Illinois Budget Standoff Grinds On as State Finds a Way to Cope
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Republican Governor Bruce Rauner and Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, two of the most powerful politicians in Illinois, have been trying to outlast one another in a dispute that for two months has left the nation’s lowest-rated state without a budget.
Illinois muddles through. Government employees get paid, thanks to court orders. Children go to school, thanks to Rauner’s signing an education-funding bill. The state fair went on last week as scheduled and the governor signed a bill Aug. 14 designating pumpkin as the official pie.