution In Sight After Rauner, Legislative Leaders Meet

As Illinois gets closer to a government shutdown, state legislative leaders and Gov. Bruce Rauner met Monday and were unable come to a deal.

State lawmakers and Rauner remain at odds over a budget for the 2016 fiscal year, which starts July 1. The government will begin to shut down Wendesday if a budget is not in place by then.

In an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times after Monday's meeting, House Minority Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) said, "We're no closer today than we were a month ago on negotiating a budget."

"Nothing's changed," he added. "We are looking for reform. Democrats are looking for Revenue."

The meeting comes after Rauner vetoed most of the Democrat-passed legislative budget last week, citing its $4 billion shortfall and his desire to see lawmakers adopt items on his "Turnaround Agenda."

In weighing in on the budget negotiations, Senate President John Cullerton's spokeswoman Rikeesha Phelon told the newspaper, "We've offered other solutions that he's rejected because he wants those pieces of the agenda that we think are harmful." 

"As a result, we are no closer to a resolution," she added. "He chose to move toward a shutdown through an outright veto."

The Illinois House will be meeting for a two-day Committee of the Whole starting Tuesday to discuss agency preparations in the event of a state government shutdown.

Rauner informed state workers via a memo that in the event of a government shutdown, "most state services will continue" and that he would work to ensure that state workers would be paid. However, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan raised legal questions on Monday over whether state employees can get paid without an Illinois budget in place.

Meanwhile, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel turned down Rauner's proposal to help the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) make its pension payment, which is due Tuesday, by giving the school district their appropriated state grants early and in one lump sum. 

CPS is legally required to make a $634 million pension payment to the Chicago Teachers' Pension Fund by Tuesday. School officials say cash-strapped CPS will be unable to make that pension payment. 

The school district is slated to receive a total of $450 million in state grant money during the coming budget year, and Rauner has offered to give the school district the grant funds early. 

"We appreciate Gov. Rauner's gesture, but the use of this year's dollars to pay last year's pension payment follows the same path that got the schools into the current financial mess," said the mayor's spokeswoman Kelley Quinn, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Sources

  • News links: 
    Chicago Sun-Times
    Chicago Tribune

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Categories

  • Education
  • Labor

Tags

  • budget
  • Chicago
  • Chicago Public Schools
  • CPS
  • Education funding
  • Funding
  • Government shutdown
  • Grant money
  • Grants
  • Illinois
  • Illinois budget
  • Illinois General Assembly
  • Pension
  • Pension reform
  • Pensions
  • Public Employees
  • Revenues
  • State budget
  • State funding
  • State legislature
  • State workers
  • Turnaround Agenda
  • Veto

Public figures

  • Bruce Rauner
  • Jim Durkin
  • John Cullerton
  • Rahm Emanuel

Level of gov't

  • City of Chicago
  • State of Illinois

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