More Illinois residents feel pain as budget impasse drags on

“This bill is just another effort to meet the governor half way”, said House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) – Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner is praising a vote by the Illinois House of Representatives to block a contentious pay raise for lawmakers. “We encourage President Cullerton to swiftly move this legislation to the governor’s desk for his signature”.

The increase was put into effect last year during a different term.

Rauner in a statement urged the Senate to pass the bill, too. That court decision followed an effort in 2013 by then-Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn to hold up lawmakers’ pay as he tried to get them to send him a cost-cutting pension bill. Spokesman Lance Trover says while the governor appreciates the House vote on legislator salaries, Rauner still wants “structural reforms” – that is, his legislative agenda.

Killing off the raises, however, appeared to do little to loosen the gridlock that has kept Rauner and lawmakers from agreeing on a spending plan for the fiscal year that began July 1.

Lisa Madigan asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday for an extension until September 10 to file a possible appeal of the ruling by the state’s high court, which rejected Illinois’ argument that it needed to invoke police powers and cut pension benefits to deal with a fiscal emergency.

“It’s about time, actually”.

Rep. William Davis, a Democrat from Homewood in the Chicago suburbs, cast the lone vote against the bill. “For me that’s five days, six days, seven days a week”.