Post by Logan on Feb 22, 2016 1:58:02 GMT -6
Rauner, Democrats try to avoid budget blame as elections approach
At the heart of Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's budget address was a request for special authority to make spending cuts.
It was an easy ask, since Democrats who control the legislature aren't going to grant him such powers out of fear he might actually use them. Instead, Democrats say the Illinois Constitution already is set up to give the first-term governor much of what he wants: All he needs to do is take out his veto pen and go line by line to make reductions to the budget bills they send him.
Those arguments are politically convenient for both parties, even if they don't get state government any closer to solving its intractable problems. No one wants the blame for either a tax increase or massive budget cuts. And political cover is the order of the day ahead of the November general election, when Democrats will try to preserve supermajorities in the House and Senate and Rauner is trying to pick off as many of them as he can to increase his leverage and win approval of his pro-business, union-weakening agenda.
The spring session is expected to be a repeat of last year's stalemate, and Rauner acknowledged as much in his speech.
Read more: www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-illinois-budget-cuts-blame-game-met-0221-20160221-story.html
At the heart of Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's budget address was a request for special authority to make spending cuts.
It was an easy ask, since Democrats who control the legislature aren't going to grant him such powers out of fear he might actually use them. Instead, Democrats say the Illinois Constitution already is set up to give the first-term governor much of what he wants: All he needs to do is take out his veto pen and go line by line to make reductions to the budget bills they send him.
Those arguments are politically convenient for both parties, even if they don't get state government any closer to solving its intractable problems. No one wants the blame for either a tax increase or massive budget cuts. And political cover is the order of the day ahead of the November general election, when Democrats will try to preserve supermajorities in the House and Senate and Rauner is trying to pick off as many of them as he can to increase his leverage and win approval of his pro-business, union-weakening agenda.
The spring session is expected to be a repeat of last year's stalemate, and Rauner acknowledged as much in his speech.
Read more: www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-illinois-budget-cuts-blame-game-met-0221-20160221-story.html