House Speaker Michael Madigan said Democrats plan to unveil their budget proposal on Tuesday amid a new round of negotiations to end the state’s historic budget impasse, suggesting that “a settlement” is possible if Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner “is reasonable.”

Even before Madigan spoke, Republicans were raising concerns that Democrats appeared poised to water down proposals the governor has made conditions to a deal, including changes to the state’s workers’ compensation system and a temporary statewide freeze on property tax increases.

Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan said Monday that Democrats are finalizing a proposed state spending plan that could be ready for Republican scrutiny as early as Tuesday, with just four days before Illinois begins a third year in a row without a budget.

Partisan statements were measured and verged on the hopeful Monday, the sixth consecutive day of special legislative session called by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner after Democrats, who control the General Assembly, failed to send him a fiscal blueprint by the May 31 end of the spring session.

As Illinois closes in on a second full year without a budget, the top leaders of the General Assembly met Sunday for the first time this year. There are some signs of progress.

House Speaker Michael Madigan has consistently objected to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s making his political and economic agenda a prerequisite for passing a budget.

As Illinois lawmakers stumble toward the end of the fiscal year and maybe, just maybe, a budget deal, a group often aligned with Gov. Bruce Rauner is putting in its two cents’ worth, and I’d say the omens are fair.

In a letter to legislators—you can read it below—the Illinois Chamber of Commerce flatly said it could live with a big tax hike, but it wants the currently proposed mix to be adjusted.

Illinois House Democrats indicated Monday they’ll have their spending plan and property tax freeze proposals ready by Tuesday, addressing two of the key components that must be resolved if the state is to end its two-year budget impasse.

Also Monday, House GOP Leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs reiterated that Republicans need to see substantive changes to workers’ compensation and state pensions, as well as sufficient property tax relief, before they’ll put votes on a tax-and-spending plan.

Suburban nonprofits are distressed at the prospect of another fiscal year without a state budget, coupled with the possibility of deep cuts to Medicaid proposed by Republicans in Congress.

Representatives of eight agencies serving clients — including people with mental illness, victims of domestic violence, and children with disabilities — in Kane, Cook and DuPage counties attended a news conference Monday hosted by the League of Women Voters of Central Kane County at the United Way of Elgin.

Both parties agree, the current education funding system is unfair, but they can’t agree on how to fix it.

A Democratic reform plan already passed the House and the Senate.

First the Rauners had to share their temporary Springfield digs with a family of foxes — now it’s a family of hedgehogs that has moved in.

But the quaint life Gov. Bruce Rauner and first lady Diana Rauner have been enjoying since April in makeshift lodgings within sniffing distance of the goat pens on the state fairgrounds will soon be a lot noisier and smellier.

Chicago Public Schools has borrowed the rest of the money it needs to start the new school year, again at interest rates about four times what a typical government with better credit ratings would have to pay.

A week after CPS borrowed $375 million from J.P. Morgan at a whopping 6.39 percent, it secured another $112 million from the same lender at 6.41 percent. The short-term borrowing known as “grant anticipation notes” by the school district with “junk” credit ratings will eventually be repaid by state block grant money owed to CPS but not yet disbursed in the ongoing Illinois budget stalemate.

The second time was the charm for Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to cut the city’s amusement tax to honor a commitment made to ticket resellers and cancel an unexpected $200,000 windfall.

Last month, the amusement tax cut ran into opposition from aldermen bracing for a painful rescue for the Chicago Public Schools.

The mayor of Hillside staunchly defended the western suburb’s lucrative red-light camera program Monday, after critics questioned what local leaders have done with millions of dollars raked in by the cameras in the past few years.

Residents who spoke at a village board meeting in Hillside cited a recent joint investigation by the Chicago Sun-Times and ABC7 Chicago’s I Team — which found more than $8 million in camera fines were collected in the community of about 8,000 people between the start of 2014 and the end of last year.

McHenry County leaders who have waited a long time for a Marengo interchange at Interstate 90 and Route 23 will not have their dream delayed if state lawmakers can’t come to an agreement on a budget.

But a continued budget impasse will do to the next phase of the Longmeadow Parkway what an endangered bumblebee could not, and shut down work until a state budget is in place.

A proposal for an Elgin charter school has once again failed to garner the blessing of officials at the state’s second-largest school district.

After a heated debate, Elgin Area School District U-46 school board members voted 4-3 Monday to deny the Elgin Math and Science Academy Charter School Initiative’s proposal and contract primarily because of concerns with the plan’s economic soundness that could not be resolved over two months of negotiations.

Wearing blue shirts with their union name on it, members of the Illinois Federation of Public Employees, which represents the probation officers in the county, packed the St. Clair County Board meeting room on Monday, just days before a possible strike.

Probation Supervisor Paul Sullivan, the president of the council president, spoke at meeting and called for a fair contract.