Illinois House OKs budget, ends impasse

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The Illinois House voted Thursday to override Gov. Bruce Rauner’s vetoes of a budget package, giving the state its first spending blueprint in more than two years and ending a lengthy fiscal stalemate.

Lawmakers have been meeting in a special session called precisely to deal with the budget.

The budget is retroactive from Saturday — the July 1 start of the fiscal year. That’s the date a permanent 32 percent income-tax increase takes effect. Individuals will pay 4.95 percent instead of 3.75 percent. The corporate rate jumps to 7 percent from 5.25 percent.

Rauner vetoed the measures because he sees no indication that the Democratic-controlled Legislature will send him the “structural” changes he’s demanded. Those include a statewide property tax freeze, cost-cutting restrictions on compensation for injured workers, changes to pension benefits for state employees, and changes making it easier for voters to merge or eliminate local governing bodies.

The end of the standoff, which entered a third fiscal year Saturday, comes as the state faces a $6.2 billion annual deficit and $14.7 billion in overdue bills.