SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - Illinois lawmakers scurried through a long to-do list Saturday as the spring-session clock winds down, but there was little mention of the biggest obstacle standing in the way of concluding their business - a budget deficit of at least $3 billion.
A day after Gov. Bruce Rauner challenged legislative Democrats to work through the weekend to seal a deal before Sunday’s scheduled adjournment, the Republican was in the Capitol but his staff would not say what he was doing. Rauner is willing to consider a tax increase in exchange for business-friendly reforms he says are critical to recharging the state’s economy.
Majority Democrats in the General Assembly didn’t let the stalemate stand in the way of moving substantial legislation. They approved a plan to equip police officers with body cameras following protests over the deaths of black men during encounters with police including Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore.
The House also approved a measure easing Chicago’s city pension-fund payment burden. The financially-strapped city’s schedule requires an $840 million contribution next year, up 180 percent. The mammoth payment has spurred worry about an increase in city property taxes.
Republicans called approval of the measure a “bailout” for Chicago but House Democrats who sent the bill to the Senate said the new 2016 payment would still more than double at $620 million.
There were no olive branches in sight when Democrats rammed through an extraordinary measure that would prohibit state government employees from striking - or a management lockout. They say Rauner’s anti-union rhetoric and intransigence on contract negotiations - seeking deep concessions from the state’s largest workers union - suggest he’s itching for a strike and a highly disruptive government shutdown.
Republicans criticized the union strike ban, which would apply to current negotiations over the labor pact that expires June 30.
It would require through 2019 that a contract-negotiation impasse trigger intervention by an independent arbitrator, who would decide the issues and settle the contract. Democrats say they’re attempting to avoid a government shutdown but the GOP complained a taxpayer-financed contract would be settled by a non-elected outsider.
“It forces moderation,” sponsoring Democratic Sen. Don Harmon of Oak Park said. “Under normal circumstances, the threat of a strike would force moderation, but it appears clear to me and to many others that when one side is openly courting a strike, that moderating influence disappears.”
Democrats also said there’s time later to take up Rauner’s agenda of tightening workers’ compensation rules, freezing property taxes, and reducing sometimes costly business litigation, but the job of producing a budget should be tops.
Legislators have approved a $36.3 billion spending plan for the year that begins July 1. They concede it’s billions of dollars out of whack but are unwilling to make the draconian cuts to health care, education and human services they say would be necessary.
Senate President John Cullerton, a Chicago Democrat, is brainstorming on mutually acceptable ideas, spokeswoman Rikeesha Phelon said, “but he disagrees with the idea that we need to stop budgeting and shut down the government while we negotiate with the governor.”
House Speaker Michael Madigan facilitated the day’s agenda from his office but did not hear from Rauner, spokesman Steve Brown said.
Rauner told reporters Friday he would not drag lawmakers back to Springfield for a special session after Sunday’s curtain, but would meet with legislators anywhere to keep the talks going.
House GOP Leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs believes a breather would be beneficial, his spokeswoman said.
“The real negotiations, if they haven’t already begun behind the scenes, are going to happen over the next 45 days,” agreed Republican Rep. David Reis of Willow Hill.
___
Contact John O’Connor at https://twitter.com/apoconnor
___
Associated Press writers Nick Swedberg and Sara Burnett contributed.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.