By Dave Dahl/Illinois Radio Network
SPRINGFIELD – Gov. Bruce Rauner has promised not to sign a temporary budget, and the Illinois House may well give him a chance to make good on his word today.
A $2.3 billion, one-month budget, which has already passed the Senate, is being derided as simply one-twelfth of the Democratic-passed spending plan the governor has already vetoed; a budget which is $4 billion out of balance.
“The idea that the bill would put the budget for Fiscal Year 2016 out of whack is totally wrong,” said House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, presenting the bill in committee. “It funds a very small portion of state services; not all of the services and the operations of state government. To call it what it isn’t does not help the discourse.”
The fiscal year began July 1 with no new budget.
Senate Bill 2040 has passed the House Executive Committee.
There is a new proposal in Springfield which Rauner supports that enable state workers to get paid during the budget showdown. State Rep. Dan Brady, R-Bloomington, is one of 21 House sponsors.
“What the bill aims to do is clarify the payment of state employees during this difficult budget impasse,” Brady said.
The bill would provide a continuing appropriation to allow for full employee pay despite the lack of a 2016 budget. Without a budget in place by July 15, the state will be unable to make payroll for employees in numerous agencies, so this bill addresses that part of the budget crisis.
