Ill. Politicians Strike Harsher Tone on Budget

madigan-michael-bl357.jpg

CHICAGO – Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner and House Speaker Michael Madigan dug in their respective heels, deepening the rift over the state budget.

Both put aside public expressions of compromise Tuesday as they staked out their positions that have driven the 10-month-old fiscal 2016 budget impasse. The gridlock has hurt the state’s credit rating, weakened the public higher education system, and driven a bill backlog up to more than $7 billion.

In a speech early Tuesday to business leaders, the GOP governor accused the General Assembly’s Democratic majority of promoting a funding crisis to force a tax hike. “I can never and will never support a tax hike without significant reforms. I won’t do it, period, end of story,” Rauner said.

Rauner reiterated his demand for tort, redistricting, and worker’s compensation changes as well as local government collective bargaining curbs and pension and procurement reforms.

While much of government spending continues under ongoing appropriations or court orders and consent agreements, higher education and human services are starved for their share of funding. Rauner and his fellow Republicans and Democrats have spent the last 10 months in a back-and-forth over various legislative proposals getting little done as each finds something to dislike in the other’s plans.

Rauner has put much of the blame on Madigan while taking a softer tone on Senate President John Cullerton’s role in the budget impasse. Madigan has long responded in a measured manner, sticking with a mantra that the budget should be tackled singularly and that Rauner is acting “in the extreme” with his policy proposals which Democrats believe would be harmful to the middle class.

That changed Tuesday. Madigan delivered a stinging attack on Rauner in a rare speech on the House floor. It came ahead of a vote on a nearly $4 billion bill that would free up higher education and human services funding. Rauner is opposed to the bill -- which passed in a 65-42 vote with three voting present – because it relies primarily on the general fund without identifying a revenue stream. The vote also followed the first leaders’ meeting with Rauner that’s been held this year.

“Over 30 years I have worked with six governors from both political parties, twice as many Republicans as Democrats,” said the Chicago Democrat. “We didn’t always agree on the issues. We didn’t always agree on the best approach to passing a state budget” but “every other governor I have worked with has negotiated with the General Assembly in good faith.”

“While this crisis was avoidable Gov. Rauner has refused to put an end to the crisis,” Madigan said, accusing Rauner of long plotting the budget crisis based on past remarks he’d made about reducing state spending.  “I will continue to make my top priority a budget that takes a balanced approach to prevent the most critical state services by from being decimated by personal political agendas.”

Earlier in the day, kindergarten-through-12th-grade education funding took center stage as the Illinois State Board of Education outlined how Rauner’s K-12 fiscal 2017 education funding plan would impact local districts. Rauner has proposed a $120 million funding increase, fully funding the foundation level which is set based on school enrollment, the number and percentage of impoverished students, and local property tax values.

“Every school district in Illinois will do better under the governor’s plan to fully fund the foundation level than they would have under the recent practice of proration, and the vast majority of school districts will receive more state money than last year,” said State Superintendent of Education Tony Smith.

Chicago Public Schools chief executive officer Forrest Claypool slammed the proposal as the financially distressed, junk-rated district stands to lose $74 million under the plan, with its share of state aid falling to $893 million from $967 million. “The threat to our schools in the coming school year is even more profound than yesterday,” Claypool said at a news conference.

The state countered that the district fares better under Rauner’s plan than the proration method as the district stood to lose $189 million under the latter.

Rauner is pressing Democrats to approve the education appropriation for the fiscal year beginning July 1 just as they did with the K-12 appropriation for the current fiscal year outside of an overall budget plan.

Democrats are resisting that pressure. Republicans have characterized the Democratic resistance as an attempt to gain leverage and win more state help for CPS and tax hikes.

Cullerton in a question and answer session with the Illinois Chamber of Commerce Tuesday said his caucus’ priority is overhauling the education funding formula which Rauner has said needs to change but should first be studied.

“I want to change the formula. It’s not fair,” said Cullerton, a Chicago Democrat. “It’s not a matter of me threatening to hold up funding for schools….I’m just saying I don’t see how we can pass a bill that has all these losers.”

Pending legislation would distribute more funding to high poverty districts like CPS. It would phase in a shift so no district would initially lose money, which would higher state spending.

Separately, Cullerton also wants the state to pick up CPS’ roughly $170 million teacher’s contribution as it does with other districts. “That’s just parity,” he said. A longer term plan could push all teachers’ contributions on to local districts.

Cullerton warned without action, the state could face a lawsuit over funding equity which Claypool has suggested the district might consider. 

Also this week, Madigan introduced legislation putting a constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would make clear the state’s obligation on public education funding.

Also during his address to business leaders, Rauner reiterated his opposition to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s proposed re-amortization of the city’s police and firefighter pension contributions. Legislation recently sent to his desk would trim $220 million off the city’s contribution this year. The city tapped short-term credit lines recently to set aside the funds.

“Look, here’s the simple fact. Kicking the can on pension payments is bad policy,” Rauner said, adding that he would have “reluctantly” agreed to it if it was part of larger package that included his governance and policy reform proposals.

“I’ll take some bad policy, but only with good policy,” he said. A three-fifths majority would be required for an override of the likely veto to succeed. Democrats hold a super-majority in each chamber but the House has struggled to raise the super-majority needed for overrides.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
Illinois
MORE FROM BOND BUYER