For the first time in more than two years, some good news has finally come to the Land of Lincoln: our state will have a budget again. Right-wing stink tank Illinois Policy Institute and Gov. Bruce Rauner tried to sabotage the budget reforms that were passed in both the House and the Senate, but in the end, common sense prevailed.
Just a couple days ago on the 4th of July, the State Senate voted to override all 3 of Rauner’s vetoes, and the State House did the same today (albeit after a 2-hour delay due to a lockdown caused by powder substances thrown in the building), meaning that Illinois will finally a have a budget after two long years that hurt the state.
Roll Call Vote (House, 07.06.2017):
SB9: 71-42-0-5.
SB42: 71-41-0-6.
SB6: 74-37-0-7.
I personally wouldn’t be surprised if the Republicans who voted AYE to the veto override get a primary challenger over this in 2018.
Roll Call Vote (Senate, 07.04.2017):
SB9: 36-19-0-3.
SB6: 39-15-0-4.
SB42: 36-18-0-4.
Tina Sfondeles at Chicago Sun-Times:
SPRINGFIELD — The Illinois House on Thursday narrowly voted to override Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of a revenue bill that will hike the personal income tax rate — while also voting to override two other budget bills.
The override motions mean the state has a budget plan for the first time since July 1, 2015.
[...]
The voting came after a temporary lockdown ended about 3:30 p.m. at the Illinois State Capitol. The hazardous materials situation apparently was sparked by someone throwing a substance at the governor’s office, and other areas of the Capitol.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – The Illinois House has voted to override Gov. Bruce Rauner’s vetoes of a budget package. The action Thursday gives Illinois its first annual spending plan since 2015.
The House voted to override the Republican governor’s veto of a $5 billion increase in income taxes and a $36 billion spending plan.
The veto overrides mean the nation’s longest state budget crisis since at least the Great Depression has ended. The budget is retroactive to July 1-- the start of the fiscal year. That’s also the date that the 32 percent increase in the personal income tax rate takes effect.
Elizabeth Campbell at Bloomberg:
Illinois ended a record-long impasse as lawmakers overrode Republican Governor Bruce Rauner’s veto to increase taxes and enact a $36 billion budget, prodded by warnings from credit-rating companies that the state’s bonds could be cut to junk if it failed to act.
The resolution to the fiscal standoff, which emerged from the Democrat-led legislature over the last several days, triggered a rally in Illinois bond prices by signaling that elected leaders are beginning to tackle the government’s long-building financial strains. Without a full-year budget for the past two years, Illinois continued to run up deficits, leaving it with dwindling reserves, a record pile of unpaid bills and increasing obligations to its underfunded employee pension system.
The House of Representatives on Thursday followed the Senate by approving the budget bills with enough Republican backing to enact them over Rauner’s objections. The measures will increase individual and corporate income taxes, begin to pay down its backlog of bills and eliminate the fiscal uncertainty that has lingered over the state by setting spending levels for the next 12 months.
This is a victory for the people of Illinois.