In his address to Illinois lawmakers this afternoon about his spending plan for next year, Gov. Bruce Rauner spoke of the need for bipartisan compromise.
Democratic Senator John Sullivan appreciated the tone but said he didn’t hear anything new.
GOP Sen. Chuck Weaver placed responsibility on Democratic leadership for the budget battle.
State Rep. Norine Hammond says Rauner told Illinois the reality of where we’re at.
She says when weighing whether the standoff is worth the pain of not having a budget it depends on what is being reformed.
She tells WGIL that might not be necessary for higher education funding, something she cites as a top priority.
“I don’t necessarily know that we need reforms in place to do that because quite frankly because frankly many of our community colleges and universities have been doing reforms of their own,” Hammond says.
She disagrees with a possible alternative to budget negotiations, where legislators hand over a lump sum budget to Rauner and allow him to make cuts.
Rep. Don Moffitt says he would support that idea but also says the governor has been willing to negotiate.
“Basing on working together, basing it on making education a priority and making it clear we will not dig this deficit hole any deeper but start digging out,” Moffitt says. “I agree with those objectives.”
Moffitt has said he would prefer to take an up or down vote on the governor’s “turn around agenda.”
Another cornerstone of the governor’s speech included the importance of funding early childhood and K-12 education.
Weaver says that the only increase in spending the governor has talked about is in education.
“He’s put forth the highest spending we’ve ever had for early childhood and for K-12,” Weaver says. “And also a proposal that will deal with the MAP Grant issue.”
Rauner said he wants to raise early childhood education spending by 25% and fully fund the General State Aid foundation level for the first time in seven years.
But Democratic Senator John Sullivan who says both sides are to blame for the gridlock says he’s suspicious about where the funds for these increases would come from.
“The problem with it is without additional revenue then that means there’s going to have to be further cuts to other programs including higher education”.
Illinois is in the middle of it’s 8th month without a budget.
