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* From the twitters…
@GovRauner says if general assembly doesn't go back to Springfield quickly, he will look at calling a special session pic.twitter.com/4ShMtbkKZZ
— Sarah Schulte (@SchulteABC7) June 8, 2017
* The Question: Should Gov. Rauner call a special session? Click here to take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 3:11 pm
Sorry, comments are closed at this time.
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Glad that the Guv was able to come to my neck of the woods. Didn’t get the invite for the press conference, unfortunately.
Comment by Romeo Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 3:13 pm
I call BS at the picture, Amazon’s work is done by robots! Those people in the background are hired stand-ins.
Comment by Stir Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 3:13 pm
The only reason to call the General Assembly back is if Governor Rauner also announces he will sign the Senate’s budget with ho pre-conditions.
Short of that, he could offer a serious counter-proposal for a budget and ask the House to vote on it, delivering all of the HGOP caucus for his plan.
Otherwise, what has changed since last week?
Comment by 47th Ward Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 3:15 pm
Yes, because special sessions always work so well.
Comment by El Conquistador Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 3:16 pm
Voted yes. If he doesn’t want a deal, and just wants to posture, a special session is the best way to achieve that goal. We’ll know what his true objectives are when we see what he does.
Comment by Workin' Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 3:16 pm
Why would Rauner want to do that, to blow up more budget bargains?
When Rauner’s actions, including less touring and incompetent babble, and more quiet work to get 71 and 36, then call them back.
Now? No. Vote No.
Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 3:19 pm
There is no scenario where the governor wins this battle. Republicans are highly unlikely to agree to vote for revenue before June 30th, so there will be no full year balanced budget. So the dems hold their hearings around the state, and make it obvious to everybody that revenue is necessary. When the end of the month nears, the dems will be forced to pass a stopgap so the schools can open on time. This happens whether or not the governor calls a special session. If the stopgap is run, pressure may be too great on republicans to NOT vote for it. So there will be no budget. With or without republican votes, the governor will receive a stopgap that will allow schools to open on time. If the governor signs that stopgap, he has gone back on his pledge to do that without structural reforms. If he vetoes it, he completely wears the closed schools jacket. Knowing that, and having had the rug pulled out from under them before, you tell me whether or not House and Senate Republicans vote for the stopgap. If they do, the governor has been abandoned by his party and he has no clothes. If they dont, they too will wear the closed schools jacket. Boy, I sure wouldnt want to be Bruce Rauner about now!
Comment by Anon Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 3:20 pm
Attention Gov and Gov’s Staff: Go read some stories about it worked out for Rod calling special sessions.
Comment by Give Me A Break Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 3:22 pm
Mostly agree with 47th.
The only reason to call the General Assembly back is if Governor Rauner announces he will put x number of House and n number of Senate GOP votes on the tax increase bill.
UNTIL the Governor pledges to raise the needed revenue, he isn’t serious.
Once you have the revenue in place, you can put together a realistic budget and argue over exactly where the new money goes … because all the existing revenue stream is already spoken for.
Comment by RNUG Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 3:22 pm
Just a comment on the photo, if you will indulge me. I notice the copying of the Amazon “Smile”, from A to Z. But, on the shirts, the smile goes from U to N. So, is there something “unfulfilled” here?
Comment by Silent Budgeteer Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 3:23 pm
Voted “yes.” Despite Rauner’s publicly-expressed indifference to bond ratings, I can’t believe he’s actually okay with a downgrade to junk on his watch.
Comment by tobias846 Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 3:24 pm
No, it would be a stunt, a sham, a pretense. Why is this so hard to see?
Comment by Dome Gnome Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 3:28 pm
where do I order up a budget for Amazon to deliver? That would be MY wish fulfillment. seriously, bringing back legislators without a deal only gives them a megaphone to bash the Gov. whereas now he gets to travel the state non-campaigning about the need for a budget deal that is not a deal nor funds the budget.
Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 3:31 pm
Waste of taxpayer dollars to send members back to Springfield when nothing will get resolved. Just wait for the next budget victim to be announced with no real sense of urgency by anyone to get a budget hammered out.
Senate Dems will continue their press release tour that we passed a budget while the House holds hearings on issues that everyone who has been following or impacted by the budget impasse is already well aware of the damage being done.
K-12 is the only bargaining tool left in order to get a deal worked out.
Comment by Get it Solved Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 3:31 pm
He should have done that two years ago. What a phony. He doesn’t want a budget deal until the entire government crashes and his privatization cronies come in and take over the “services” it’s supposed to provide.
Comment by Thomas Griffin Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 3:32 pm
Yes, they should. One side proposes a 2 year property tax freeze, the other side a 4 year freeze. I’m no math whiz, but it seems like there’s a midpoint somewhere in there.
Everyone is now in campaign mode, and the rhetoric has reached Trumpian levels. Negotiations won’t happen unless you lock everyone in a room with no air conditioning
Comment by Three-Finger Brown Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 3:34 pm
I voted no. You don’t have to be in session or in Springfield to negotiate. If Rauner would get off the campaign trail for a minute we might get something done.
Come to the table Governor. When you have a deal, call the members back.
Comment by Because I Said So.... Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 3:35 pm
Not a good idea in the middle of a critical phony campaign around the state.
Comment by P. Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 3:37 pm
No
Until he produces legislation for one of his shills to introduce that says exactly what he is willing to sign it would be a waste of everyone’s time.
Comment by Kevin Highland Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 3:37 pm
Because I Said So already said it.
To open schools you have to have a budget in place with additional revenue by July 1 in place.
Comment by Team Warwick Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 3:43 pm
It cam take up to 30days or more for the Comptroller to plug in the approps in our antiquated payments system AFTER they have a signed approps budget. Those approp lines have to be programmed in to run checks. It always takes that long since forever and dinosaurs walked the earth
Comment by Team Warwick Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 3:46 pm
It doesnt matter who the Comptroller is-it still takes that long because of the mechanical age of the computer system.
Comment by Team Warwick Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 3:48 pm
It’s OK if he has some of his own legislation to forward.
Comment by Levois Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 3:48 pm
Warwick, how did the schools open last year?
No on the special until there is a deal or it is likely to be a cluster of Rod’s GRT proportions.
Comment by Arthur Andersen Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 3:49 pm
I voted yes. And it will be nohing but a sham and farce. Good entertainment though and with luck it will be super hot weather in Springfield for all the assembly to enjoy
Comment by DuPage Saint Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 3:53 pm
Only if he releases the mushrooms he controls to vote for the Senate’s grand bargain.
Comment by PublicServant Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 3:56 pm
It would be far more credible for him to make that statement from his desk in the capitol than from the campaign trail. Voted no because of the phoniness.
Comment by Dance Band on the Titanic Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 4:03 pm
Voted Yes, but only so the GOP can continue to vote No on everything.
Comment by ILGOV2018 Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 4:13 pm
Only if he couples it with a willingness to compromise on the property tax bill and other matters. “I will take the middle ground and sign a three year freeze and accept the other terms of the Senate grand bargain.” Of course, if he made that statement, he likely wouldn’t need a special session.
Comment by Montrose Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 4:19 pm
I voted yes. Keep them there until there is a full budget. The fact that Rauner hasn’t called one yet implies that he’s in no hurry for a budget, which most of us on this site already knew.
Comment by The Dude Abides Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 4:37 pm
You’ve got to be joking. To vote on what?
Comment by walker Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 5:16 pm
I voted no. Why pay them to have them not vote on something. I would change my vote to yes if the Governor was forced to stay in Springfield for the entire special session and not allowed to campaign.
Comment by Consulting 101 Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 5:17 pm
Go ahead and call a special session if you believe that is necessary. But for the love of God PLEASE hem your pants.
