GOV CALLS FOR SPECIAL SESSIONS ON SCHOOL BILL
Gov calls legislators into special sessions to resolve funding issue
Gov. Bruce Rauner is summoning lawmakers back to Springfield for four special sessions to begin Wednesday after his demand for Democrats to send over a school funding bill — so he can issue an amendatory veto — went unanswered.
Although the bill passed with bipartisan support on May 31, it still hasn’t been sent to the governor’s desk — with Illinois Senate President John Cullerton saying the delay was to allow “everyone to blow off some steam, politically speaking.”
But the governor for more than a week has decried the lag as a way Democratic leaders are playing political games with education.
While he’s called the bill, which includes a boost in money for Chicago Public Schools, a “bailout,” CPS has said its banking on those funds in budget calculations.
The governor’s administration issued four proclamations for special sessions on Wednesday through Friday, and on Monday, July 31.
A summons back to Springfield was expected, since Rauner has long said he’d veto the measure. If Rauner issues an amendatory veto, lawmakers would have to vote to override it or accept his changes. They could also do nothing, which would kill the measure.
According to a Rauner administration website, CPS will receive $ 145 million less under the amendatory veto than itwould have received with the original bill. It would have received $ 293 million, but would receive $ 148 million in the reworked plan. The $ 148 million is not quite the $ 220 million Chicago wants to help pay for teacher pensions. The initial plan also included about $ 250 million in a special block grant.
According to the state’s Education Secretary Beth Purvis, the veto will address CPS’ legacy pension costs and will address the governor’s “concern” that CPS should not receive both the block grant and the normal costs of pensions.
Rauner publicly said the CPS pension payment was the “vast bulk” of what he would take out in his veto.
“We need it on my desk, and you will see,” the governor said Monday when asked about details of his amendatory veto.