CHICAGO — A one-month, $2.26 billion budget to fund essential services in Illinois amid an ongoing stalemate over a fiscal 2016 budget failed in the House Wednesday.
The plan fell four votes short of the required three-fifths majority needed to take effect immediately. A similar proposal had previously cleared the Senate Wednesday. The Democratic-sponsored plan was opposed by Republicans who mostly voted present or did not vote on the proposal. Democrats could have passed the budget without any Republican votes but their caucus didn't deliver them all.
After the votes, the Senate adjourned and won't return for two weeks. The House will return next week on Wednesday and Thursday.
Gov. Bruce Rauner previously said he was opposed to any temporary spending plan. Rauner recently vetoed the $36.3 billion fiscal 2016 budget Democrats pushed through the legislature, which the Democrats acknowledged fell at least $3 billion short of needed revenue.
The Rauner administration made clear its opposition to the one-month plan in a letter authored by budget director Tim Nuding. It was distributed Wednesday. "This bill marches the taxpayers of Illinois toward an unbalanced budget one month at a time," Nuding wrote. The administration has argued a balanced budget is required under the state constitution, although past budgets have gotten around that requirement by pushing off bill payment.
Rauner's administration puts the shortfall at $4 billion and the freshman GOP governor has said he won't support new taxes without passage of items on his "reform agenda," which Democrats consider too favorable to business and harmful to unions.
Both sides have tried to lay the blame at the other's doorsteps. Democrats contend Rauner could simply have used his line item veto powers to fashion a budget to his liking from the $36.3 billion sent to him by Democrats. Rauner has focused his attacks on Madigan for blocking reforms he argues will promote job and revenue growth.
State comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger has warned that most state payments will halt now that the fiscal year has begun without a budget., with a few exceptions like debt service, pension contributions, and local government distributive income tax aid that can be made under an ongoing appropriation.
Munger will hold a news conference Thursday to discuss managing the state's finances without a budget. The administration has more than $400 million borrowed from various non-general fund accounts to ease some cash flow issues.
Rauner's administration this week sought to ease state employee concerns they will miss their paychecks on July 15. Rauner has signed the education piece of the fiscal 2016 budget, so school aid payments due in August will be made.
Rauner told employees in a letter they should continue to report to work and they will be paid for their services.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan issued a statement providing a legal overview of the impact on state operations.
"Illinois law is clear that the state cannot continue to fund all government operations and services in the absence of a budget passed by the legislature and signed into law by the Governor," she wrote.
The report raised questions over the administration's position that a 2007 ruling during a budget stalemate that summer set a legal precedent to make payroll.
