35 Comments - ILGOV2018 - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 10:14 am: YES! Let them stay in session until they hammer out a budget. Enough is enough! Covfefe! - Chicago Cynic - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 10:14 am: What’s the point if there’s no deal? - MR. RJG - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 10:18 am: It’s about time! He should had been called a special session three years ago. - Saluki - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 10:19 am: I don’t think he should. As much as we need a budget, I just don’t want to hear anything from these people for a few weeks. - SAP - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 10:19 am: No.. As Rocket J. Squirrel always says: “That trick never works”. Bringing the legislature to town when you don’t have anything for them to do accomplishes nothing, and if the Governor brings them in, we have to pay them to do nothing. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 10:20 am: I do. Call them back. Now, if the Governor decides to travel during those “Special Sessions” instead of being engaged, then what is Rauner doing, holding, not just the TWO caucuses he personally (with Diana, Uihlein and Griffin) owns, but all four caucuses to a 71 and 36 Rauner won’t work to get? Rauner will look more inpotent traveling and calling them all back then trying to have “dueling traveling sideshows”, something Rauner seems to fear… a lot. So, call them back. Highlight your ineffectiveness, governor… I don’t mind. - Ron Burgundy - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 10:25 am: Sure. It’s a crisis situation and maybe they will get so sick of each other that they will accomplish something. - Sideline watcher - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 10:25 am: Only the House. - wordslinger - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 10:25 am: To do what? This hobby of Rauner’s is costing us all a lot of money and suffering. - The Captain - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 10:27 am: “If they won’t come back, if they refuse to come back, …. ” In Bruce Rauner’s alternate reality has the House not yet announced they would be in every Wednesday in June? - Ahoy! - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 10:27 am: Only if he has a reason too, otherwise it just costs more money. - BIG R. Ph. - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 10:30 am: No! This will not get solved until there is a severe pain point. The next big pain point is the schools opening in the fall. If they don’t open ALL of the politicians will feel the pain from parents etc and may finally be convinced to act. Therefore, no stopgap budget! - Been There - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 10:30 am: The house already is planning on approps hearings and coming back later in a few weeks. So why bother calling a special session. On the other hand I think he should call a leaders meeting and keep calling them. Or least call of meeting of their chief of staffs and/or other budget leaders. - Steve Rogers - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 10:35 am: Why not? It worked so well all 36 times with Blagojevich? - Impasse Casualty - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 10:36 am: I’d call them back. It would be more productive than more non-campaign campaign tours. - Dance Band on the Titanic - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 10:37 am: If he has a balanced budget proposal he wants to introduce, then by all means call a special session ASAP. - ShaggyDog - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 10:38 am: Only if he will be there himself like he should have been the last 2 years. - Slippin' Jimmy - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 10:42 am: If they won’t come back, if they refuse to come back, we may have to resort to calling them back into a special session- Sorry, but that’s either a linguine spined person statement or a really apathetic response to a serious question. - Flapdoodle - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 10:44 am: Calling them back w/o some solid plan makes little sense, just another media event. But neither does letting them off scot-free. I want those people — legislators and guv — to feel as much heat as possible, to know how morally reprehensible their inaction has been. Maybe they should all endure public shamings back in their districts, then finally get to work. - Kevin Highland - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 10:46 am: No special session unless he submits a balanced budget and a MOU saying that if passed as submitted he will sign it. It should literally be only a budget. No Turn-around agenda items should be in it. - AlfondoGonz - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 10:50 am: The only reason he would would be because he is betting the political fallout for completing a special session without a budget would be worse for the D’s then himself. Because God, Rauner, and everyone else knows that there isn’t gonna be a budget. - Trapped in the 'burbs - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 10:57 am: Let’s keep them there until they pass some bills that he can veto. - DuPage Bard - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 10:58 am: He shouldn’t call them back. He will though, there is too much at stake for his reelection to make it not look like he’s going to punish them. - Get it Solved - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 11:11 am: No reason to call them back and waste even more money on daily per diems. Continue to meet with leaders and budget appointed members and get a deal done. - Ed Higher - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 11:15 am: Under what realistic scenario is the state supposed to recover from this? Lock the doors, send everyone home. - here we go again... - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 11:28 am: I have a dumb question, do they need a supermajority vote to pass anything during a special session called on by the Governor? - Big Joe - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 11:35 am: Sure, bring them back. But only after the 4 leaders and the governor have met EVERY day to hammer out a budget that will get passed without any TA items. Work on the TA reforms after the budget is passed. You just know the Rauner wouldn’t do that, but that is my opinion on bringing them all back. - Anonymous - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 11:42 am: Why not? Gov. Martinez did in New Mexico. - Professor - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 11:43 am: Special sessions cost taxpayers money. Remember Blagojevich. They (meaning the governor and the legislature) should come back only if they have an agreement. - doggonit - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 12:02 pm: Yes, send them back, perhaps being together will help the Reps realize the power they have to buck the governor. They want to. - sharkette - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 12:07 pm: “Governor brings them in, we have to pay them to do nothing.” ? And we have been paying them to do something? for going into 3 years? What was it? they did? - Cubs in '16 - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 12:22 pm: On one hand, calling them back could appear as some semblance of leadership. On the other, Blago and Quinn were hammered for calling special sessions. Not sure what it would really accomplish here. - Ghost - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 12:24 pm: In the history of Illinois has a special session ever netted an agreement when one hadnt already been reached? we dont habe money to pay social services but the gov will waste cash on this - Mama - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 2:56 pm: I thought Madigan said his people will continue to work on the budget in Chicago. - Mama - Friday, Jun 2, 17 @ 3:01 pm: What good would it do to call the House back to Springfield if they don’t have the votes. Plus the House knows Rauner will veto any budget they pass. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.