Governor Bruce Rauner released a video to state workers yesterday afternoon in which he promised to oppose any attempts at cutting of their pay during the budget crisis.
In the video, Rauner says that he will veto a bill supported by House Speaker Michael Madigan that would shut down the government and stop pay to state workers if no budget deal is reached by June 30th.
Rauner also states his support of a bill introduced by local Representative C.D. Davidsmeyer and fellow Republican Avery Bourne.
WLDS-WEAI News spoke with Representative Davidsmeyer, who shares his thoughts on Rauner’s video and Speaker Madigan’s potential motives.
“I think that, initially, the Attorney General’s filing was to put pressure on the General Assembly to get a budget, and I think this deadline by Speaker Madigan is probably similar, it just extends the deadline to June 30. I think the ultimate goal is to force a tax increase, the tough thing is, we’ve seen budgets that have been anywhere from six billion to eight billion dollars out of whack, and I think this is an effort to get everybody to support a budget that’s still out of whack,” says Davidsmeyer.
Davidsmeyer says it’s about working with the other side of the aisle to come up with the right answer.
“I’ve said all along, we don’t need a Republican answer, we don’t need a Democrat answer, we need an answer. The reality about the Democrats version of the bill is it isn’t an answer, it just kicks the can. Our bill is an actual answer to the issue of state employees not getting paid. If the Democrats were willing to amend their bill to look like ours, I don’t think the governor would veto it. But it’s not about Republicans or Avery Bourne and myself getting credit for it, it’s about passing the right bill,” explains Davidsmeyer.
He says Representative Bourne has been trying to work with Democrats on amending their bill, but says there hasn’t been much compromise.
Towards the conclusion of Governor Rauner’s video, he asked state legislators to send Representative Davidsmeyer and Representative Bourne’s bill to his desk immediately.