Brady is part of a more senior group of House lawmakers working on an agreement, and the same type of negotiations are happening in the State Senate.
IL is limping toward the June 30 end of a second-straight fiscal year without a complete budget due to a standoff between its Republican governor and Democrats who control the legislature.
Currie is the House majority leader; Hoffman is the assistant majority leader; Lang and Turner are deputy majority leaders.
“Having a $19.7 billion backlog in unpaid bills at the end of this year would mean that more than half of next year’s revenue would have to be spent … just to pay off our unpaid bills from the previous year”, said Civic Federation President Laurence Msall.
Some Republican leaders, like House Minority Leader Jim Durkin and Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno are not happy to hear this.
Major rating agencies, which have pushed IL down the credit scale six times since Rauner took office in January 2015, have indicated the state’s triple-B bond ratings could fall closer to junk in the absence of a fiscal fix. In December, though, Rauner ended the talks saying the Democrats were not negotiating in good faith.
“The fact is, Democrats have a history of creating these working groups in an attempt to waste time and obfuscate from their record of more than 20 years of reckless spending and failed policies. We remain willing and ready to negotiate and compromise, but time is running out”, Durkin said.
“It is our strong desire that Governor Rauner join us in putting the budget first”.
Democratic state Treasurer Michael Frerichs echoed Madigan’s concern in a separate statement Monday.
The ongoing budget impasse has led to more than $13 billion in unpaid bills, Madigan said. “Our budget will fall out of balance very quickly within a year or two if that’s all we did”, he said.
