Students voice concerns during budget address

Rauner pushed for what he called “real” reforms to IL to grow jobs, expand the tax base and reduce tax burden on IL residents.

A 29 percent budget cut isn’t what University of Illinois President Tim Killeen – or anybody else on campus – wanted to see in Gov. Bruce Rauner’s proposed 2017 spending plan. It is good to have a governor so concerned with K-12 schools and their funds.

“I’m fighting for those middle-class families every single day”, Rauner said. The one part of the current 2016 budget that he did not veto previous year was for early childhood, primary and secondary education.

“To create jobs and raise incomes, we’ve got to change our state’s reputation as being hostile to business”, Rauner said.

The governor’s speech invited criticism from Democratic legislators, and social service providers and students from public schools including Chicago State University and Northeastern Illinois University voiced their opposition to funding cuts.

“I would say we have to start from scratch with him, again”, Cullerton said. The combination of this divestment and the rollback exacerbated the budget crisis, which has disproportionately affected low-income people due to the state’s flat tax system.

However, leading Republican Senator Christine Radogno said what’s been a failure is the idea of only raising taxes without reforms. The governor proposed no tax hike. “We already tried that and we’re worse off”. “This isn’t a binary choice between program cuts and revenue increases”, he said during the address.

Rauner, a former venture capitalist, will also likely emphasize that growing the state’s economy is key to getting out of the current budget mess.

Rauner told lawmakers to implement his cost-saving plans or let him make $4 billion worth of cuts.

The gridlock could force the governor and the legislature to hammer out a two-year budget that would retroactively address last year’s proposals in some way, perhaps lay out a plan to phase in spending cuts over time.

“Under the constitution, that actually comes back to the legislature and the legislature has an opportunity to rescind what the governor did”.

“You’ve given emergency budget authority to governors in the past”. Our administration lawyers met with Senate staff and made clear we will support whatever legislative language President Cullerton wants to use.

Finally, Governor Rauner asked lawmakers to adopt a spirit of compromise. “I really think it’s a problem for the fact that our education is priced as a luxury but it is given to us as a necessity”, said Jaccari Brown.

SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois House passed a bill Tuesday that would send stalled contract talk… Democrat sponsor Chris Welch says the measure is a concession from unions willing to give up their right to strike.

Rauner said taxpayers are “sick and tired” of the impasse that has dragged on for eight months.

“We want to hear the governor say his No. 1 priority is a budget that invests in families and communities and that he won’t use them as leverage for his non-budget agenda”, spokesperson Neal Waltmire told the Bloomington Pantagraph on Sunday.

“As a newcomer to the state a little bit, I did feel from the speech and all of the conversations today that there’s some movement, and I think it’s important movement, toward a middle, common ground in the discussion about the state’s fiscal future and moving forward”.