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Monday, May 14, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Gov. Rauner at the Kemp Forum…

Gov. Rauner: All I said was ‘Let’s balance the budget.’ I proposed a balanced budget every year. They ignored it, passed an out of balanced budget that was billions of dollars in deficit, forcing me to veto it. I’m not gonna sign off on deficit spending that causes more debt on the people of Illinois and pushes more jobs out.

Charles Thomas: But is there a possibility that we could not have a budget by the end of this month?

Gov. Rauner: Madigan has indicated that his preference is to, you heard what he said in 2015. ‘Raise the income tax’ back in 2015. I was able to hold that off for two years, saved Illinois a lot of money by fighting against him on that, but he got it done over my veto. And then he said ‘We’ll go up from there.’ He wants more deficit spending so he can force another tax hike and take it to a constitutional referendum. The people of Illinois are protected by our constitution. We have a constitutionally protected flat income tax. It’s the one policy competitive advantage we have.

Whew. He sure packed a lot of unchalleged hooey into those two comments. Where to begin?

The governor’s first three budgets were not balanced. Period. He knocked the Senate’s “Grand Bargain” negotiations off the tracks more times than I could count, even though he was getting much of what he wanted. He didn’t sign the budget last year because it was funded with a tax increase that he said he opposed, even though they implemented the new tax rate he suggested. And then he used every dime of that new tax hike revenue to “precariously balance” his current budget proposal.

* And, for the umpteenth time, this is what Madigan said in 2015…

“Let me avoid creating a headline for tomorrow’s newspaper,” he joked, then proceeded to create one.

“A good place to begin, good place to begin would be the level we were at before the income tax expired,” Madigan said, referring to the 5 percent individual income tax rate and 7 percent corporate tax rate set in 2011 as part of a four-year temporary tax hike.

“And starting there, you can go in whatever direction you want to go,” Madigan said.

The governor also didn’t “save” any money by blocking a tax hike. Instead, he cost taxpayers over a billion dollars in interest on unpaid bills, almost forced some universities to go belly up, starved social service providers out of existence and kicked untold thousands of the most vulnerable Illinoisans to the curb.

* As far as Madigan wanting more deficit spending to create a need for another tax hike, that would require some mind-reading. However, Madigan has long tried to keep programs on starvation diets, pushed spending off, neglected pension payments, etc. for years (decades) until a tax hike became absolutely imperative.

Notice, though, that Gov. Rauner didn’t answer Charles’ question.

20 Comments

- Anonymous - Monday, May 14, 18 @ 2:10 pm:
Too much focus on Rauner, the outgoing Governor. Not enough focus on the fact that our finances are still precarious. Anyone read the Crain’s article today about real estate taxes?

- Concerned Dem - Monday, May 14, 18 @ 2:13 pm:
Please take note Team Pritzker… no one is going to help you call out Bruce Rauner on his BS (Budgetary Shenanigans), you have to make that case yourself, get to work please and thank you.

- wordslinger - Monday, May 14, 18 @ 2:17 pm:
–I proposed a balanced budget every year. –

Just let that first one slide, Charles? Unbelievable. A potted plant could have done as well.

- Jocko - Monday, May 14, 18 @ 2:20 pm:
He’s approaching Forrest Gumpian levels of revisionism.

Why not mention being aware of the VW scandal, warning Charlie Hebdo, and trying to stop Brexit?

- Ducky LaMoore - Monday, May 14, 18 @ 2:29 pm:
To quote Del Griffith (John Candy) in Planes, Trains and Automobiles… “And if they told you wolverines make good house pets, would you believe them?”

- TominChicago - Monday, May 14, 18 @ 3:00 pm:
Why does the press let him get away with the bs constantly?

- dbk - Monday, May 14, 18 @ 3:08 pm:
In the olden days when our offspring were young, and my spouse got to teasing them with utter nonsense, Offspring #1 would look at me piteously and say, “Please, make him stop.”

Alas, I wasn’t in control.

We all know the gov’s not in control, he’s told us so, but is there nobody, nobody at all anywhere on the horizon who can control him?

It’s only Monday and this level of whopper-icity doesn’t bode well for the rest of the week.

- Nick Name - Monday, May 14, 18 @ 3:11 pm:
===Notice, though, that Gov. Rauner didn’t answer Charles’ question.===

There is not going to be a budget by May 31. Rauner does not want one; it is not the least bit in his political interests to have one. Even if the GA sends him one by the deadline — which remains doubtful — he still will veto it and we’ll have the same kabuki theatre in June and July that we’ve had the past three years. Lather, rinse, repeat.

- Louis G. Atsaves - Monday, May 14, 18 @ 3:13 pm:
===Why does the press let him get away with the bs constantly?===

Because the press, like the public, is aware that the Governor cannot create a budget all by himself, but he has to get a hostile legislature to agree with him?

- VanillaMan - Monday, May 14, 18 @ 3:16 pm:
My favorite part of the Rauner administration has been all the balanced proposed budgets. That, and them all being personally delivered by alien space unicorns from Planet Nowayinhell.

- Peace Love and Guitars - Monday, May 14, 18 @ 3:31 pm:
Whenever the Governor fails to answer a reporters question he should be fined, say $250,000 to be used to fund the State’s pension obligation. Who knows maybe we can make a dent in that unfunded liability

- Ducky LaMoore - Monday, May 14, 18 @ 3:38 pm:
Louis, the key word is propose. He does not need to fight a hostile legislature to propose a balanced budget.

- NeverPoliticallyCorrect - Monday, May 14, 18 @ 3:44 pm:
Rauner and Madigan, one lies about what you need and the other one ignores what you need. For the rest of us in Illinois it’s a no-win situation.

- NeverPoliticallyCorrect - Monday, May 14, 18 @ 3:44 pm:
Rauner and Madigan, one lies about what you need and the other one ignores what you need. For the rest of us in Illinois it’s a no-win situation.

- Demoralized - Monday, May 14, 18 @ 3:51 pm:
==Because the press, like the public, is aware that the Governor cannot create a budget all by himself, but he has to get a hostile legislature to agree with him?==

lol. The number of victim enablers out there amazes me. Do you guys have meetings on the mental gymnastics necessary to defend this hooey?

- TominChicago - Monday, May 14, 18 @ 4:12 pm:
Louis, so how does a hostle GA prevent Rauner from proposing an actual balanced budget?

- Norseman - Monday, May 14, 18 @ 4:19 pm:
And we can’t even get fries with these whoppers.

Can we hear the one about Gramps again? That’s a nice folksy lie.

- Earnest - Monday, May 14, 18 @ 4:20 pm:
>saved Illinois a lot of money by fighting against him on that,

Despite the quantity of lies Rauner laid out so quickly, I found myself stuck on this one as the most egregious. We’ll be paying off his excessive spending for years.

- regular democrat - Monday, May 14, 18 @ 5:38 pm:
I believe this guy needs the help of a doctor. An honest to goodness psychologist or even better a psychiatrist to examine how this person can lie so much and say the same lies over and over and possibly be taken seriously. Money doesnt buy you mental health.

- Rabid - Tuesday, May 15, 18 @ 9:09 am:
If you don’t dwell in the past, I can rewrite history

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