Thursday, May 12, 2016

Budget plan presented to GA leadership, governor

A bi-partisan group of legislators has shared a plan to balance the state budget with combination of budget cuts and tax hikes. Here stories from the State-Journal Register (Springfield) and Politico .

This could be a big deal. Details from the plan are sketchy. It does not contain any of the items from Rauner's Turnaround Agenda, but also apparently does not include things like K-12 funding or any effort to address the long-term pension crisis. The only detail in either story on higher ed funding is a requirement for universities to pick up pension costs for employees making more than $180,000.

In less happy news, Capitol Fax notes that Mike Madigan issuing an uncompromising statement on his goals for this session; an informal survey of readers on that blog shows a slight majority coming down in opposition to what blogmaster Rich Miller called "reasonable compromise" on Madigan's part.

There's also a lawsuit against the Independent Map proposal to change the way Illinois draws legislative districts. Reboot Illinois has a story on the lawsuit, including speculation on whether Madigan is behind it. A group affiliated with Madigan successfully blocked a similar proposal last year.  Reboot also reposts this cartoon from the Tribune, which attacked Madigan for attempting to stop redistricting reform in an editorial today.


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