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 Veteran House Speaker Michael Madigan said he would present an
emergency one-month budget on Wednesday to keep essential services
operating, but Republican Governor Bruce Rauner, in office since
January, has signaled he would not accept such a measure.
"This is another opportunity to not shut down the government,"
Madigan told reporters.
Also on Tuesday, the Chicago Public Schools made a $634 million
state-mandated payment to its teachers' pension fund beating a
midnight deadline, according to a fund official.
Madigan said the payment eliminated the need for legislation that
would have given the cash-strapped district another 40 days. School
administrators did not say how they came up with the funds for the
huge payment that had become the latest in the recurring fiscal
crises rocking Illinois and its biggest city, Chicago.
Illinois has the worst-funded pension system and the lowest credit
ratings among the 50 states, and one credit rating agency has
assigned junk-bond status to Chicago.
 Madigan said his $2.26 billion temporary state budget will fund
services including Medicaid, corrections, state police and
childcare.
Rauner, who last week vetoed most of a $36.3 billion budget passed
by Democrats, has said he would not accept a temporary fiscal 2016
budget.
Earlier on Tuesday, Rauner vowed to keep the fifth-largest U.S.
state operating in the absence of an enacted spending plan.
"In the meantime, we're going to manage the government without a
budget, try to minimize the disruption to the people of Illinois and
we're committed to working hard to make sure the men and women that
serve the government are paid their full salaries on time," he said.
The governor has insisted the House and Senate - both controlled by
Democrats - take up his-so-called turnaround reforms, including a
local property tax freeze, legislative term limits, and workers'
compensation changes, in order to aid the state's sagging finances
and boost economic growth.
POTENTIAL SHUTDOWN
The House held a sometimes-contentious meeting on Tuesday over a
potential government shutdown. State agency heads who were invited
to testify did not appear and were represented instead by top budget
and legal officials in Rauner's administration.
Democrats called dozens of tearful disabled people, the elderly,
parents of autistic children, social service and healthcare
providers and caregivers, to testify that they will face hardship if
Rauner's proposed budget cuts are implemented.
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"The people of Illinois need to know who will be hurt and what we
will do to provide essential services ... who will be paid, who
won't be paid," said Democratic State Representative Lou Lang, who
chaired the meeting.
Rauner signed a school funding budget into law, but vetoed other
fiscal 2016 spending bills, citing a nearly $4 billion hole in the
Democrats' $36.3 billion budget.
Illinois Budget Director Tim Nuding said the budget violated the
state constitution because of the revenue gap.
"It deserved to be vetoed," he told the House.
The Illinois comptroller has said most state payments, including
payroll, will stop without appropriated funds. State Attorney
General Lisa Madigan on Monday said Illinois' constitution and
statutes prohibit expenditures in the absence of an approved budget.
But Rauner insisted that a deal can be worked out to keep paying
workers. He also rejected criticism from Speaker Madigan, who has
said Rauner's "extreme" reforms were deterring progress on a budget
deal.
"Our policies are not extreme at all. They're common sense and
they're bipartisan," Rauner said, adding Illinois' debt, deficit,
property taxes, and conflicts of interest were extreme instead.
Regarding the last-minute payment to the Chicago teachers' pension
fund, representatives of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and CPS did not
immediately respond to requests for comment. The Chicago Board of
Education last week approved a $200 million cash-flow borrowing that
could be tapped for the payment.
(Additional reporting by Karen Pierog in Chicago; Editing by David
Greising, Matthew Lewis and Bernard Orr)
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