The Illinois Legislature today passed pieces of a stopgap budget deal between the governor and top legislative leaders to keep the state running and fund schools in the fiscal year that begins Friday. The bills now head to the desk of Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner for his signature.
The deal includes money to fund state services, colleges, prisons and road construction for the next six months. It also provides a full year of funding for elementary and secondary education, including money for financially struggling Chicago Public Schools.
It also earmarks $215 million for the state to begin contributing to the cost of pensions for teachers in the Chicago school district, as it does for other districts in the state. That money is contingent on the legislature passing a comprehensive pension reform bill.
$1 billion goes to higher education, $151 million of that to fund MAP grants. Other parts of the deal include extending the internet lottery one year and a 1-year ban on legislative & executive pay raises.
Most parts of the deal passed quickly and easily in the House, but the GOP balked at language added to the final piece, a spending bill, that Republicans said was not part of the deal agreed to Wednesday night. That led to a delay as the parties sparred over the additions, which were aimed at increasing diversity in higher education. That led to the introduction of another amendment removing the disputed text from the bill. It then passed the House within a short time. All the bills that were part of the deal passed quickly in the Senate.
- The Associated Press contributed to this story.
