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The impasse
between Republican Governor Bruce Rauner and Democrats who
control the House and Senate showed no overt sign of ending,
which could push budget deliberations past Wednesday's scheduled
end of the legislative session. Starting on Thursday, lawmakers
would need to muster a tougher majority vote of three-fifths to
pass a spending plan.
The nation's fifth-largest state is nearing the June 30 end of
its unprecedented second-straight fiscal year without a full
budget. As a result, Illinois' pile of unpaid bills, a barometer
of the state's structural deficit, has topped $14 billion. Major
rating agencies, which have pushed Illinois down the credit
scale six times to a level two steps above junk since Rauner
took office in January 2015, have signaled more downgrades are
possible.
Despite offering no evidence that a budget deal with Democrats
is imminent, Rauner told a Facebook Live audience on Tuesday he
believed a budget accord was within striking distance – as long
as it included “true, lasting property tax relief.” “One way or
another, we’re going to get this done,” Rauner said.
“Persistence is the key.”
In a new wrinkle on his property-tax freeze pitch, Rauner said
he believed residents should have the ability to force local
governments through referenda to lower property taxes.
That provision was not included in two separate
Democratic-sponsored property-tax freeze measures that passed
the Senate and moved to the House on Tuesday. Both offered
two-year freezes on property-tax extensions for school districts
and local governments outside Chicago. Levies dedicated to
pension and debt payments were exempted from the freeze.
After the bills passed the Senate with veto-proof majorities,
the governor’s office pounced on the legislation as
unacceptable. “This is a phony two-year freeze riddled with
holes being offered in exchange for a very real and permanent,
massive tax hike,” Rauner spokeswoman Eleni Demertzis said. A
$37.3 billion fiscal 2018 budget plan that includes income tax
hikes, a sales tax on services, and spending cuts passed the
Senate last week with no Republican votes. (Editing by Matthew
Lewis)
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