//
you're reading...
Illinois Budget, Illinois Politics

Illinois Budget: Senators Mike Jacobs, Dan Rutherford Expect Legislature to Leave on May 7, Leave Budget Undone

(Springfield, IL) — April 28, 2010. Illinois lawmakers expect to be home at the end of next week, even if it will take a little longer to finish the new state budget.

Legislators expect their last day in Springfield to be on or about May 7, the scheduled adjournment date.  And about three weeks earlier than usual.

But few, if any legislators, say the state will have a budget by the end of next week.

State Senator Mike Jacobs (D-East Moline) said budget negotiations can continue without rank-and -file lawmakers under the Capitol dome.

And Jacobs said sending everyone home is not a bad idea.

“People may think we’ll be here after May 7 through the end of May, or the end of June, working to try and solve this budget crisis.  That’s not at all what we’d be doing here.   What we’d be doing here is what we’re doing now.  Spending money we don’t have.

He believes that legislative leaders and Governor Pat Quinn need to come together before there can be a  vote on a budget.  But so far there have been only a few meetings between Quinn and top lawmakers, and none of those meetings have produced a firm spending plan.

State Senator Dan Rutherford (R-Chenoa) said the lack of a firm budget proposal, though, won’t stop the rush toward an early adjournment.

“Do I believe that the General Assembly will recess May 7, or whatever that date is? Yes I believe they will,” he said. ”Do I believe the budget will be put together properly?  No I do not.”

That sentiment is growing at the statehouse.  Many lawmakers say privately that it might not be a bad idea to leave Springfield sooner rather than later, and perhaps return at the end of May to “clean-up” the state budget.

But State Senator Toi W. Hutchinson (D-Olympia Fields) said that’s only going to make things worse.

Hutchinson said this is just the latest excuse for lawmakers to push the state’s serious budget problems further down the road.

“The state of affairs in the state of Illinois, and the number of people that they affect should be priority No. 1…I’d like to keep working, but that’s not my call.”

Hutchinson is not alone in saying that the state should do better.

State Senator Dave Syverson (R-Rockford) said people at home should see an early end to the spring legislative session for what it is.

“I think if the taxpayers understood…I think they would be angry.  And I think they certainly have a right to be angry that we are leaving and taking, frankly, the cowardly solution of borrowing money and not paying bills.”

But Jacobs believes if lawmakers are worried about paying the bills that Illinois is not paying now, then they should all want to go home.

“I think it’s a good thing to get out of town.  The fact is that the state of Illinois is broke, and we shouldn’t be spending any more money.  We’re spending $40,000 a day to be here anyway.  So it just seems to me that if we don’t have the money, we ought to do the job we’re hired to do, and leave town.”

About David Ormsby

David, a public relations consultant and blogger at The Huffington Post, is an ex-Press Secretary of the Illinois Democratic Party.

Discussion

No comments yet.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s

Submit your email address and be among the first to receive our posts by e-mail as soon as they are published. It's free.

David Ormsby, Editor

RSS Gov. Pat Quinn

  • McHenry County Blog | Pat Quinn Tells Truth about Pension ... Cal Skinner
  • Illinois General Assembly, Gov. Pat Quinn Must Reconcile ... Marge Berglind
  • Pat Quinn Criticizes Scott Walker On Jobs The Huffington Post News Editors
  • Will Governor Pat Quinn Sign Illinois Budget on Thursday? « Child ... Marge Berglind
  • Quinn: Lawmakers Must 'Show Some Fortitude' On Pension ... Todd Feurer
  • Governor Pat Quinn Puts His Foot Down On Gambling Expansion ... Mark
  • Senate narrowly backs Quinn on facility closures - Capitol Fax.com Rich Miller
  • Democurmudgeon: Gov. Pat Quinn exposes Scott Walker as a fake ... Democurmudgeon
  • Advocates Seek Illinois Child Welfare Vision from Governor Pat Quinn Marge Berglind
  • Chicago News Bench: No, Really, Pat Quinn Still Sucks More Than ... TM-1000

RSS IL General Assembly

  • General Assembly puts health exchange bill on back burner - Crain's Chicago Business May 10, 2012
  • IL educators react to proposed state budget cuts - WREX-TV May 11, 2012
  • Violence Against Women Act Survives Partisan Fight, Quinn Told Not To Close ... - Patch.com May 9, 2012
  • American Progressive Bag Alliance Urges Illinois General Assembly To Pass ... - MarketWatch (press release) May 1, 2012
  • You Paid For It: IL General Assembly Scholarship Program - FOX2now.com May 7, 2012
  • Our Opinion: Anti-bully bill should get OK - The State Journal-Register May 10, 2012
  • American Progressive Bag Alliance Urges Illinois General Assembly To Pass ... - PR Newswire (press release) May 1, 2012
  • Illinois State University considers 4.4 percent tuition increase - Herald & Review May 10, 2012
  • Asian-Americans to have state caucus - WBEZ May 8, 2012
  • Suburban mayors also urge state to pass pension reform - Chicago Sun-Times May 10, 2012

RSS The Capitol Fax Blog

  • Question of the day May 10, 2012 Rich Miller
  • Political cover or political payback? May 10, 2012 Rich Miller
  • Illinois Needs Private Sector Jobs Now! Why Labor Leaders Support Senate Bill 1849 May 10, 2012 Advertising Department
  • Senate narrowly backs Quinn on facility closures - Chamber backs Quinn pension reforms May 10, 2012 Rich Miller
  • House approves bill to effectively end free employee health insurance premiums May 10, 2012 Rich Miller
  • *** UPDATED x2 - VIDEO *** Smith hearing resumes today (LIVE Coverage and Video) May 10, 2012 Rich Miller
  • *** UPDATED x2 *** Not a big deal at all, but it’s probably time to delegate a bit more May 10, 2012 Rich Miller
  • Morning Shorts May 10, 2012 Owen Irwin
  • *** LIVE SESSION COVERAGE *** May 10, 2012 Rich Miller
  • Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - COWL review, supplement to today’s edition and a Statehouse roundup May 10, 2012 Rich Miller
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 135 other followers

Powered by WordPress.com