32 Comments - SAP - Tuesday, Dec 8, 15 @ 9:50 am: Tillman might be onto something. A budget vote right before the primary would make a great campaign piece. - The Captain - Tuesday, Dec 8, 15 @ 9:54 am: When the Republicans were simply the opposition party in the legislature they voted against everything: budgets, solutions, policy changes … everything. But now that they control the Governor’s office they’ve taken this intransigence to a whole new level. The lack of a budget is a failure of fiduciary responsibility. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Dec 8, 15 @ 9:54 am: I bet the folks at ISU are really in love with Brady. Heck, Bradley University and Illinois Wesleyan too since MAP is still not funded. - Nick Name - Tuesday, Dec 8, 15 @ 9:54 am: I think the Dems should, relentlessly, hammer the Republicans about the lack of a budget: that the GA GOP is completely in the hip picket of Bruce Rauner, that they’ve utterly abdicated their responsibilities and duties as members of a co-equal branch of government, and that thanks to them (and Rauner), state government has become even more dysfunctional than it ever was under Blago and Quinn. - VanillaMan - Tuesday, Dec 8, 15 @ 9:55 am: “I think (House) Speaker (Mike) Madigan is going to be very focused on those elections and he’s going to want to send his (party candidates) to go campaign because he feels very vulnerable,” Tillman said. Absolute nonsense. You think, or do you really know? - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Dec 8, 15 @ 9:56 am: Is it time to figure out the cost/benefit of not having a FY2016 actual budget? Looking at the billions lost so far, I can’t imagine the fiscal perils of “moving on” to FY2017 with the hole so much bigger, and growing daily. How are the Governor’s agencies going to look at today, through a FY2017 budget vote? Is it as simple as “Can’t wait for the water to be turned back on”? I hope that 60/30 gives the Governor an opportunity to fund state government. I hope. - wordslinger - Tuesday, Dec 8, 15 @ 9:59 am: I wish there was a “budget impasse.” At least then there would be a common reference point. As it is, the governor has chosen to spend at FY15 levels despite a significant cut from FY15 level revenues in order to push an ideological political agenda. The result, according to the comptroller, is an $8B to $12B difference in projected revenues and spending. - walker - Tuesday, Dec 8, 15 @ 10:06 am: Madigan always wants “to send his (party candidates) to go campaign.” Is Tillman saying he would prefer we that have no budget come election time, so that then his favored party will win? - Cassandra - Tuesday, Dec 8, 15 @ 10:06 am: I’m getting the impression over recent months that not having a budget is more politically attractive to our political masters than having one. Not sure how that would change right before the March primary. Wouldn’t a budget entail a significant tax hike, at least prospectively. Why not just borrow and sweep to get to the end of the fiscal. Illinois bonds are probably still a pretty good investment. Because in a pinch, the markets know the pols can hit up the citizens for more cash. - Annoyed - Tuesday, Dec 8, 15 @ 10:08 am: Most of our public universities will become a shell of themselves. It a disgrace that the state values paying lottery winners over funding higher education. The university doors will stay open next semester but highly doubtful that they will be able to sustain this lack of funding into the fall. Illinois will just keep forcing students to continue to flee Illinois for neighboring states. - 332bill - Tuesday, Dec 8, 15 @ 10:09 am: I don’t think skipping an FY2016 budget altogether and just doing a 2017 budget is an option as there a many invoices for FY2016 expenses that are not covered by the myriad patchwork bills/court orders that could never be paid without an FY2016 appropriation. - Norseman - Tuesday, Dec 8, 15 @ 10:11 am: === … will insist on a budget before the spring elections. === Once again, Tillman speaks without thinking. How can Madigan insist on a budget before the elections without Rauner’s agreement? I’d be surprised if we don’t see multiple attempts at budgets being passed after January 1st, but Rauner still has to approve. Unfortunately, Brady may be correct. We have a persistent rascal regardless of the true merits of the ask and the adverse consequences on so many. - Augie - Tuesday, Dec 8, 15 @ 10:13 am: Saying the speaker feels vulnerable is just wishful thinking. - From the 'Dale to HP - Tuesday, Dec 8, 15 @ 10:20 am: Brady is probably on to something. What would be the point of doing a 3 month budget? Tillman might be right, but not for the reasons he is giving. - wordslinger - Tuesday, Dec 8, 15 @ 10:23 am: Dale, I believe a budget would still be necessary to pay the businesses and non-profits that the state has been borrowing from in the form of unpaid bills. - VanillaMan - Tuesday, Dec 8, 15 @ 10:24 am: Just flat out ask! “Bill - if you had been elected governor, would your administration have allowed something like we’re seeing with Rauner, happen?” - Anon221 - Tuesday, Dec 8, 15 @ 10:24 am: Question to the Post- Can Illinois be without a budget legally for one year? If the answer is, No, then Brady needs to hone his legal skills. - Spliff - Tuesday, Dec 8, 15 @ 10:24 am: Madigan will try and push a budget through in January only if he can get Cullerton on the same page. That being said maybe the quote being discussed by Bill Brady is where he stated that he had been in Chicago and with all the protests and RIOTS going on that Chicago politicians couldn’t focus on anything else. Thankfully the reporter pushed him on it and he stated they were peaceful riots. The interviewer then stated that people have the right to protest peacefully and that is what was happening. All of this was on the same interview. