|
 Rauner, a Republican who has been in an ongoing budget battle with
the state's Democratic majority legislature, said in a statement the
veto is to "protect Illinois taxpayers from an unbalanced and
therefore unconstitutional budget."
Rauner on Wednesday signed into law school funding legislation,
marking the first fiscal 2016 budget bill passed by Democratic
lawmakers to be enacted.
In total, Democrats had passed a $36.3 billion budget that relied on
cuts and at least $3 billion in yet-to-be-identified new revenue for
the fiscal year that begins July 1.
Rauner, though, wants lawmakers to adopt his so-called turnaround
agenda.
Illinois Comptroller Leslie Munger said earlier this month that if
Illinois does not have an enacted budget when its fiscal year starts
on July 1, state workers' paychecks and payments of money owed to
vendors and school districts will stop.[ID:nL1N0YW1BT}
 Payments on Illinois' $30 billion of outstanding bonds, however,
would continue.
There will not be a strike by the biggest union representing state
workers and the state will not lock out workers in July, according
to a joint statement from Rauner's office and the American
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31.
The month-long agreement will allow the two sides to continue
negotiations over a new contract to replace the one that expires on
Tuesday "without the threat of disruption to important public
services,” the statement said.
Letters were sent to state agency directors on Wednesday to ask that
they bring government shutdown preparation plans to a House
committee hearing next week, said Steve Brown, a spokesman for House
Speaker Michael Madigan, a Democrat.
[to top of second column] |
Brown said Rauner missed an opportunity "to avoid disrupting the
lives of many, many middle-class families."
"We cannot accept the status quo of throwing more taxpayer money
into a broke and broken system," Rauner said in an opinion piece
published on Thursday in the Chicago Tribune.
Illinois Senate President John Cullerton said that he would take
time to discuss next steps with other legislators.
"It appears that the governor would rather move the state toward a
shutdown rather than reasonable compromises that protect the middle
class with a balanced approach to budgeting," said Cullerton, a
Democrat, in a statement.
(Reporting by Mary Wisniewski; Additional reporting by Karen Pierog;
Editing by Lisa Lambert and Lisa Shumaker)
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