Illinois House overrides Governor Rauner’s budget veto

Harris is the ranking Republican on the Revenue and Finance and General Services Appropriations committees.

IL is staring down a $6.2 billion annual deficit and $14.7 billion in past-due bills.

Dozens of lawmakers in the House left Springfield before session, eliminating the chance of an override vote on Tuesday.

An ultimately false alarm of a potential chemical hazard that kept the IL statehouse on lockdown delayed it by a couple of hours, but at long last, IL now has a budget – its first in more than two years.

The Republican spoke Wednesday at a bar and restaurant on the far South Side of Chicago.

State Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) expressed disappointment after ten of her fellow Republicans voted to override a budget plan vetoed by the governor.

The budget plan included a 32 percent income tax increase.

Rauner’s allies made an effort to defend the governor’s position to hold out for non-budgetary priorities like a property-tax freeze and changes in how injured workers are compensated by employers, but it was a lost cause.

Debate on budget proposals scheduled for an override vote in the Illinois House has begun.

“Despite the progress toward budget balance that the emerging fiscal plan embodies, the plan entails substantial implementation risk”, said Moody’s.

But even with the new budget finally approved, it isn’t likely that junk bond status can be avoided. The corporate tax rate would go from 5.25 percent to 7 percent. The bill passed with a 71-42 vote. “Today only brings us a bit of relief, but it is a step in the right direction to put IL back on track”, he added in a news release, saying the budget stalemate was “self-inflicted”.

Rep. Lou Lang of Skokie is deputy majority leader.

Still, an override of his veto could prove politically beneficial for Rauner in two ways.

Thursday’s vote came after the House and the Senate passed the very big tax package this week only to have Illinois’ Republican Governor, Bruce Rauner, veto the bill.

Rauner vetoed the measures because he sees no indication that the Democratic-controlled Legislature will send him the “structural” changes he has demanded.

According to Springfield Fire Marshal Chris Richmond in a press conference, the building was sealed around 1:30 p.m. after the Secretary of State police called in the hazmat team for an incident.

But Fitch Ratings and S&P Global Ratings gave IL some breathing room on Monday, issuing notices marking the House tax increase approval a day earlier and indicating they would not take immediate downgrade action.

Rauner, the Republican governor, called the budget a “disaster” that will “solve none of the problems” because it doesn’t include methods to reform the state’s unsustainable spending. A surprise tax hike vote over a long holiday weekend was met with a quick veto by a governor who’d dug in his heels.

The package allows Chicago to pay more toward the pensions of about 88,000 city workers while changing the way pensions work for employees hired after January 1, 2018.

An announcement over the loudspeakers in the Illinois House gave legislators and reporters gathered on Thursday afternoon the “all clear”.