Page 24 - July 2017 Newsletter

Finally, Illinois has a budget
Illinois politics has not seen a Fourth of July weekend quite like this one. It has been a couple of decades since the Il- linois Legislature was in session over Fourth of July weekend. This one
was one for the ages.
There is much work yet to do, and I expect the Leg- islature to be back in session later this summer. At a minimum, there is an impending issue with edu- cation funding. In addition, there is talk about working on some of the reforms that Governor
Bruce Rauner has promoted.
Through all these ups and downs, several leg-
islators have announced their retirements. North Shore Democrat State Representative Elaine Nekritz and Downstate Republican State Representative Chad Hays have both announced that they are not going to run for re-election. There will be more, I believe. Dra- matically, Senate Republican Leader Christine Radog- no resigned her seat and left the Senate effective July 1. She had been working closely with Senate President John Cullerton all year to try to reach a “grand bargain.” While that effort failed, it helped lead to this final bud-
get and tax vote. d
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As you have probably seen, the Illi- nois Legislature has been in overtime and special session for the last part
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of June and early July. After many campaign ads, debates on the floor and many discussions, there was a bipar- tisan vote in both the House and the Senate to raise the income tax rate from 3.75 percent to 4.95 percent. After the governor vetoed the bill, both the House and Senate voted to override the governor and, for the first time in a couple of years, the Illinois government has a budget. Most would argue that this is not a perfect
budget, but it is a big step forward.
24 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ JULY 2017