First day of special session ends with no progress – Peoria Journal Star

Doug Finke GateHouse Media Illinois

SPRINGFIELD Day one of the special legislative session ended quickly Wednesday with no movement on settling the states budget impasse, but with more of the finger-pointing that has characterized Illinois government for most of the last three years.

Republican lawmakers said the next move is up to House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, who has yet to outline specifics of a tax-and-spending plan that he and House Democrats will support.

House Democrats again complained about ads and mailers financed by Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Illinois Republican Party that attack Madigan and Democrats at the same time they need to work together to pass a budget or the pro-business changes Rauner wants.

Both the House and Senate spent only a few minutes actually in the 10-day special session called by Rauner to deal with budget issues. They will return for day two at noon Thursday. The states fiscal year ends June 30.

Democrats held a private meeting to review a Republican proposal that calls for spending $36 billion next year and not increasing that amount for four years. Rauner and Republican lawmakers have touted the plan as a compromise that should be acceptable to everyone.

There are some things in it I think we could be in agreement with. There are some things in it we could be in opposition to, said Rep. Greg Harris of Chicago, the House Democrats top budget negotiator. I think we looked at the Senate Democratic plan the same way.

Senate Democrats have approved a $37.3 billion spending plan, but it has not been taken up by the House.

Several Republican lawmakers held a news conference Wednesday morning to say the next move is basically up to Madigan.

It is important that the House Democrats come to the table to meet a compromise that moves forward for the people of Illinois, said Sen. Bill Brady of Bloomington, a principal author of the Republican spending proposal. The only caucus that has not put forward a plan of their own is the House Democrats.

Where is the speaker? That is the central question before us today, said Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon.

Madigan said hes in the same place that hes been in for the last 2 years.

That we ought to work on balancing the budget. That means there should be cuts and new revenue, Madigan said. Ive said that for 2 years.

Madigan said House Democrats have been working on a spending plan for several weeks that is not too far apart from the Republican spending plan.

House Democrats again Wednesday criticized Rauner and the state Republican Party for attacking Madigan and other Democrats while also saying they want to work with them to resolve the budget impasse. Rauner delivered a short speech Tuesday night that he billed as a call for unity ahead of the special session.

I think people would like to see us have the unity like the governor talked about the other night, but you cant ask for unity while youre spending millions and millions of dollars attacking the people youre trying to get unity with, Harris said.

Since the Democrat-controlled General Assembly failed to approve a budget by May 31, it will require Republican votes in the House to pass anything. It now takes a supermajority of 71 votes to pass bills in the House, including a budget. Democrats hold 67 seats.

Speaker Madigan and the House Democrats will need Republican votes if they want to end this impasse, said House Republican Leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs. It is up to them. The time for just having vague, general discussions is over.

Durkin also said Republicans are done with committees-of-the-whole in which the entire House hears testimony on a particular topic. However, thats exactly what the Democrats have in mind for Thursday and Friday. Thursday will be given over to a hearing on workers compensation changes, not the first time the House has done this. On Friday, the House will conduct a hearing on a property tax freeze.

Rauner and Republicans want to freeze property taxes for four years. The Senate approved a two-year freeze. Senate President John Cullerton said a longer freeze could harm financially vulnerable school districts.

During Wednesdays news conference, Durkin reiterated that the House Republicans arent interested in another stopgap measure if agreement cant be reached on full-year budget. Cullerton has also said he will not consider another stopgap spending plan since the Senate has approved a budget. And Rauner has said he wont sign a stopgap without approval of the other reforms hes been demanding.

Still, Harris said the House Democrats have not ruled anything in or out when it comes to a stopgap budget.

Lawmakers will meet in special session each day until June 30, including this weekend, unless they approve a budget earlier than that.

Contact Doug Finke: doug.finke@sj-r.com, (217) 788-1527, twitter.com/dougfinkesjr.

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First day of special session ends with no progress - Peoria Journal Star