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 Rauner, a former private equity executive who was elected as a
Republican last November, is trying to cut costs and has threatened
to eliminate the government air service that shuttles between
Chicago and Springfield. Cancelling the flights would save $3
million a year, the state transportation department estimates.
While there are some Republicans in the Chicago suburbs who use the
service, the state planes have taken on symbolic importance as
Rauner jousts with Democratic leaders over ways to end years of big
Illinois budget deficits. House Speaker Mike Madigan rode the state
airplane 12 times from Jan. 12 to April 24, according to state
records. State Senate President John Cullerton took it nine times
during that period.
Lawmakers, state officials and staff authorized to ride the planes
are billed $119.72 one-way for the approximately one hour flight
between Chicago and Springfield, with the money paid from state
accounts. There are two regularly scheduled flights a day on normal
business days between Chicago and Springfield, one on the morning
and one in the evening.
 The state hasn't said how old the planes are, how it reckons it can
save $3 million a year by cancelling the Chicago shuttle, or what it
plans to do with the planes if they don't fly the shuttle. A used
King Air 350 turboprop costs about $3 million or more.
The state's air operations fleet flew over 5,400 passengers in
fiscal 2014, the Illinois transportation department said in its last
annual report. Flying with a full load of nine passengers, that
works out to about 600 flights a year, and would result in a charge
to the state of about $648,000 at a fee of $120 per passenger.
Rauner's airplane gambit is "just another irritation and pressure,"
said Dick Simpson, a political science professor at the University
of Illinois-Chicago.
Rauner, who faces a July 1 deadline for a new state budget, has said
in messages on his Twitter feed that he’s made the 195-mile trip
from Chicago to Springfield in a 1993 Volkswagen van with the
Twitter hash tag #rollingtrashcan.
"Need to pull up the antenna by hand in the #rollingtrashcan," one
Tweet read. The messages have since been removed.
Rauner, the former chairman of private equity firm GTCR, himself
reported adjusted gross income in 2013 of more than $60 million.
While campaigning for governor he reported $306,000 in aircraft
rides or airfare paid for by campaign contributors between October
2013 and November 2014, according to the Illinois State Board of
Elections.
Rauner has traveled by car while governor, except for once last week
when he used a state helicopter to assess tornado damage, his
spokeswoman said.
 The flight to Springfield doesn't match the impression of luxury
Rauner promoted when announcing plans to ground the shuttle, said
House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, a Democrat. "If anyone is thinking it's Air Force One or the kind of plane
Rauner in his previous life would fly, the answer is no," said
Currie, who rode the shuttle 18 times during the January-April
period.
The only onboard perquisite is an occasional self-service canister
of coffee, Currie said.
One former state official, who asked not to be identified, said
engine noise on the propeller-powered aircraft makes conversation
difficult, and the odor onboard is redolent of "old gym shoe."
Passengers face each other in two groupings of four facing seats,
though Madigan sometimes sits in the jump seat, the former official
said.
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Republican State Representative Bill Mitchell, who said he has
introduced bills to disband the shuttle service, said lawmakers
should take Amtrak trains or drive.
"You don't need to be a grand muckety-muck and fly. It's just
ridiculous," Mitchell said.
SPRINGFIELD STANDOFF
Rauner's plan for the state airplanes is just one facet of his
effort to create pressure on lawmakers to pass what he calls his
"turnaround agenda" and a new state budget. Rauner so far has
refused to consider tax increases, which Democrats favor, until the
legislature considers his calls for term limits, freezing local
property taxes, changes to workers' compensation laws, legislative
redistricting and limits on liability lawsuits.
Rauner has begun chiseling away at other spending programs dear to
lawmakers. Construction projects targeted to specific districts,
tourism outlays, fire fighter training and mass transit programs in
the Chicago area all will be suspended if there is no budget by
Wednesday.
Madigan has countered the governor's moves by conducting hearings
and staging votes that seem designed to show there is little support
for the governor's agenda.
Rauner on Thursday vetoed most of the piecemeal budget bills
Democrats passed in support of their proposed $36.3 billion spending
plan that relies on at least $3 billion in yet-to-be-identified new
revenue.
Without a veto override or an enacted budget for fiscal 2016, which
begins on Wednesday, most state payments will stop, including
workers' paychecks.
Rauner has personalized the standoff, unleashing television
advertising last week targeting Madigan "and the politicians he
controls" for supporting tax hikes and ignoring his proposals. When
the legislature passed a minor revision to workers' compensation
laws, Rauner called it a "phony reform."
"The (Senate) president, the speaker and the governor's office are
all dug in," said Tom Cross, the Illinois House Republican leader
from 2002 to 2013. "Maybe this is like a boxing match where they are
swinging pretty hard, but they're going to be worn out and then
figure this out."
(Reporting by Karen Pierog, editing by David Greising and John
Pickering)
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