Illinois Set to Blow Deadline as House Adjourns Without a Budget

Illinois is poised to enter its third straight fiscal year without a budget as Republican Governor Bruce Rauner and Democratic lawmakers struggle to agree on how to rein in the government’s chronic deficits, edging it closer toward becoming the first junk-rated U.S. state.

The Illinois House adjourned on Friday, the last day of the budget year, without enacting a plan and will reconvene at 11 a.m. local time on Saturday. While negotiations continue, it signals the legislature will blow the midnight deadline and extend the unprecedented impasse that’s left Illinois without a full-year budget since mid-2015. Without a deal around July 1, S&P Global Ratings has warned that the nation’s fifth-most-populous state will likely get downgraded again, losing its investment-grade status.