Today in his second State of the State address Gov. Bruce Rauner laid out a laundry list of reforms he hopes the General Assembly can tackle in the coming year.
Sen. Chuck Weaver says he was impressed with the Governor’s ten-point plan to improve state education.
He’s also been encouraged by Rauner’s willingness to work with Senate President John Cullerton on pension reform.
“We’re only saving $1 billion, I don’t know if went far enough,” Weaver says. “But I think he’s showing his willingness to try to cooperate and work with President Cullerton to come to a conclusion.”
Rep. Don Moffitt was supportive of many of Rauner’s ideas.
Moffitt has been saying this week that he wants an up or down vote on Rauner’s “turn around agenda”.
“That answers the question to what is doable or what is feasable, what can we pass,” Moffitt says. “If we keep talking about ideas and there’s never a vote we don’t know if it’s even a possibility.”
Rep. Norine Hammond approved of the Governor’s message on not raising taxes with out reforms.
“Raising our taxes with out making some changes is not going to solve the problem,” Hammond says.
The elephant in the room, the ongoing budget impasse was only briefly mentioned by Rauner towards the end of his speech. Illinois is nearing month seven without a spending plan in place.
