CHICAGO — Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner called on Chicago City Council members to get behind pieces of his turnaround agenda if they hope to win his support for the city's legislative docket, including pension relief, a casino license, and a broadening of the sales tax.
Rauner said he was willing to "go to bat" for the city on its requests but that support comes with a cost.
"For Chicago to get what it wants, Illinois must get what it needs," Rauner told the Chicago City Council Wednesday in a brief 10-minute address Mayor Rahm Emanuel called unprecedented.
"After years of over spending and over borrowing, Illinois and Chicago taxpayers are in a vice grip that is choking our ability to fund our schools, invest in our social services, and recruit job creators," Rauner said. "Illinois as a state is in a terrible financial crisis. We don't have the money to simply bail out the city of Chicago. It's not an option."
The rookie Republican governor acknowledged that City Council members oppose many of his initiatives, considered pro-business and an attack on labor, but suggested they might find room to "compromise" on some initiatives such as reducing unfunded mandates and pension reform.
He sought to underscore the similarities in the city's and state's fiscal challenges and soften the political disparity between him and the council — highlighted by the lack of hands that went up on the council floor when he asked how many fellow Republicans were in the chamber.
"The city like the state is at a critical point, a tipping point. We can't continue to govern from crisis to crisis, bandaging over problems for a as long as we can and hoping to survive for another few years," Rauner said, calling on the council to work together as a partner.
Rauner has been making appearances across the state to drum up support for his proposed "turnaround" initiatives that have found little favor among the Democratic majority in the General Assembly. He told Emanuel he wanted to directly address the council and so the council at its regular meeting Wednesday suspended it rules to allow for the unusual appearance of a sitting governor.
City council members also dislike Rauner's proposals to curb union powers with right-to-work zones and workers' compensation and unemployment insurance reforms and have voiced opposition to the deep cuts to Medicaid and human services programs he's proposed in fiscal 2016.
Although Rauner and Emanuel are friends, the Democratic mayor has attacked proposed transportation and state income tax aid cuts proposed by Rauner and just before his appearance in the chamber Wednesday the mayor slammed the right-to-work zone proposal.
The state is facing a $6 billion gap in its fiscal 2016 budget beginning July 1 and Rauner has proposed deep cuts, instead of new revenue or a combination of cuts and revenue, to close it. He wants the Democratic majority to get behind his turnaround agenda initiatives before discussing new revenue options.
The city is grappling with how to pay for a $550 million spike in its public safety pension contributions next year while the Chicago school system faces a $1 billion deficit.
All three issuers have faced steep credit rating deterioration over the last two years due to budget and pension pressures and all are threatened with further downgrades if structural strides aren't accomplished this year.
