* Press release…
Gov. Bruce Rauner today offered the following comment on the passage of the Fiscal Year 2019 budget:
“We started this year’s budget process with the common-sense goals of a full-year balanced budget and no new taxes. With this budget, we can come as close as any General Assembly and Governor in Illinois have in a very long time. It’s a step in the right direction, though it does not include much-needed debt paydown and reforms that would reduce taxes, grow our economy, create jobs and raise family incomes. The Fiscal Year 2019 budget is the result of bipartisan effort and compromise. We worked together to provide a budget to the people of Illinois that can be balanced, with hard work and continued bipartisan effort to deliver on the promises it makes. I’ll be taking action quickly to enact the Fiscal Year 19 budget into law.”
*** UPDATE *** Speaker Madigan…
House Speaker Michael J. Madigan issued the following statement Thursday after passing a bipartisan, balanced budget:
“For the second time in as many years, House Democrats have worked alongside our Republican colleagues in the Legislature to pass a bipartisan, balanced budget. As House Democrats have said throughout the past four years, when we can work together in good faith we can accomplish great things.
“Our budget holds the line on taxes and spending, and creates a $15 million surplus that will be used to pay down old bills. We cut government bureaucracy like high-paid consultants and duplicative IT systems at state agencies to invest our finite resources in critical services, provide $350 million in new funding for public schools, and reverse the governor’s cuts to education programs, health care, child care and senior services.
“While there is more work to be done, this compromise budget shows yet again that when extreme demands are not preconditions to negotiation, Democrats and Republicans in the Legislature can work together to move Illinois forward.”
- wordslinger - Thursday, May 31, 18 @ 4:21 pm:
Who’s this guy pretending to be Rauner, doing business with the corrupt in a broken system?
- Commonsense in Illinois - Thursday, May 31, 18 @ 4:23 pm:
A very nice statement.
Wonder who wrote it?
- Honeybear - Thursday, May 31, 18 @ 4:24 pm:
What did Rauner get out of this?
Was not appropriating stateworker steps all he wanted?
How does signing this budget hurt labor?
- Concerned Dem - Thursday, May 31, 18 @ 4:24 pm:
Again with the fairytale of “paying down debt” and “reducing taxes” at the same time. Rauner is the student that doesn’t turn in any work all semester and then on the last assignment does the bare minimum and expects to pass. Things he conveniently forgot… 1. He needed that tax increase to have a balanced budget 2. He is responsible for the state’s debt tripling during his term.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, May 31, 18 @ 4:25 pm:
And with that…
Bruce Rauner will wholly embrace and validate the 32% tax increase, signing a budget requiring that revenue and ripping his whole narrative that the 32% tax increase is/was excessive…
Try this one…
===…though it does not include much-needed debt paydown…===
… with the added revenue, it still doesn’t pay down the debt.
Bruce Rauner will certify with his signature the 32% tax increase was/is needed and warranted, and still bills are not getting paid with it.
Wow.
- Huh? - Thursday, May 31, 18 @ 4:26 pm:
So is he going to be sign it, knowing it uses the tax increase? Or is he going to let it go into effect in 60 days without his signature?
- Earnest - Thursday, May 31, 18 @ 4:27 pm:
>I’ll be taking action quickly to enact the Fiscal Year 19 budget into law
I hate to mince words, but if “enact” means that he’ll not spend unappropriated money and will spend appropriated money in a manner that will last the full fiscal year instead of running out ahead of time and needing a big additional appropriation, then, I’m excited to hear it.
- 360 Degree TurnAround - Thursday, May 31, 18 @ 4:31 pm:
He can not act on the bill at all and it will become law. That may be where he is heading.
- Rich - Thursday, May 31, 18 @ 4:32 pm:
I will believe it when I see the Public Act numbers that enacts the budget.
- Jman - Thursday, May 31, 18 @ 4:35 pm:
Greg Harris said before that Rauner told him he would sign the budget. So I don’t know what the difference is between signing and enacting unless he goes back on his word (which would be shocking I tell you, shocking).
- JS Mill - Thursday, May 31, 18 @ 4:38 pm:
=I’ll be taking action quickly to enact the Fiscal Year 19 budget into law.”=
What ever governor, just sign the budget. For once.
- Post My Loan - Thursday, May 31, 18 @ 4:38 pm:
“taking action quickly” would not indicate he will let the clock run out.
- Chris P. Bacon - Thursday, May 31, 18 @ 4:45 pm:
“I need to take action quickly because I have to get back on the campaign trail and bash the massive Madigan tax increase that I’m relying on in this budget that I’m crowing about.”
