Election, voters near 'revolt' prompt Illinois budget deal

CHICAGO (AP) — After a year and a half of bickering and unbending demands, Illinois lawmakers were moved to compromise on a stopgap budget by a powerful force: a high-stakes November election and an already-disgusted voting public that one legislative leader described as on the verge of "revolt."

The plan approved Thursday allows Rauner and legislators up for re-election this fall to head into the campaign season without the looming threat of shuttered schools, lost road construction jobs, utility shutoffs at prisons or further cuts to colleges and social service agencies.

The pressure to avoid those crises had grown particularly intense in recent weeks as Illinois appeared headed toward a second full year with no spending plan — a dubious national record that has already led to thousands of laid-off workers and some 1 million people losing services such as mental health care and cancer screening.

Crain's Chicago Business, which endorsed the former private equity investor in his 2014 election, published an editorial last week titled "You've proved us wrong" that concluded, "By nearly every measure, the state is worse off since Rauner took office."

The final deal spends less on education and other areas than Democrats wanted, and a measure to provide $215 million to help the near-broke Chicago Public Schools make its contribution for teacher pensions is contingent on lawmakers approving a separate plan to overhaul statewide pensions — a move that will anger labor unions, among the party's staunchest supporters.