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 Republican Rauner and the Democratic-controlled legislature have
been locked in a budget stalemate for nearly seven months.
"To achieve a grand compromise, we must cast partisanship and
ideology aside,” Rauner told the state legislature in his State of
the State address. “We must break from the politics of the past and
do what is right for the long term future of our state. I’m ready,
and it’s my genuine hope that you are too.”
Rauner, a political newcomer, became governor a year ago. The
wealthy venture capitalist used last year's annual speech to lay out
an ambitious agenda that included business-friendly changes to
workers' compensation, a freeze on local property taxes, curbs on
public-sector collective-bargaining, and legislative term limits.
 But Rauner's so-called turnaround hit a brick wall in the
legislature, where House Speaker Michael Madigan pronounced it
"extreme." The stalemate has left Illinois without a budget more
than halfway through fiscal 2016.
About 90 percent of state government is being funded through court
orders, an enacted spending bill for K-12 schools, and continuing
appropriations for pensions and bonds.
In a nearly 40-minute speech that drew robust Republican applause
but only a tepid Democratic response, Rauner did not abandon his
stalled plan and lobbed barbs at two primary Democratic
constituencies.
“I understand that union leaders and trial lawyers are putting
pressure on you to keep the status quo, but if we don’t offer a
competitive environment for businesses, pretty soon the unions won’t
have any more jobs to unionize and the trial lawyers won’t have any
more businesses to sue,” Rauner said, producing sarcastic laughter
from some Democratic lawmakers.
After the speech, Democrats continued to balk at the governor’s
agenda and questioned why he made no direct reference to the
casualties of the budget impasse, including the state’s university
system, rape-crisis centers and other human-service providers that
have been deprived of state funds.
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“I certainly would have appreciated it had he done that,” Madigan
told reporters.
But Rauner’s GOP ally, House Republican Leader Jim Durkin, dismissed
the speaker’s criticism.
“Today is the state of the state, not the state of the budget,”
Durkin said.
The day ended with the spectacle of the lone public Rauner
sympathizer within Madigan’s 71-member super-majority Democratic
caucus lashing out at the speaker while appearing before reporters
and carrying a red sleeping bag and backpack.
State Rep. Ken Dunkin, a Chicago Democrat, used his props to
dramatize his willingness to stay at the Capitol and even “shower”
in the speaker’s private statehouse bathroom for as long as it takes
to strike a budget deal.
For a deal to happen, Madigan needs to “stop holding the citizens of
Illinois hostage to his political maneuvering, to his political
shenanigans, and actually get things done,” Dunkin said.
(Additional reporting by Karen Pierog in Chicago; Editing by G
Crosse, Matthew Lewis and Bernard Orr)
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