Rauner late Friday afternoon released his proposed format, but on Saturday his
staff said he would push the meeting back to accommodate House Speaker Michael
Madigan, D-Chicago, who won’t be available Wednesday, Nov. 18, because he will
be attending a family funeral out of state.
In a letter on Friday from the governor to Madigan, Senate President John
Cullerton, Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno and House Republican
leader Jim Durkin, the governor outlined the following format:
— The meeting begins at 8:30 a.m. in the governor’s Springfield office, with a
pool camera streaming video to media outlets.
— The governor opens the meeting and explains the format.
— The governor and the leaders then take 10 minutes each “to make his or her
case to the people of Illinois — uninterrupted and unfiltered.”
— The meeting next goes private (no camera) for negotiations.
— When the meeting has adjourned, any or all of the participants conduct their
news conferences outside the governor’s office.
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Rauner said the format strikes a balance of giving the public
access yet keeping the negotiating time useful.
“It affords each of us the opportunity to address the people of
Illinois without interruption or media filter — and it strikes a
balance to ensure we maintain decorum and a constructive atmosphere
for negotiations,” he wrote in his letter to the leaders.
A coalition of good-government groups in October called for the
meeting and offered to facilitate it to get the governor and four
leaders talking again.
Illinois is now in its fifth month fifth of fiscal year 2016 with no
budget as the first-term Republican governor and legislative
Democrats — who have supermajority numbers in each chamber of the
General Assembly — continue to disagree on the state’s finances and
Rauner’s agenda.
All of the leaders had indicated they planned to attend a Nov. 18
meeting, although Madigan said he wanted to see an agenda before
he’d commit after Rauner wrote to the civic groups saying the
governor’s office would organize and host the meeting.
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