Comment by Steward As Well.... Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 5:21 pm
The boxes along the wall are filled with “g’s” ready for Amazon Prime shipping to the Director’s House at the State Fair Grounds.
To the post, call a special session. I would love to see the Speaker gavel it into session and gavel it closed after the roll call.
Comment by Huh? Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 5:32 pm
Voted no. Rauner does not want success. He wants chaos. Passing and signing a balanced budget with bi-partisan votes would effectively be his resignation. Springfield would stop shaking and he would have not reason to stick around.
Rauner remains a complete and utter disappointment.
Comment by DuPage Dave Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 6:29 pm
A special session would be a waste of time. In the summer of 2015, after listening to “State Week” for years and reading Capitol Fax daily for about 18 months, then weighing the evidence, I came to the same conclusion as others on this blog who believe the Governor does not want a budget. He wants to create a sense of crisis, blame it on the Democrats, get a Republican state legislature voted in, and pass laws that would make Illinois resemble Wisconsin, Indiana, Iowa, and Kansas. He thought he could accomplish that in 2016, but only dented the Democratic majority a bit. For a while in January he looked like he might relent, but soon the word “persist” leapt to his lips and this has been his mantra ever since. His rhetoric about the “majority party,” his claim that THEY want to create crisis, etc., all suggest he is already in full campaign mode, telling his crew “steady as she goes,” and aiming at a takeover in 2018. He knows exactly what he is doing. At the same time he is savvy enough not to do anything that would alarm the voters. Hence his signature on the K-12 budget in 2015 and the half-year budget in 2016. There is nothing to pressure him to pass a budget this year, so it likely will not happen.
What might provide enough pressure for him to make a deal? If the Comptroller runs out of money for paychecks, or if some of the other autopilot spending cannot be covered, the blow-back on Republican legislators may be enough for them to threaten to bolt. If he worries that even $70 million might not be enough to protect Republican seats, then he may be willing to come to the table. Until then he will continue to rely on the hermetically sealed rhetoric machine that immediately turns everything back on his critics, and phrases it in ways that align with the anger of resentful, self-righteous residents who have a high rate of voter turnout.
So — If there’s no pressure then there will be no deal, and no point in a special session.
PS — What might soften the hardened hearts of the resentful? Not those ’roundtables on the impact of the budget impasse.’ I listened to one posted on NPR Illinois. State employee after state employee stood up to describe how devastating the impasse had been for their lives. These are the very people the hard-hearted WANT to see ‘taken down a notch.’ They’ll take an angry pleasure in hearing about the harm being done to state employees, and possessively stroke their angry self-pity the way Gollum stroked his ring of power. (Sorry — the image is just too good a fit to not use it.) Unless they hear about harm being done to people they experience as being just like them, the budget roundtables and other such exercises will have no effect.
Comment by resistanceisfutile Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 6:46 pm
All indications are that he is angling for a bankruptcy. It’s time for other candidates for governor to go to Springfield and assure any Republicans that vote for a budget that they will be protected by the Democratic party. State first. Anyone who wants to avoid bankruptcy is on the same team. Rauner is on the other side.
Comment by Biker Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 8:50 pm
He should simply to run against a dem budget. Pass whatever they pass.
Comment by Duh Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 9:49 pm
Voted yes, but only after he has specific legislation for them to vote on, which means he would have to draft that legislation.
Comment by Just Me Thursday, Jun 8, 17 @ 10:55 pm
No to the special session, unless the Governor rolls out draft legislation and MOUs first.
Regarding the picture: I wasn’t invited to the event, and I’m not going to spend time looking up the footage on YouTube. But am I the only person who noticed that all the people on stage with him are women, and rape crisis and battered spouse services haven’t had an appropriation in almost a year? Who set up this visual, and what were those women offered (or threatened with) to get them to serve as background for this campaign stop?
Comment by Lynn S. Friday, Jun 9, 17 @ 9:05 am