Illinois Legislators End Session With Big Issues Unresolved
via the New York Times
CHICAGO — With an unsolved state budget deficit and a mounting standoff over essential issues like tax increases and business regulations, Illinois’s political leaders are braced for a long, difficult fight in the aftermath of a legislative session that officially came to an end Sunday night.
“We’re going to have a rough summer,” Bruce Rauner, the state’s Republican businessman-turned-governor, told reporters late Sunday, describing the lawmakers’ monthslong session as “stunningly disappointing.”
Lawmakers, dominated by Democrats, approved a spending plan for the year beginning July 1 that is short by $3 billion, and have said that Mr. Rauner should agree to a tax increase to fill the gap. Mr. Rauner has indicated that any tax increase would have to come along with a series of broad changes that could include a freeze in property taxes, less expensive workers’ compensation insurance for businesses and term limits for politicians.
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