GOV SETS SCHOOL SHOWDOWN
Rauner vows to call special session if Dems don’ t meet his funding bill deadline
Gov. Bruce Rauner on Friday gave Democrats a hard deadline to send over a school funding bill — declaring he’ll call a special legislative session if it’s not on his desk by Monday.
Rauner has spent much of this week saying he plans to issue an amendatory veto of the Senate school funding formula bill, which passed with bipartisan support on May 31. He plans to take out what he’s calling a “Chicago bailout” — some $ 220 million to pay for Chicago teacher pensions. The measure that cleared also included about $ 250 million in a special block grant.
“I want that bill. That bill must be onmy desk by noon on Monday,” Rauner said in downstate Auburn. “If it is not on my desk I will call a special session for the General Assembly and demand that they come back here to Springfield and do their jobs every day until we get schools funded and open on time.”
He also imposed a deadline of July 31 to resolve the school funding dilemma.
Rauner blamed Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan for holding the bill, despite it being a Senate bill. He called the delay a way to “hold our schools hostage for political manipulation to benefit one school district ahead of all others.” At issue is language Madigan inserted into the budget package that releases general state aid only with an “evidence based” funding formula signed into law.
Rauner said the money taken away from CPS would be used to benefit other school districts. The change is similar to one Republicans were seeking in a bill sponsored by state Sen. Jason Barickman, R- Bloomington.
According to the governor’s administration, CPS would get $ 145 million less under the amendatory veto. Rauner was asked Friday about whether the Illinois State Board of Elections had conducted the numbers crunch, which is posted to the governor’s website.
He said numbers were calculated by “our administration in conjunction with our legislators and in conjunction with school officials.”
Illinois Senate President John Cullerton on Friday said there’s no need for “expensive special sessions,” and urged the governor to “simply convene a meeting to end the secrecy regarding whatever classroom funding changes he has in mind.”
“Education advocates and school leaders across our state support Senate Bill 1. They know what it does. What no one knows is what Gov. Rauner’s plan would do,” Cullerton said in a statement. “So, rather than expensive special sessions and conflict- driving vetoes, let’s have a meeting so we can see what the governor’s plan is. It can be as simple as that. I would encourage the governor to convene a leaders meeting rather than a special session.”