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| RAUNER: Wants workers paid to keep them quiet |
People
who work on the state payroll get paid twice a month – the 1st and
15th. Wednesday was also the first day of Illinois’ 2016 fiscal
year.
THAT
MAKES THE money state workers received on Wednesday for work done the second
half of June, or the end of Fiscal 2015.
Because
that is off the old state budget, they can be paid without conflict. The next
pay check will be for work done during Fiscal 2016 – which is a problem because
the budget for that fiscal period has yet to be set.
In
accordance with the Illinois Constitution, government cannot spend money if it hasn’t
been specifically appropriated. Which is why things are a mess this year – Gov.
Bruce Rauner and the General Assembly’s leaders are stuck in a disagreement
over the budget that has little to do with financial matters.
It’s
all about partisan politics and ideology and the desire by each to make the
other squirm and whimper like a little school girl.
ALTHOUGH
I HONESTLY suspect that analogy is gross because the average little school girl
probably shows more maturity and sense than our state’s political people these
days.
On
this issue, state officials argued in Cook County Circuit Court earlier this
week, and a judge is expected to rule come Tuesday on what exactly can, and cannot,
be paid by state government during this interlude when there is no set budget.
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| MADIGAN: No signs of compromise |
Rauner
and his legal advisers want to believe they can keep making the state payroll
in full on the grounds that money still comes into state government. It’s there
– it just hasn’t been appropriated yet.
Although
the traditional interpretation of needing an appropriation before money can be
spent would also impact the payroll – just as it has in past years when there
has been a budgetary stalemate. Long-time state employees know to keep a little
extra money in the bank come the beginning of summer; on the off-chance that
they’d miss a pay-day or two.
BUT
RAUNER KNOWS that if state workers miss a paycheck come July 15, they’re going
to be fickle enough to shift blame for this whole mess to him. They’ll turn on
him so quickly – and he’ll be the one who winds up at the mercy of Mike Madigan
& Co.
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| MADIGAN: Acts could benefit her dad |
Because
the reason we have a stalemate is because Rauner is refusing to consider
figuring out how to fill the financial shortfall that exists in the budget
UNTIL some of his ideologically-motivated desires get enacted into law.
Which
is a tactic I wouldn’t object to so much (I’d be bothered by his issues, but he
has a right to tout them) if it were still April or May and we had the General
Assembly and governor trying to reach a deal.
But
that time has passed. We’re now at the point where officials need to concoct a
budget agreement so that government can operate and fulfill its obligations to
the people of Illinois. As for what those obligations can be, that’s a debate
for another day.
SO
WE’LL HAVE to see if the Cook County courts wind up issuing the ruling that
restricts the amount of payroll that can be met while the political people
engage in their equivalent of a street fight over who controls state
government.
I’d
compare it to “West Side Story,” except I suspect that neither Rauner nor
Madigan nor Illinois state Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, can
dance worth squat. Nor do I think Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is comparable
to Maria (nor Natalie Wood).
Will
Rauner have to squirm this holiday weekend (while marching in that parade Saturday in
suburban Arlington Heights), wondering if the courts hold him to the letter of
the law concerning state spending, rather than let him pay off some people to
buy their political good will with state funds?
I
kind of hope they do. Because ultimately, this problem won’t get resolved until
our state officials quit thinking in terms of how they “win” and instead focus
on how to balance the budget – which is how we, the people of Illinois, will “win.”
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