By Greg Bishop/Illinois Radio Network
SPRINGFIELD – A deal is close for a stopgap measure to fund government operations through January and a full school year, but reforms to grow the economy are still elusive.
Gov. Bruce Rauner said a deal is coming together for a stopgap measure for government operations. “We’re close. We can maybe tweak certain things like MAP grants or human services that wouldn’t put out massive new spending levels that are reasonable and fairly modest and that we can get there on the human services and stopgap budget. That’s the indication we’ve been receiving here recently.”
Steve Brown, the spokesman for Illinois House of Representatives Speaker Michael Madigan, said there are still some things to be worked out concerning school funding. “The K-12 funding, a lot of discrepancies about what he’s offering and what the Legislature has already voted on, so we’ll continue to work, we’re trying to work.”
State Rep. Ron Sandack, R-Downers Grove, is on some of the bipartisan working groups. Sandack said in an interview with WMAY Springfield that lawmakers are close to a stopgap deal that does not include the governor’s reforms or new revenues. “The stopgap would be a simple stopgap. It would be no new revenues. It will be existing revenues to pay for some pretty bare minimum services. Let’s be clear this is not lavish under any stretch of the imagination.”
As for a plan for economic reforms and a full budget, Sandack said working groups will continue to hammer out details to grow the economy. “March ahead toward finding fundamental reform compromises that we can then attach to a larger budget,” Sandack said.
Sandack said there seems to be an understanding that reworking the school funding formula can wait for a time when the state is not in crisis mode.
Both the Illinois House and Senate are scheduled to be in Springfield June 29. The next fiscal year begins July 1.
