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Crain's Chicago Business: Is Bruce Rauner the only grown-up in Springfield?
Gov. Bruce Rauner has taken well-deserved criticism from Crain’s and others for stubbornly clinging to the tattered remnants of his Turnaround Agenda, the reform blueprint he had touted, during an earlier and more optimistic stage of his administration, as the solution to all the state’s fiscal ills. He got flak for tying the agenda’s key demands—tort reform and banning union fair-share fees, for example—to budget negotiations, leading to a two-year standoff that at times has felt less like a functional government and more like a hostage negotiation.
The other day, however, Rauner took the boldest steps we have seen yet to meet his Democratic opponents somewhere near the middle. Surfing the momentum created by the architects of the Senate’s “grand bargain,” John Cullerton and Christine Radogno, the governor said in his Feb. 15 budget address that he would be willing to raise income and sales taxes in exchange for spending caps and a freeze on local property taxes.
Crain's Chicago Business: Will Madigan's Democrats continue to doom Illinois?
If it takes two to make peace, it also takes two to make war. That’s my assessment of Illinois’ now 20-month-long budget war, a conflict in which I fear that majority Democrats now are tilting toward the same uncompromising, let’s-fight-it-out-in-2018 stance that has categorized much of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s tenure.
I reached this conclusion after watching the Democratic reaction to Rauner’s budget speech on Feb. 15. No, the speech wasn’t perfect. And, yes, Rauner continues to fantasize about getting certain things out of a Democratic Legislature that never will happen. But he finally laid out in some detail what it will take to get him to sign a multibillion-dollar tax hike, a pretty risky position for a conservative Republican, and hinted at other concessions.
News-Gazette: Battling Illinois' budget blues
After an unprecedented 20-month standoff, Gov. Bruce Rauner and state legislators must find common ground on a broad-based budget agreement.
Anyone looking for signs of a budget rapprochement between Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Democratic Legislature couldn’t have been reassured by the anger on display last week when Rauner presented his budget address.
Democratic legislators hooted and laughed derisively at the governor during his presentation and posted signs on their desks that insulted Rauner.
State Journal-Register: This is what's meant by balanced?
Gov. BRUCE RAUNER submitted his third budget proposal to lawmakers last week, and you could say Democrats, at least, weren’t impressed.
Rauner’s budget calls for lawmakers to approve a bunch of things like pension changes, state employee health insurance changes, selling the Thompson Center and other stuff. If the General Assembly goes along with all of that, there will be about a $4.6 billion gap between spending and revenue. Rauner says that will be made up by the Senate’s “grand bargain” that so far hasn’t made it out of the Senate, let alone the House.
State Journal-Register: State budget impasse still hurting schools
The state’s nearly two-year budget impasse continues to hurt schools’ bottom lines despite the promise last summer by lawmakers and the governor to fully fund K-12 education.
The backlog of bills for the Springfield School District has reached $8 million, it’s $1.3 million in Chatham, while in smaller districts, like Auburn, the figure has eclipsed $476,000.
Belleville News-Democrat: Remove these splinters before major amputations are needed on Illinois budget
On Wednesday, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauer essentially handed his budget duties to those forging the grand bargain in the Illinois Senate, but used his budget address to set a few parameters and restate his positions.
He underscored that tax increases cannot be imposed without significant reforms to improve the job climate. He said he cannot accept proposals to increase sales taxes on food and drugs.
NBC 5 Chicago: Illinois House Panel to Consider Thompson Center Sale
Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan says the lawmakers will consider a plan to sell the Thompson Center government office building in downtown Chicago.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has been interested in selling the large, glass-paned office building since he took office two years ago. The governor even mentioned the idea during his annual budget address on Wednesday.
Fox Illinois: Possible Speed Limit Increase on Majority of Illinois Interstates
Illinois lawmakers are considering a bill that would increase the speed limit, Senator Jim Oberweis has proposed a five mile per hour increase for most Illinois interstates
“70 is a little too slow for me if you’re going straight with no obstacles,” said Illinois College Freshman, Kayla Fountain.
Chicago Tribune: Des Plaines council turns to polygraphs in leak investigation
Washington-style intrigue will swirl through Des Plaines Monday when several aldermen say they’ll take polygraph tests to prove they’re not the source of a leaked document that has cast this northwest suburban town into an uproar.
It’s the latest chapter of a long-running drama that has seen private investigators comb through computer servers and interview elected officials and staff members in a thus-far-unsuccessful attempt to unmask the perpetrators.
Rockford Register-Star: Gorman's four-star hotel may get icy reception from Rockford City Council
Aldermen appear poised to reject the latest proposal to turn the 13-story former Amerock factory into a four-star hotel and conference center in downtown Rockford.
Plans call for an upscale Hilton Embassy Suites and Conference Center with stunning views of the Rock River, downtown Rockford and Davis Park.
Decatur Herald & Review: Blighted properties linger for years on Decatur's demolition list
Joyce Keller has lived on North College Street in Decatur for nearly half a century.
Her husband grew up in the house next to where they now live.
They have no desire to leave, even as the neighborhood around them is full of empty lots and houses on the city’s demolition list. She’s known neighbors to wash their dishes in the bathtub.
State Journal-Register: Mayor, council members spar over city budget gap
Competing plans from Mayor Jim Langfelder and a group of four aldermen emerged over the weekend for how to pass a balanced spending plan after the Springfield City Council voted down three of Langfelder’s four proposed tax hikes.
In an email late Friday, Langfelder presented an either-or option. He asked aldermen to pass a budget for the fiscal year that begins March 1 that cuts $541,000 more in spending and uses $3 million worth of the city’s reserves, or reconsider the quarter-percentage point jump in the sales tax and two percentage increase in the telecommunications tax that the mayor wanted.