* From the Illinois Policy Institute’s news service about a Senate hearing yesterday…

Tim Nuding, Gov. Bruce Rauner’s budget director, said the governor’s office is doing all it can, but the burden remains on the Legislature to pass a balanced budget.

“We’re doing what we can do with tools we’ve been given to manage toward a balanced budget,” Nuding said.

The panel’s Democrats didn’t warm to the idea the budget mess was entirely on the Legislature or particularly on majority Democrats.

“I just find it kind of unhelpful and it sort of makes my teeth hurt to hear this consistent effort to throw the hot potato of blame around when, in fact, there is no possible resolution to these these problems that exists exclusively in the executive or legislative branches,” Biss said.

Although he nodded in recognition of Biss’ point regarding a three-branched government, Nuding said it was disingenuous for Democrats to say the governor could have simply crafted a workable budget by applying his veto pen to an underfunded Democratic spending plan.

Rauner’s simply using his power as governor to rewrite certain lines or to reduce certain amounts wasn’t going to get the job done, Nuding said.

“That’s a myth,” Nuding said, explaining that neither math nor the law nor the General Assembly as it is now constituted would allow for such an easy answer.

“To sit there and make a characterization that we could have solved this problem simply with the veto pen — that is just not accurate,” he said.

* You can watch the hearing by clicking here. More of what Nuding said…

“The Legislature, again, respectfully, has done little to nothing to change laws to reduce spending, either in the area of pensions, Medicaid rates, transfers out to local governments - any of those items that you control. Absent any changes there to reduce spending we are on target to spend somewhere in the range of $36 to $37 billion.

“Now, the administration has taken some steps which we’ve announced to try and manage in areas where we can. But the universe of spending areas where we have control is really quite limited because the Legislature, again, controls large pieces of the budget by the law, either through statute or continuing appropriations. And with the courts stepping in and enforcing consent decree payments without a budget in place, the amount of flexibility the administration has to manage this situation is even less.

“And we could solve all of this tomorrow if the Legislature would pass a balanced budget.”

* Director Nuding was then asked whether Rauner could’ve just used his line item veto powers…

“That’s a myth. That is a myth, Senator. The way this was structured, and it was by design, the governor did not have that option because of the spending that you lock in by law.

“So, let’s take as an example the Medicaid rates. The governor could’ve done a reduction veto on Medicaid spending. Wouldn’t have mattered at all, because spending is controlled by rates that are put in law by you. And we have to, by federal law, provide those services that are in statute by you. So to say that the governor could’ve line item vetoed or reduction vetoed is just simply inaccurate. The numbers don’t work.”

On Medicaid, at least, he’s right. Same goes for transfers out.

* But there’s a bunch of money beyond those two things. Rauner would not have been able to fully balance the budget, but he could’ve got it closer to balancing than it is now by using his veto powers.

Also, Gov. Rauner not only used his own lawyers to make sure employees got paid (which is a major fiscal burden), but he has yet to ask any of the stakeholders or courts to renegotiate the consent decrees.

Their hands are not completely tied here.