July 09--Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner on Wednesday tried to turn up the pressure on House Speaker Michael Madigan, saying he would veto the speaker's one-month budget and suggesting the Democratic leader should go ahead and hike taxes if he won't go along with the governor's pro-business, anti-union agenda.
During a news conference before the House returns to the Capitol in the afternoon, Rauner kicked off the latest version of the Statehouse blame game, attempting to frame up the budget stalemate that threatens to shut down some government services and stop full state worker paychecks.
"Speaker Madigan needs to make a decision," Rauner said. "(Are you) going to support reforms or support a tax hike? It's one or the other."
Rauner was clear he would veto a Madigan-passed tax hike if it didn't include items in the governor's agenda but said Democrats have enough members in the House and Senate to override him.
Rauner once again held out the idea of discussing ways to raise money to avoid cuts to state spending, though he still hasn't offered specifics. The governor said he would sign an unspecified tax increase against his "core beliefs." Democrats should do the same, he said, when it comes to stripping unions of collective bargaining rights on municipal work, which has been a key sticking point in Democrats' resistance to Rauner's agenda.
"I don't like taxes, period, I don't like to ever raise taxes. I'm willing to do it as part of reform," Rauner said. "I'm willing to do something that goes against my core beliefs, I can ask the folks on the other side of the aisle to vote for some things they'd rather not."
Rauner's remarks came as ruling Democrats at the Capitol prepared to move forward with their own plans to attempt passing a one-month emergency services spending plan to buy more time for the political fight ahead. Rauner said he would not sign the bill if it passed, and procedural rules make it impossible for lawmakers to override him.
Despite that, a Madigan spokesman said the House planned to debate the stopgap measure in committee Wednesday afternoon, with a vote of the full chamber to follow Thursday.
"I don't do predictions, so I am not going to offer any thoughts about the outcome," Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said. "It certainly would be a good way to get around this payroll situation that he's solely brought on."
Brown dismissed the governor's attempts to pin the budget impasse on Madigan as "more name-calling, more failure on his part to recognize how unpersuasive he's been with all of these different nonbudget issues."
Brown said Rauner's challenge for the House to raise taxes by $4 billion "doesn't make any sense."
"He had the budget bills right in his hands, he could have avoided this problem with the payroll and workforce," Brown said. "We voted on many of his nonbudget issues, they've not been overwhelmingly popular. We'll continue to work, as the speaker has said, to get a budget in place as soon as possible."
In another indication of Rauner's attempts to isolate Madigan as the problem, the governor said he had been working with Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Senate President John Cullerton and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, all Democrats, on a proposed financial plan for dealing with state, city and county pension systems.
"What we tried to do is incorporate the ideas of all the various leaders to create an opportunity for significant cost-savings in the pension systems throughout the state of Illinois," Rauner said.
Last week, Rauner vetoed much of the state budget Democrats sent to him, leaving the state without full spending authority as the new budget year started July 1.
Monique Garcia reported from Springfield.
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