Pretty much everything broke down in Springfield as the official spring session ended on May 31. Not only did the Democrats fight with Rauner, but Democrats fought with each other, and Republicans turned on Rauner.
Some GOP legislators bucked Rauner to override one of his vetoes, and allowed Chicago to refinance some of its pension obligations.
The State Senate, with its Democratic majority, soundly defeated the budget proposal passed by the Democratic House.
The Democratic House soundly defeated a K-12 spending bill passed by the Democratic Senate.
Rauner, who had opposed a stop-gap budget, suddenly flipped and proposed a "bridge plan" to tide the state over until after the November election on the last day of the session. Democrats argued that it was not constitutionally possible to pass this bill within one day, and said that it torpedoed bipartisan negotiations underway in one of the working groups. So they refused to bring it up for a vote.
Rauner is now on a downstate campaign trip calling for passage of his stop-gap budget and railing against bills that would have "bailed out" Chicago; his attacks on Chicago have been called "racially tinged."
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