Illinois’ budget waiting game gets complicated

As lawmakers stand at an impasse, different deadlines mean different things for Illinoisans.

As of June 19, the Illinois General Assembly has sent four of the 27 total bills that comprise the state budget to Gov. Bruce Rauner, with many more expected later in the week of June 21. Upon receiving the budget bills, the governor has 60 days to make a decision: to sign or veto the bills. However, due to several deadlines and negotiations, the governor may need to decide sooner.

July 1 marks the first day of Illinois’ fiscal year. If the General Assembly and the governor cannot come to an agreement on the budget before July 1, state services will begin shutting down.

But the ability to reach an agreement may be difficult, as House Speaker Mike Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton sent the governor a budget that contains a nearly $4 billion shortfall. This marks the 12^th year in a row that the two leaders have passed an unbalanced budget.

Madigan and Cullerton are requesting that the governor find new revenue to fill the budget gap. “[Rauner] has options that include reducing spending lines to a level he feels appropriate and manageable for the administration,” said Rikeesha Phelon, spokeswomen for Cullerton.

“The other options include having conversations with the legislative leaders about how to generate income to bridge the gap …”

But the governor insists that initiatives of his Turnaround Agenda need to be passed before he is willing to sign any budget bill. The governor is negotiating to pass the following five provisions of his legislative agenda:

• Common-sense causation standards to fix a broken workers’ compensation system

• Lawsuit reform that will help rein in venue and jurisdiction shopping and provide more balance between plaintiffs and defendants

• A property-tax freeze that gives local units of government the flexibility to determine topics of collective bargaining and an exemption from the Illinois Prevailing Wage Act

• Term limits and redistricting reform

• Legislation authorizing municipal bankruptcy to help struggling  communities get their budgets in order

To complicate matters even further, July 1 may not, in fact, be a hard deadline to reach an agreement on a budget, because payments are not made for the first two weeks of the new fiscal year until July 15. So while July 1 is seen as a hard deadline, the state of Illinois can operate until July 15 without agencies or individuals missing any checks from the state.

If a deal cannot be reached by July 15, another deadline looms in the near future – Aug. 10, the day that General State Aid payments are due to schools. If a budget impasse reaches Aug. 10, schools may not be able to open on time this year, due to a lack of funding.

Here’s what could happen:

1. Rauner could veto all of the budget bills immediately on the grounds that the General Assembly sent him an incomplete, underfunded budget. This would mean that the General Assembly would either need to take a supermajority vote (which Democrats in both chambers currently possess) to override the governor’s veto, or pass a new bill, which would also require supermajority approval.
2. The governor could sign parts, but not all, of the budget that is being sent to him. For example, Rauner could sign the education portion of the budget –making sure schools still open on time – while vetoing the other parts of the budget.
3. Rauner could take no immediate action on the budget and use his 60-day window to attempt to negotiate the budget and his legislative agenda with Madigan and Cullerton. Under this scenario, the longer the negotiations take place, the more state services and education systems could begin shutting down as deadlines pass.

The next few weeks will reveal whether Illinois continues overspending or if state leaders will finally be ready to find solutions to fix the state’s long-term problems. In other words, they are crucial in determining the future of Illinois.

With several deadlines looming, the clock starts now.