- Norseman - Thursday, May 31, 18 @ 4:48 pm:
I’d tell someone in the legislative office to explain to Rauner what enactment means, but the way it’s looking he won’t need to know after November.
The only reason he’ll sign the bill is because he can’t go into an election 0 for 4. Now he’s going to be 1 for 4.
- Nick Name - Thursday, May 31, 18 @ 4:53 pm:
Pritzker Crew, take note.
- RNUG - Thursday, May 31, 18 @ 4:55 pm:
Parsing the statement, enact doesn’t necessarily mean sign. He could let it pass without his signature. That would be another way of enacting the budget.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, May 31, 18 @ 4:57 pm:
===He could let it pass without his signature. That would be another way of enacting the budget.===
All 100% true, bud.
How can he passively let it happen quickly?
Then again, time seems irrelevant… at times.
- RNUG - Thursday, May 31, 18 @ 4:58 pm:
And as far as quickly goes, waiting 60 days would be much faster than he acted on Quincy.
- Pundent - Thursday, May 31, 18 @ 4:58 pm:
So a 32% tax increase and no “needed debt paydown” which was necessitated by Rauner running the debt up to $15B?
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, May 31, 18 @ 5:00 pm:
===And as far as quickly goes, waiting 60 days would be much faster than he acted on Quincy.===
Great minds, or me glomming on yours, take yer pick.
- PublicServant - Thursday, May 31, 18 @ 5:11 pm:
You tell him, Mike. Absent Rauner’s extreme demands, big things get done. He’s a lame duck, and would have been overridden and proven so, had he attempted tp veto it.
- VanillaMan - Thursday, May 31, 18 @ 5:12 pm:
Someone’s running for reelection, eh?
Perhaps that’s the key to get this terrible governor to govern?
- Wensicia - Thursday, May 31, 18 @ 5:22 pm:
I would have saved the Madigan comment for after Rauner’s signature on this budget.
- Sue - Thursday, May 31, 18 @ 5:47 pm:
Love if that Madigan can say his 15 million surplus goes to paying old bills which by the way exceed 2 billion. Too funny. Quite the rainy day fund 😆
- James Knell - Thursday, May 31, 18 @ 7:18 pm:
Wow… with temperatures dropping tonight and state budget I might actually sleep well tonight. Thanks “yea” votes.
- RNUG - Thursday, May 31, 18 @ 7:27 pm:
A million here, a million there
If Rauner was any kind of manager, he would have probably found $1B in savings through proper management … instead of blowing that amount and more on failed computer systems and pinstripe patronage.
- Just Me - Thursday, May 31, 18 @ 7:58 pm:
Remember: Approp AVs are different than substantive AVs. Rauner can AV a single line-item by a single number, and the rest of the bill becomes law. That way he can honestly say he didn’t “sign” it.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, May 31, 18 @ 8:02 pm:
===Remember: Approp AVs are different than substantive AVs. Rauner can AV a single line-item by a single number, and the rest of the bill becomes law. That way he can honestly say he didn’t “sign” it.===
Yeah… I wouldn’t do that… we’ve all gone over this, haven’t we?
Rauner won’t own cuts, would then own a signature for things he decided not to AV, and then have to spend weeks on end explaing “why here”, “why not there”…
No…
No, you sign clean, let the 153 explain their votes.
- Anonymous - Thursday, May 31, 18 @ 9:16 pm:
So. Any money in this budget for employees step rsises
- Anonymous - Thursday, May 31, 18 @ 9:38 pm:
Anon
No. Funds for steps was not included.
- Arthur Andersen - Thursday, May 31, 18 @ 10:05 pm:
RNUG, amen. I read the budget, all of it, and was stunned by the amount of nonsense (to be polite) in there. The price of bipartisanship is high in Illinois, as usual.
- Anonymous - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 12:40 am:
If Blagojevich gets a commuted sentence, will he be able to run for office again? Could he win? He was better than Rauner.
- PublicServant - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 5:56 am:
===The price of bipartisanship is high in Illinois, as usual.===
While true AA, it’s less costly than gridlock apparently.
- Anon221 - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 8:57 am:
“Enact” may be Rauner’s code for, “I don’t have to spend it if I don’t want to,” delay tactics even if he doesn’t sign and just let’s the budget “come into being”.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 9:09 am:
===“Enact” may be Rauner’s code for, “I don’t have to spend it if I don’t want to,” delay tactics even if he doesn’t sign and just let’s the budget “come into being”.===
Yeah, I wouldn’t do that either.
We’re five months away from election day and deciding to withhold monies and facing someone willing to spend 9-figures to defeat you… and this budget passing 153-20…. yeah, i wouldn’t mess too much with this very specific budget.