Illinois lawmakers are back in Springfield and were set today (Tuesday) to act on a proposed ‘grand plan’ to finish the fiscal year and end a long-standing stalemate. Senator Scott Bennett says the ‘grand plan’ actually involves a series of bills.
‘’It’s everything to make people just thrilled about state government. I mean, you’ve got some increases in taxes, you certainly have some cuts, you have some reforms the Governor has asked for to bring people to the table. But, as you might imagine,’’ added Senator Bennett, ‘’in those thirteen bills there’s something to upset about everybody. That was a comment from one of our Republican colleagues which I liked. He said ‘well, that’s how you get some of these things done, nobody’s entirely happy. That’s how you know it’s a compromise, you try to find some middle ground here.’’’
Senator Bennett says lawmakers expect to find out whether there are enough yes votes to advance the plan.
‘’The best case scenario is we pass something today out of the Senate. It shows that we can do this. We can find some bipartisan cooperation. We send it over to the House, and the House can change it if they think there are some things that are better, or they can pass it themselves and it can go on to the Governor. But the fact is, every day we don’t pass something costs taxpayers $11-million dollars,’’ added Bennett.
State Representative Chad Hays of Catlin says getting the budget mess resolved is long, long overdue.
‘’I think people have grown weary of this going on and on and on, and there not being a deal. I think there’s certainly a deal to be had. I think almost every listener and every citizen in this state understands it’s going to be a combination of cuts, and reforms and revenue – and everything in between. It’s going to be for legislators a series of very, very difficult votes. But as I step back, that’s why you send us to Springfield – to keep the trains running,’’ said Representative Hays.
The two lawmakers were commenting on WDAN Radio’s ‘Newsmakers’ program today (Tuesday, Feb. 28th).
