The Mess in Illinois. The Beat Goes On.

Almost a year ago, I suggested that the budget stalemate in Illinois would continue until after the election last November and that we wouldn’t get a budget until January.  It looks like I was wrong in at least two ways.  There was a temporary little half-budget, a six-month thing, passed in June.  But that is over now, and we are back where we were.  And that budget I anticipated for January doesn’t look close

Governor Bruce Rauner won’t agree to a tax increase, which is needed to balance the budget and pay the bills, without at least some of the changes he wants to things like workers comp and other laws that he says would improve the climate for businesses in Illinois.  In effect, he thinks it is better to continue the mess we are in now than to increase taxes without making at least some of the changes he has suggested.

House Speaker Michael Madigan won’t agree to any of the changes that Governor Rauner has suggested.  He says that they hurt the middle class and union families in Illinois.  In effect, he thinks it is better to continue the mess we are in now than to make any of the changes that Governor Rauner has suggested.

In other words, a stalemate.

Two further comments:  First, as I said a year ago, anybody who thinks that the governor and the legislature need to pass a budget and then deal with the other things the governor is suggesting is either smoking something or a closet supporter of Speaker Madigan.  Because once the budget is passed, none of Governor Rauner’s changes will even be brought up for a vote in the House, let alone approved.

Second, the new twist this year is Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s attempts to get the courts to say that state workers can’t be paid without a budget approved by the legislature.  I understand the logic of her position.  It is sort of bizarre that the state can continue to pay so many of its workers, etc., without authorization by the legislature.  The thing I don’t understand is why she is doing this now as opposed to last year at this time.  The situation is same now as it was a year ago.¹  So why the different legal position?  Can anybody really believe that there isn’t at least some communication, even unspoken, between the Attorney General and the Speaker on this issue.  I know they would say that haven’t spoken, and that is probably true.  But that doesn’t mean the Attorney General isn’t considering the Speaker’s views and positions in what she is doing. 

So where will it all end?  Who knows?  And who knows how many people will be left in Illinois by the time it does end.
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¹ According to the Chicago Tribune, Attorney General Madigan claims an Illinois Supreme Court decision last March removed the basis for the court order that state workers should/could be paid even without a budget passed by the legislature.  I don’t know if that is true, but even if it is, the decision was in March of last year.  Why wasn’t Attorney General Madigan in court last April or May?  Why wait eleven months?  Why wait until after the election?