Page 7 - Aruba Today
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U.S. NEWS A7
Tuesday 12 January 2016
Rauner says he has plan to stop court-ordered spending
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner overlooks the south fork of the San- to show that the state is magic wand he could Steve Brown, spokesman
gamon River in Kincaid, Ill. Rauner said Monday he will outline a complying with spend- wave today for the state for House Speaker Michael
plan to get out from under court-ordered spending that’s plung- ing for services the federal to become complaint, Madigan, said it was too
ing Illinois further into debt during a seven-month budget stale- government has deemed we welcome him to use it. early tell how Democrats
mate. essential, like caring for It doesn’t exist,” he said. would react to Rauner’s
people with developmen- “These are hard, persistent idea of ending court-or-
(AP Photo/Seth Perlman) tal and physical disabilities. problems. You actually dered spending. He took
“He can’t simply say we’re have to do it.” exception to Rauner’s
not going to provide ser- “I have to be able to say comments and noted Ma-
vices people have a fun- to you, you’re getting val- digan has compromised,
damental right to,” said Ed ue for your taxes before I including as recently as
Yohnka, director of com- would ever discuss with you last month when lawmak-
munications and public taking more of your mon- ers and Rauner agreed to
policy for the American ey,” Rauner said. spend $3 billion from spe-
Civil Liberties Union in Illi- Rauner pinned the blame cial funds. Some of that
nois. Not having a budget for the budget gridlock on went to emergency dis-
will only make it harder for Democrats who control the patch call centers and 52
Rauner to show the state is Legislature and said House domestic-violence shelters.
complying with funding re- Speaker Michael Madigan “We have compromised.
quirements, Yohnka said. has been unwilling to com- That’s the point,” Brown
“If the governor has a promise. said.q
IVAN MORENO Rauner has said a budget
ASHLEY LISENBY
Associated Press needs to include reforms
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) —
Gov. Bruce Rauner said he argues will help the state
Monday he will outline a
plan to get out from un- economy, such as curbing
der court-ordered spend-
ing that’s plunging Illinois the power of unions and
further into debt during a
seven-month budget stale- passing business-friendly
mate.
Even without a budget, the laws. He also wants term
state has been required
to continue spending on limits and changes to how
things such as Medicaid
and services for people legislative districts are
with disabilities because of
federal consent decrees drawn every decade.
and court orders.
Rauner said in an interview Democrats, who hold su-
with The Associated Press
that getting out from under permajorities in the Legisla-
those will “be a big part of
our plan going forward,” ture, say they won’t cave
but he declined to offer
specifics on his idea, which to some of Rauner’s de-
one analyst said would re-
quire court approval. mands because it would
The new state legislative
term begins Wednesday hurt the middle class.
and the Republican gover-
nor is marking his first year in It’s unclear how Rauner
office Tuesday.
It’s been a tumultuous year can get out of the court-
for the wealthy business-
man who has battled with mandated spending,
Democrats over the state’s
spending plan. It should’ve which is running up a big
taken effect July 1.
tab on state expenditures.
That’s because the state
is spending based on rev-
enue levels from last year,
when the individual Illinois
income tax rate was at 5
percent, not the rate of
3.75 percent. A recent re-
port from the Governor’s
Office of Management
and Budget says if the cur-
rent spending levels contin-
ue without new taxes or the
legislature cutting spend-
ing the deficit for the fiscal
year ending in June will be
$4.6 billion.
To get out of the court-
ordered spending require-
ments, Rauner would have
