Illinois Budget Battle Glossed Over Ahead of Bond Sale
via Reuters
“Illinois’ ongoing state budget battle is being downplayed by Governor Bruce Rauner’s administration ahead of a $480 million bond sale – the state’s first in 20 months.
An impasse between the Republican governor and Democratic lawmakers has left the fiscally shaky fifth-largest U.S. state without a budget for the fiscal year that began July 1. But an online investor presentation posted Dec. 30 for the Jan. 14 bond sale gave a generally rosy assessment of Rauner’s dealings with a Democratic-led legislature.
Illinois Budget Director Tim Nuding emphasized actions taken to patch a hole in the fiscal 2015 budget and provide some fiscal 2016 funding to local governments, lottery winners, federal grant recipients and others.
‘Another example of the legislature working together to solve problems,’ he said, without discussing the factors blocking a budget accord. Those involve Rauner’s push for collective bargaining curbs, legislative term limits and redistricting changes, and business-friendly moves like making it harder for injured workers to collect damages from their employers.”
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