 Republicans were furious with the Democrats’ maneuvers.
“When you have increased budgets and increased grant lines year after year after
year with no way to pay for this spending, at some point there are consequences
to be paid,” Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) said to the other side of the aisle,
who have been in the majority since 1996. “And unfortunately, we have to pay the
consequences now. We have to right-size our budget.”
Ives went on with a list of numbers reflecting Illinois’ economic woes: 236,000
jobs down since the 2009 Great Recession, 100,000 residents lost in 2014 alone,
2,000 steel jobs to be lost soon, and 1,800 payroll jobs expected to be lost
later this year.
“Where were your values in the last decade, when you were completely in charge?”
Ives demanded.
Emotions were stirred after House Speaker Madigan had loyal Democrat House
members support numerous floor amendments that added to the Rauner’s budget,
avoiding committee hearings and non-legislative witness testimonies.
Republican lawmakers were asked to accept or reject the Democrat budget floor
amendments on programs for the elderly, the disabled and foster children that
they had no opportunity to assess beforehand.
Voting “yes,” Republicans would be saying they embrace Speaker Madigan’s changes
to the governor’s budget. Voting “no,” would provide Speaker Madigan roll calls
that could be used in campaign literature against Republicans.
Vote after vote, the Republican minority pushed their yellow “Present” buttons
as protest votes, State Rep. Keith Wheeler (R) said.
“To protest the abandonment of the process, you will see that I voted Present on
each of those amendments,” Wheeler said. “So much so, that I asked my Present
button be relabeled “Protest.” When you see a Present vote, you’ll know that it
is a signal for protest.”
Throughout the Republicans’ comments, Democrat House members jeered and taunted.
[to top of second column] |
On May 11th, Governor Rauner called those fireworks “political
theater,” and said he was “cautiously optimistic” about reaching a
bipartisan solution before May 31st, despite last week’s House
explosive floor discussion.
“There tends to be frequently some political theater, I’ll call it.
We are working very well in our discussions, in our working groups
and among our chiefs of staff, we’re making progress. I think we’re
gonna find some bipartisan solution in the next couple of weeks. I’m
cautiously optimistic,” Rauner said after addressing a commencement
in Lincoln, Illinois over the weekend.
Rauner offered his first proposed budget earlier this year with a
combination of cuts and fund maneuvers. State law requires Illinois’
budget to be balanced, and Rauner had a $6 billion budget deficit
dumped in his lap.
While Republicans are pushing to stay away from tax hikes to balance
the budget, Democrats are pushing for more revenue rather than
making cuts to state programs.
Since Rauner’s proposal was made public in February, officials from
cut or reduced programs, as well as state union employees and
agencies, have been protesting and lobbying lawmakers at the State
Capitol.
State Rep. Robyn Gabel (D-Evanston) said at a Chamber of Commerce
forum in Chicago Monday that Illinois can’t solve its financial
problems without some tax increases. That’s something even Democrats
avoid because Illinois has a flat income tax system, making a hike
affect all income levels.
But it won’t be easy to change to the progressive tax system
Democrats want, State Senator Daniel Biss (D-Chicago) said. In fact,
such a change will take an amendment to the state constitution.
Throughout the nation, 22 states are facing budget deficits in 2015.
Six billion dollars in the red, Illinois is by far the deepest in
debt.
This article was written by a contributor of Watchdog Arena,
Franklin Center’s network of writers, bloggers, and citizen
journalists.
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