Rauner faces $9B shortfall in presenting budget plan

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner unveils his 2019 budget proposal to a General Assembly expecting to hear him explain how he'll erase a $9 billion deficit.

The first-term Republican delivers his budget address Wednesday. He's coming off the first yearlong budget since taking office in 2015. Lawmakers sent it to him last summer after voting to override his veto of an income-tax rate increase from 3.75 percent to 4.95 percent.

Rauner's budget director told a Senate Appropriations Committee last week that the governor had whittled a $1.7 billion deficit in the budget given him last summer down to $600 million. There's also more than $8 billion in backlogged bills.

Rauner also must come up with $350 million more for schools and say how he plans to roll back the tax hike.