Sour end to veto session
Rauner, Madigan, Cullerton plan to meet over weekend
SPRINGFIELD — Legislators left Springfield on Thursday with no budget — and a massive show of dissension between Democratic leaders and Gov. Bruce Rauner.
But Illinois Senate President John Cullerton sought to downplay the discord — before he overrode the governor’s veto of a pension bill aimed at helping Chicago Public Schools teacher pensions.
Cullerton told the Senate he wants to keep at the negotiating table and hasn’t given up on comprehensive pension reform. The Senate president also told his members he planned to continue talks with Rauner and the leaders over the weekend.
“We will be adjourning ‘ til the call of the chair and hope that if there’s any breakthrough in our negotiations, we can reassemble to take actions,” Cullerton said Thursday evening.
The four leaders plan to meet with Rauner in his Chicago office on Saturday and Sunday at 10 a. m.
Both House Speaker Michael Madigan and Cullerton could call legislators back for a session before the year is over. The House must try to override Rauner’s veto of the CPS pension bill within 15 days or the bill is dead — giving Madigan a big reason to call the House back in session. Just how easy getting those votes will be is difficult to tell. If anything, no money for CPS gives the leaders even more incentive to resolve a plan to reform the state’s pensions.
The state’s spending authority granted by a partial budget approved in July runs out by the end of the year — creating a huge pressure cooker of a day Thursday, which ended with no major bills passed between both chambers except for a rare bipartisan agreement over a massive energy bill which the governor has vowed to support.
State services and programs not covered under consent decrees will lose funding come Jan. 1 without a budget. That could mean doom for the already cash- strapped Chicago State University and other higher education universities that are dependent upon state cash.
The only veto successfully overridden during the fall veto session in both chambers was a Senate bill to bring pension parity to retiring Chicago police officers and firefighters born after 1955. It ensured that a widower’s benefit would never decrease below 125 percent of the federal poverty level. Rauner filed an amendatory veto on the bill in August.
The speaker was not in the public view on Thursday, except for a brief appearance after a leaders meeting in which he shot back at Rauner for saying it’s the speaker who is requesting another stopgap budget.
“Don’t use the word stopgap budget,” Madigan said. “The first time that stopgap budget was used was by Gov. Rauner at the end of May. He requested a stopgap budget. The word stopgap was never used in the prior six budget bills. I’m suggesting a budget. Governor requested that I meet here to talk about budgeting. That’s why I’m here. There was very little discussion about budget making today.”
Cullerton too said he’s seeking a “full budget.”
Rauner on Thursday morning via Facebook said he’d only accept a partial budget if term limits and a permanent property tax freeze are included.