State Journal-Register June 20, 2009
The good news is lawmakers didn’t really put up a fuss about coming back to Springfield this week to try and fix the budget mess.
The bad news is there is no discernable reason they should bother.
From the public comments by the four legislative leaders after a meeting with Gov. PAT QUINN last week, it doesn’t sound like anyone’s changed their positions. House Speaker MICHAEL MADIGAN, D-Chicago, said some of his Democrats won’t vote for any income tax increase unless at least some Republicans vote for it as well. Just because thousands of people will lose their jobs and some of the most vulnerable in society will suffer doesn’t mean that should be elevated above political considerations.
The Republican leaders — Rep. TOM CROSS of Oswego and Sen. CHRISTINE RADOGNO of Lemont — said Republicans won’t vote for a tax hike unless some budgetary “reforms” are first enacted. That doesn’t matter in the Senate, where Democrats hold a super majority. But in the House, a tax hike literally cannot be approved now without at least one Republican vote — and that’s assuming all the Democrats vote for it, which won’t happen.
