Plan designated to dig state out of budget deadlock

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The Illinois Senate voted Tuesday to override Gov. Bruce Rauner’s vetoes of a

$36 billion budget package fueled by a $5 billion tax increase designed to start digging out of the nation’s deepest budget crisis since at least the Great Depression.

The Democratic-controlled chamber completed its work within 30 minutes of the Republican governor’s vetoes, sending the package back to the House for an override vote that would give Illinois its first annual budget since 2015.

Fifteen Republicans defied their governor Sunday to give the House a veto-proof 72-vote majority on the tax hike. Whether they’ll stand firm against his influence and hefty campaign bank account to override the veto is the question.

It wasn’t answered Tuesday. A quorum of House members failed to show up on the Fourth of July holiday, prohibiting work. The House returns Wednesday morning but its leadership gave no indication of whether overrides are in sight.

“The package of legislation fails to address Illinois’ fiscal and economic crisis — and in fact, makes it worse in the long run,” the first-term governor wrote in a veto message that said the Democrats’ proposal remains $2 billion in the red.

Rauner’s role in stymieing a budget deal since taking office in 2015 has been to demand a freeze on local property taxes and “structural” changes to boost business. The governor acted about three hours after the Senate voted to hike the personal income tax rate by 32 percent. Individual rates would go from 3.75 percent to 4.95 percent. Corporations would pay 7 percent instead of 5.25 percent.

Democrats say it provides the revenue bridge to fund a $36 billion blueprint, which also includes $2.5 billion in spending reductions.

Although there’s no firm deadline, credit-rating houses have vowed to downgrade the state’s creditworthiness to “junk,” signaling to investors that buying state debt is a highly speculative venture.

The bond houses predicted a downgrade without a fix by the July 1 debut of the fiscal year, but Fitch Ratings and S&P Global Ratings gave Illinois some breathing room on Monday.