* 3:09 pm - Yesterday, a few of us were sitting around wondering what Gov. Blagojevich would do to reassert his relevance now that his alleged thoughts about forcing a partial shutdown had been so completely thwarted and he was being excluded from the leaders meetings.

Well, a few minutes ago the governor sent a letter to the legislative leaders threatening a government shutdown if he doesn’t get what he wants in the state budget. Of course, if he doesn’t get what he wants his veto could be overridden and there would be no shutdown, but whatever.

As I told you earlier, the governor told reporters today that state workers shouldn’t be “pawns” in the budget process. Yet, he appears to be doing just that now.

Here’s the letter, with all emphasis added…

As of today, the State of Illinois is operating without a budget. As you work to resolve your own differences and we attempt to reach a consensus on a 12-month budget, it is important to not rush to complete an agreement that fails to meet our State’s needs.

That is why, since Friday, July 27, I have asked you to pass a one-month budget extension that allows us to keep working on a 12-month budget without putting State employees at risk. Thousands of State employees, vendors and citizens that rely on State government are facing the uncertainty of payless paydays and vanishing State services. There is no reason to create a problem that is easily avoided.

I also want to reiterate to you what I said in our leaders meeting yesterday. I will not sign a budget that shortchanges the need to address education funding inequity, cuts back our work to improve healthcare, ducks the critical pension reform issues, ignores our need for infrastructure investment, and I will never sign a budget that is constructed to appear balanced but is, in fact, unbalanced and, therefore, unconstitutional. A last minute budget sent to my desk that fails on these criteria will be dead on arrival.

As always, I will work with you to attempt to bridge the differences and craft a 12-month budget.

Nevertheless, a ‘take it or leave it’ approach on a 12-month budget, sent to me as government shutdown looms, will do nothing more than simply precipitate such a shutdown. Passing a one-month budget prevents this problem.

I urge you to do so.

Sincerely,
Rod Blagojevich
Governor

This may have a lot to do with the widespread expectations that Speaker Madigan may introduce another one of his limited growth budgets and attempt to force the Senate to approve it in order to avert a shutdown.

* 3:16 pm - Oy…

Governor Rod Blagojevich says he’s prepared to spend months working to get the state budget he wants. […]

But Blagojevich said today that he’s not in a hurry to resolve the budget dispute, even if that takes a couple more months.

In fact, he says there’s nothing wrong with state officials taking a full 12 months to get the budget right.

* 3:30 pm - Leaders of several labor unions, including the AFL-CIO, are holding a press conference right now to demand an income tax hike…

We call on legislative leaders today to support a plan to increase the Illinois income tax by 1/4 % per year for four years, raising approximately $800 million per year in new revenue.

Download the press release here.

The labor leaders demanded that lawmakers “find the courage” to vote for the proposal and, without mentioning his name or his repeated veto threats, said that the General Assembly should use its power to make it happen.

We believe strong support for a modest increase in the income tax exists in both the Democratic and Republican caucuses in both chambers.

As Capitol Fax subscribers know, labor lobbyists have been working Republicans lately on the income tax and report they are making headway, particularly with this idea…

[The funds from the tax hike should be] placed in a new special fund from which appropriations could be made only upon a 3/5 vote of both chambers.

The union leaders also said they supported a “reasonable increase in gambling” to fund a bond program for “badly needed public infrastructure projects and repairs to our crumbling public schools.”

Organized labor has a major say in Democratic Party politics, and I don’t think that the Illinois AFL-CIO has ever publicly opposed Gov. Blagojevich on something so big. Therefore, this press conference has to be taken seriously. Whether they can git ‘er done is still in the “highly doubtful” category, but it’s definitely a new development.

* 6:05 pm - Oh, this is too funny. Statement from Comptroller Dan Hynes regarding Gov. Blagojevich’s press release from above…

“It is astonishing that after signing four budgets, billions of dollars out of balance, the Governor is now finding a moral objection to a potentially out of balance budget while threatening to shut down state government in the process. The Governor’s hypocrisy knows no bounds.”

Yowza, baby. I don’t think Hynes has ever put out such a harsh statement about anyone or anything.