Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Dist. 22) has canceled a second House meeting in as many weeks, pushing back any attempts to create a new state budget and bring the proposed Republican stopgap budget to a vote.
This comes after Madigan said the House would hold continuous sessions on Wednesdays.
Illinois House session
| morguefile
“Mike Madigan has abandoned the needs of the people of Illinois in his desperate attempt to force a tax hike and prevent reform,” Illinois Republican Party spokesman Steven Yaffe said. “Today, news organizations are reporting a 'mega lobbying effort from Chicago’ to pass Madigan’s $7 billion out-of-balance budget in the Senate. Senate Democrats now face a crucial test. Will they put a halt to this madness, or will they cave to political boss Mike Madigan?”
Yaffe went on to say that with no current stopgap budget in place, the state will not have enough funding to operate prisons, and schools could remain closed this fall. Madigan is using working groups as an excuse for canceling his second session in a row to bring progress to a standstill, while two proposed stopgap bills, backed by the governor and Assembly Republicans, are written and currently are awaiting a vote.
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