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 The measure couples a two-year tax freeze with a $74 million
increase in state funding for high-poverty school districts and the
creation of a commission to change Illinois' school funding formula.
The state would contribute $200 million a year for two years toward
pension and healthcare costs at CPS without a reduction in the
district's $600 million state grant funding, according to the
Republican governor.
The bill also contains elements that Democrats, who control the
House and Senate, have been unwilling to embrace. These include
allowing local governments and schools to limit collective
bargaining, to adopt their own prevailing wage requirements and
restrict workers' compensation claims.
"This will be a transformational change, improvement for the state
of Illinois and allow us to move forward and complete the rest of
the budgeting process," Rauner told reporters.
He called on powerful House Speaker Michael Madigan to take up the
bill in its entirety and urged individual lawmakers to vote for the
best interests of their residents and not "for some higher power."
Madigan's spokesman, Steve Brown, said the House has debated a
property tax freeze for months and will take a look at Rauner's
latest proposal, as well as a measure passed by the Senate earlier
this month that includes a tax freeze and pension relief for CPS.
John Patterson, a spokesman for Senate President John Cullerton,
called Rauner's bill "totally unacceptable."
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"If Governor Rauner is serious about helping Chicago schools and
providing relief to taxpayers across our state, he should help push
the Senate president's legislation across the finish line now,"
Patterson said.
Illinois on Wednesday will mark its seventh week of operating
without a fiscal 2016 budget. Rauner said his administration was
negotiating over the budget "almost every single day." In the
meantime, certain services and state payroll are being funded under
court orders.
CPS, the nation's third-largest public school system, is drowning
under rapidly rising pension costs that are largely to blame for a
$1.1 billion budget hole. The district last week proposed a $5.7
billion fiscal 2016 spending plan that relies on $500 million in
pension savings from the state.
(Reporting by Karen Pierog; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
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