Budget speech floors suburban lawmaker

SPRINGFIELD - One suburban senator felt the pain of Gov. Pat Quinn's proposed budget cuts quite literally Wednesday when his chair broke apart, forcing him to sit on the House floor to listen to the rest of the governor's speech.

State Sen. Matt Murphy, a Palatine Republican, said he was leaning back to speak to a colleague "and the thing snapped."

"I was so moved by what the governor said that I fell off my chair," Murphy quipped after the speech.

That is, Murphy was moved to oppose the governor's proposed tax increases. The senator said higher taxes will cost Illinoisans their jobs.

"My solution is to hold the line on taxes, balance our budget and signal to job creators that we want them in Illinois," Murphy said.

Murphy was ably assisted in his chair predicament by fellow Republican state Sen. Dan Duffy of Lake Barrington. Duffy led the ultimately futile search for a new chair for Murphy.

"We need to cut spending and cut his diet a little bit," Duffy said of the budget and Murphy.