By Cole Lauterbach/Illinois Radio Network
SPRINGFIELD – Gov. Bruce Rauner said Monday that budget talks have been “frustratingly slow” ahead of a deadline to pass a spending plan with simple majorities.
“I hope it’s not some orchestrated effort to go slow,” Rauner told reporters Monday in Chicago. “We need a balanced budget for a full year, not just six months, no new taxes and a budget that lives within our means.”
June 1 is the benchmark day when lawmakers should have sent a budget to Rauner’s desk for either a signature or veto in hope that something is in place by July 1, the beginning of the state’s fiscal year. If they don’t pass something by May 31, a budget would require three-fifths of the General Assembly to approve, making the process more complicated.
Representatives for both Senate President John Cullerton and House Speaker Michael Madigan said the process is on track.
“[The] pace [is] being set by his budget director,” said Steve Brown, Madigan’s spokesman. “The speaker continues to work to get the budget done by the end of the month.”
Brown also said the budget director is focusing on a fiscal 2018 supplemental budget “to pay for administration overspending.”
Cullerton spokesman John Patterson said Monday afternoon that the governor’s department directors have all met with senators. Cullerton “expects to have a budget by the end of the month,” Patterson said.
Senators are beginning to look at the cost savings measures in Rauner’s budget request, Patterson said.
