Illinois governor calls special session to force budget deal

Lawmakers adjourned last month without a deal before a critical May 31 deadline, triggering the need for a three-fifths majority vote instead of a majority on a budget agreement. There are options on the table, including a Senate-backed plan and another presented this week by Republicans.

The special session could run up to 10 days with dates set from June 21 to June 30. The new fiscal year starts July 1.

The back-and-forth is a repeat of the last two years in Springfield, with both sides blaming each other for the stalemate — the longest of any U.S. state.

The first-term governor has called for pro-business reforms since he took office in 2015, saying they should happen in conjunction with a budget and an income tax increase. Democrats have said some of those ideas hurt the middle class and they’ve taken up many others, including workers compensation reform. Republicans say the attempts fall short.

In the meantime, pressure has been mounting to get a deal.

Credit ratings agencies have threatened further downgrades to the state’s lowest-in-the-nation rating without a state spending plan. On Thursday, Illinois Lottery officials said the state might get dropped by the end of the month from Powerball and Mega Millions games without a budget.

House Speaker Michael Madigan said Democrats have worked to find common ground from the beginning, but Rauner has refused.

“House Democrats will continue our work on the budget from Springfield,” Madigan said in a statement. “But as Governor Rauner has met each of our attempts to date with refusal, it’s clear that the onus is on the governor to show that he is finally serious about working in good faith to end the crisis he has manufactured.”

Senate President John Cullerton’s spokesman John Patterson said the Senate budget — a $37 billion spending plan with cuts and an income tax increase — draws on Rauner’s ideas. He said the Senate wants the governor to “finish the job.”

“I’m not sure where Governor Rauner was during the first half of the year, but the Senate did his work and balanced his spending plan using the numbers and tax rate he wanted,” Patterson said, urging Rauner to work with legislators in the House.

Rauner said he supports the Republican budget and reform plan announced this week, calling it a compromise. It calls for a four-year property tax freeze, term limits and other changes for an income tax increase that expires after four years.

During the impasse, the state’s backlog of unpaid bills has topped $14 billion and there’ve been major blows to higher education and social services with cutbacks.

A coalition of social service providers has filed several lawsuits seeking to force the state to pay, saying the state hasn’t honoured contracts during the impasse. An appellate court dismissed one of the lawsuits on Thursday.

Follow Sophia Tareen on Twitter at https://twitter.com/sophiatareen.

Sophia Tareen, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Illinois governor calls special session to force budget deal

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