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Dec 8, 15 @ 10:29 am: ===Is Tillman saying he would prefer we that have no budget come election time, so that then his favored party will win?=== - walker -, well said. - Norseman - is On Point to the political and Caucus Politics; ===How can Madigan insist on a budget before the elections without Rauner’s agreement? I’d be surprised if we don’t see multiple attempts at budgets being passed after January 1st, but Rauner still has to approve.=== Ball game. At this point, only structured roll calls and an absolute promise of signature without any Veto of any kind gets a budget. Running a full and complete budget, not piece meal, requires concurrence. - steve schnorf - Tuesday, Dec 8, 15 @ 10:33 am: IF (big if) the decision was made to not do a ‘16 budget and roll it all into a ‘17 approp, most of the problems with paying out ‘16 expenses could probably be handled thru the lapse period and a well written BIMP bill - Lucky Pierre - Tuesday, Dec 8, 15 @ 10:36 am: I would hate to be a representative or senator running for reelection in March in a district won by Rauner unable to point to any meaningful compromise achieved in the 13 or 14 months since he was elected. The majority of swing voters would be looking for a new Rep or Senator. The ads will write themselves. - Rich Miller - Tuesday, Dec 8, 15 @ 10:42 am: ===I would hate to be a representative or senator running for reelection in March in a district won by Rauner=== I’m not sure there are many of those. Actually, I can’t think of any Dem primaries in districts won by Rauner, but I may be wrong. Enlighten me, please? - Century Club - Tuesday, Dec 8, 15 @ 10:51 am: Wait, Madigan feels vulnerable so he’s going to put his members on a vote to raise taxes right before their primaries? That’s insane. - Rich Miller - Tuesday, Dec 8, 15 @ 10:55 am: ===That’s insane. === Nah. It’s just their usual completely self-serving nonsense. - Obamas Puppy - Tuesday, Dec 8, 15 @ 10:58 am: Take a long look at yourself in the mirror when you start listening/believing what John Tillman says about Democratic politics. Maybe I will start to predict what IPI is going to do beside solicit billionaires for more operating funds. - wordslinger - Tuesday, Dec 8, 15 @ 11:01 am: OP, Tillman plays the long-grift. He is going to say whatever his paymasters want to here. - cdog - Tuesday, Dec 8, 15 @ 11:06 am: Something is so smelly here. Why would a sane person, or group, think it is an option to continue to run up the kind of debt that is being created? Let’s SEE SOME PRESS about how the back log of bills had been DECREASING, due to the temporary income tax increase, in spite of the Recession’s lingering effects on the Illinois economy. I still think there is a bond market play going on, somewhere down a dark hallway, in a market-maker’s office….. Billions owed and the only place to get the money is the bond market with a near-junk level credit rating. And of course, the taxpayers will be making the payments on this Rauner Mess for years to come. - A Jack - Tuesday, Dec 8, 15 @ 11:12 am: I am curious to see what budget the Governor proposes for FY17 without the imaginary pension savings and starting with a six billion deficit over the previous fiscal year. Will he be able to present a balanced budget to the people of Illinois as Constitutionally required? As far as the GA is concerned, the GA leaders need to put pressure on the Governor now as to how he is going to pay for the current deficit before wasting time with additional budget talks. The Governor is overdrawn by six billion dollars. It’s time for a margin call. - low level - Tuesday, Dec 8, 15 @ 11:42 am: Tillman - maybe you can convince the Governor to actually put a budget proposal forward. Or your best friends Durkin and Rodogno. When I went to look for their proposals in bill form, all I was able to come up with were HB0000 and SB0000. Blank sheets of paper. - Joe M - Tuesday, Dec 8, 15 @ 1:36 pm: So is Brady suggest that the State skip out of what is left of the 2016 budget? https://capitolfax.com/2015/08/04/whats-left/ Skipping paying for Higher Ed would fit into Brady’s previous suggestion that Illinois’s state universities all become private universities - and that the State rid themselves of them after selling the buildings to the state universities for $1 - Precinct Captain - Tuesday, Dec 8, 15 @ 2:59 pm: ==- Century Club - Tuesday, Dec 8, 15 @ 10:51 am:== IPI actually believes Democrats have ants in their pants to raise taxes. It’s a major failure of the ideological Turing test. - Independent retired lawyer, journalist - Tuesday, Dec 8, 15 @ 10:31 pm: I don’t understand the impact of 60/30. Is that to say that come January Madigan has to appease Rauner because the legislature the Republicans say he controls can’t override the veto. Is this to say that by holding out to January, Rauner wins?? 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