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Chicago Tribune: The double standard imposed on Rauner
Leave it to an opinion writer to interrupt a perfectly blissful holiday weekend.
But sand in the “Days of Our Lives, Springfield,” hourglass is growing alarmingly thin. Lawmakers gather for the final three days of the fall veto session on Tuesday. If legislative leaders and Gov. Bruce Rauner cannot shatter the state budget impasse, it will be a reprehensible failure of governing.
But you already knew that.
SaukValley.com: Back to the same old, same old in Illinois
Let the games resume.
House Speaker Michael Madigan, citing a scheduling conflict, first shunned a meeting with Gov. Bruce Rauner and the other leaders, then attended. He continued, though, to say the focus should be on a state budget and not Rauner’s other agenda items. He wants to appoint a new group of lawmakers to negotiate a budget.
News-Gazette: Spending folly
Either they’re all trying to con members of sympathetic interest groups or state legislators simply can’t control themselves when it comes to spending money the state doesn’t have.
But their profligacy has forced Gov. Bruce Rauner to veto three bills that would further break the state’s already fractured budget.
The Illinois House recently failed to override one of Rauner’s vetoes, killing that measure. But the Senate recently overrode one veto, SB 2931, while action remains pending on the other, SB 730. SB 2931 now goes for a vote to the House while SB 730 is likely to follow.
Associated Press: Illinois lawmaker wants tax hikes to require more votes
An outgoing Illinois lawmaker is proposing changing the state constitution to make it more difficult to pass tax increases during lame-duck sessions when legislators can take tough votes because they’re leaving office.
Democratic state Rep. Jack Franks of Marengo introduced legislation to require three-fifths votes from each chamber to pass tax increases during lame-duck sessions. It’s a period of time of about a week in January when incumbents are still in office and their replacements have yet to be sworn in. The Northwest Herald reports that Franks’ goal is to get lawmakers on record about whether they support raising taxes during that window.