Illinois Senate overrides budget vetoes with tax hike
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 state budget crisis since at least the Great Depression.
The Democratic-controlled chamber voted within 30 minutes of the Republican governor’s action, sending the package back to the House for an override vote that — if successful — would give Illinois its first annual budget since 2015. No schedule was set for the House action.
“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 claimed the Democrats’ proposal remains $2 billion in the red. “It does not balance the budget. It does not make nearly sufficient spending reductions.”
Since taking office in 2015, Rauner has called for a freeze on local property taxes and “structural” changes to boost business, and a budget standoff with the legislature ensued. Rauner issued his Tuesday veto about three hours after the Senate voted to hike the personal income tax rate by 32 percent.
Democrats say the tax increase provides the revenue to fund a $36 billion budget, which also includes $2.5 billion in spending reductions.
“We are faced today with the fierce urgency of now,” the legislation’s sponsor, Sen. Toi Hutchinson, said before the vote. “We don’t have any more time. And too late is not good enough.”
The House approved the tax increase with 72 votes on Sunday, one more than necessary, with the help of 15 Republicans. Whether they will continue to defy Rauner remains to be seen.
Tuesday was the fourth day of the third consecutive fiscal year Illinois has gone without an approved budget. Without swift action, 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 government has limped along for two years under court-ordered spending, but the state comptroller says that without a budget, the treasury will be $185 million short of what’s needed to cover basic services by August.
The United Way has predicted that with the state’s $6.2 billion deficit and $14.7 billion in overdue bills, more than a third of all human services agencies in Illinois will have to shut down by year’s end. Billions of dollars in road construction work is already on hold and public universities, after deep cuts, face the loss of their academic accreditation.