MA DIG AN INTRODUCES BUDGET: ‘NOBODY GETS 100 PERCENT’
SPRINGFIELD — Declaring “nobody gets 100 percent,” Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan on Tuesday laid out his own spending plan and signaled he’s ready to vote on four key reforms — despite ongoing negotiations and House Republican concerns that his budget isn’t balanced.
Legislators have just three more days of a special session to pass a budget before a new fiscal year begins Saturday.
On Tuesday, leaders met for the second time since Sunday— sans Gov. Bruce Rauner. And once again, Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin voiced concerns over Democratic “dilution” of reform measures, while accusing Democrats of moving the goal posts.
But Madigan told reporters he plans to call four reforms for a vote on Wednesday: workers’ compensation reform, a property tax freeze, local government consolidation and pension reform.
“This is governmental negotiation, and I think you all know that in governmental negotiation, like negotiations in most other areas, nobody gets 100 percent,” Madigan said of the governor’s reform asks. “Everybody gets something less than 100 percent.”
More importantly, Madigan unveiled his budget plan, which spends $ 36.4 billion — $ 3 billion less than what the state is currently spending, and also lower than the governor’s proposed spending plan of $ 37.3 billion. The measure includes $ 3 billion in cuts and $ 5 billion in revenue assumed by a Senate measure.
“I’m not saying that this is perfect. I’m not saying that it completely meets every request of the governor, but I think that it goes a longway toward giving the state of Illinois a good, solid spending plan that responds to the real needs of the state, the real needs of the people of the state and significantly is below the level of the governor’s introduced budget,” Madigan said.
Durkin, in turn, said he can’t trust that the plan is balanced without Democrats first filing a budget implementation bill to show cuts, as well as their revenue plan. Republicans want to know whether the income tax hike will truly stay at 4.95 percent and if it will be a temporary or permanent hike. And there are of course political ramifications to having members vote for a revenue hike.
There’s still no concrete plan to pay the bill backlog, aswell. The state is currently paying 12 percent interest on those bills. With refinancing, the state can get that down to 4.5 or 5 percent, but they would need new revenue. In budget talks, Senate Democrats contemplated bumping the income tax to 5.25 percent to pay down the backlog, but other ideas are being discussed as well.
Durkin said the Democratic reforms Madigan will call for a vote don’t contain bipartisan compromise. Madigan, however, said there is “substantial compromise” in them.
The question is whether frustrated House Republicans will vote for any of them, putting votes on the board to try to help end the historic impasse that’s dragged on since July 2015. Madigan would need all Democrats and four Republican votes to clear his version of reforms.