And Pritzker now says he will double whatever Rauner puts in.

Comment: Kumbaya all around on another no-reforms, SOP budget.

Comment: Jim Durkin has lost it. He says, “A lot of this was driven by the rank-and-file members who have grown frustrated — who’ve grown frustrated with the process or their lack of input or just maybe the personalities (that) got into the way of crafting a budget,” and this is a new era of weakening power of legislative leaders. In fact, rank and file had only hours to consider the 1,200 page budget. They voted for it blindly.

The problem is increasing. In 2000 about one in six Illinois students attended college outside of the state, but by 2016 that doubled to one in three students.

https://www.ilnews.org/news/state_politics/public-finance-watchdogs-proposed-budget-sets-illinois-up-to-fail/article_0095b2a8-65c9-11e8-b029-eb87f464250e.html#utm_campaign=blox&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

A republication of our Wirepoints article.

If a satirical comedy is ever made about Illinois politics, we envision a scene in which hapless lawmakers stun themselves by actually passing an on-time budget: “I can go back to my district and I can say that we have done our job for the first time in many years,” one member marvels. Comment: That was Jim Durkin, House leader of the party supposedly representing fiscal sanity.