Illinois Heads for Year Two Sans Budget as Compromise Flops
- Schools, universities, social service providers in jeopardy
- Rauner, legislative leaders agree to negotiate stopgap plan
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Illinois’s leaders failed to end the state’s worst budget impasse on record, deepening the fiscal turmoil in the Land of Lincoln as unpaid bills may swell to $10 billion, schools risk not opening on time, and prisons fall in danger of running out of supplies.
For the second year in a row, the Democratic-led legislature and Governor Bruce Rauner, a first-term Republican, couldn’t agree on a spending plan during the regular legislative session that ended Tuesday. Starting Wednesday, it now takes three-fifths of the General Assembly to pass anything, making a resolution to the standoff even harder to reach. Both sides have agreed to negotiate a stopgap plan to keep the government running through at least December.