GETTING HIS HOUSE IN ORDER
After not having enough reps for 2 straight days, Madigan announces override vote for Thursday
SPRINGFIELD — By Thursday, Illinois may finally see a budget agreement for the first time in more than two years — if Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan has his way.
The speaker announced the House will vote Thursday to override Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of a budget package that cleared the House on Sunday.
“The House will hold a vote on Thursday, July 6 to override the governor’s vetoes of the balanced budget sent to him,” Madigan said in a statement. “House Democrats look forward to working with our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to begin healing the wounds of the last several years.”
Speaking in the Hegewisch neighborhood of Chicago not long after Madigan issued that statement, Rauner again objected to what the House seems poised to do.
“Do not vote to override my veto,” Rauner said. “Do not raise taxes without fundamental reform.”
The House on Wednesday adjourned without taking override votes because not enough members were in attendance for the second day in a row.
Instead, the vote will occur Thursday. The House will convene at 1: 30 p. m.
Moody’s rating agency, meanwhile said in an email that it has placed the State of Illinois’ current rating of Baa3 “on review for possible downgrade.”
That review, according to Moody’s “incorporates our expectation that the Illinois House of Representatives will override Governor Rauner’s veto and implement revenue increases as part of the budget proposal.”
According to Moody’s, “despite the progress toward budget balance” in the legislative package, “… the plan appears to lack concrete measures that will materially improve Illinois’ long- term capacity to address its unfunded pension liabilities.”
On Independence Day, the Illinois Senate quickly passed the budget package, then quickly voted to override Rauner’s vetoes which came down quickly on Tuesday.
The House adjourned on Wednesday about 10: 15 a. m. with just 59 members in attendance. The most controversial element of the budget plan, a revenue measure that will hike the income- tax rate to 4.95 percent, had 71 votes — including 15 House Republicans.
Lawmakers were summoned to Springfield for 10 days of special session on June 21 and have been in session since. A new fiscal year began on July 1 — and credit agencies had warned that without a spending plan in place, the state’s bond rating could be downgraded to “junk” status.
The state has been without a full budget since July 1, 2015.