Stop gap bill passed by IL lawmakers

Most recently, the fight between the two sides has centered around school funding , as Chicago Public Schools, by far the state’s largest school district, threatened to not open its doors in the Fall if state officials could not agree on an education budget.

The measure was approved 105-4 in the House and 54-0 in the Senate.

After days of negotiations, lawmakers said Wednesday that Democratic leaders and Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner have crafted a plan expected to be brought up for votes on the House and Senate floors Thursday, one day before the current fiscal year ends.

The legislation also reauthorizes funding for state construction projects, which the Illinois Department of Transportation ordered halted effective Friday if the state entered a second straight year without a budget in place.

The Illinois House and Senate have passed the stopgap budget for the new fiscal year starting Friday, which now needs approval from Gov. Rauner. Republicans did not get everything that they wanted. State Reps. Mike Tryon, R-Crystal Lake, Barbara Wheeler, R-Crystal Lake, and Steven Andersson, R-Geneva, voted for the stopgap budget and the CPS bills.

The legislation was signed by Governor Rauner Thursday afternoon.

The governor opposes forcing “suburban and Downstate taxpayers to pay for a massive bailout of the severely mismanaged Chicago Public Schools system”, the Chicago Tribune reported. She said she will continue to fight to make sure social service agencies that have long struggled with delayed and shorted state payments get made whole. The heated political rhetoric is likely to return in little time as Rauner has pledged to use his wealth to try to erode the power of his chief political nemesis, Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan of Chicago.

On the last day of Fiscal Year 16, lawmakers put together a partial budget for Fiscal Year 17. About $1 billion would be funneled to the state’s higher education system, with about $655 million going to the nine state universities, $114 million going to community colleges including City Colleges of Chicago, and $151 million to cover tuition grants for low-income students that were promised previous year but never paid.

“I understand that maybe you don’t care about minority communities as much as I do”.

“They will only get that money once there is a signed pension reform bill on the governors desk and no sooner”, said Meier. The most significant provisions include money for road projects, human services, state vendor contracts and higher education.

Schools got a full year’s worth of funding, but the package would only keep the rest of government operating through January… meaning lawmakers will need to pass a new budget then.

The state also will begin contributing to the cost of pensions for teachers in Chicago, as it does for districts outside the city.

“This is just temporary, and this state is in trouble”, Luechtefeld said, adding, “I think that there’ll be a lot of stuff done in the (fall) veto session”. But they also called for changes in the way the state distributes money to schools, something they’ve both been advocating for several years, although with different approaches.