Rauner Frustrated By Lack of Budget Progress

Almost a year into his term, and a day after his much-ballyhooed budget meeting with the four legislative leaders, Gov. Bruce Rauner shared a realization with reporters.

“We're in this strange place,” he said, “where the legislature just wanted to pass a big spending plan and said, Governor, okay, you decide how to fix it, we'll tell you how much we want to spend, because we like to spend, and the rest of it is your problem.”

That would seem to reconcile with legislative Democrats' criticism of Rauner for vetoing the unbalanced budget the General Assembly sent him, rather than using his amendatory veto power to strike out $4 billion worth of spending.

After letting out a dramatic sigh, Rauner continued: “That's not very reasonable. I'll work with them. And I've said, if we get structural reform, I will raise taxes. And, believe me, I don't want to raise taxes. I want to reduce taxes.”