Editorial: Stopgap budget has ended with little hope for longer term solution

Few of us really shared in the near-euphoria that briefly swept Springfield last summer when lawmakers managed to limp into a typically Illinoisan stopgap budget that took the heat off, solved nothing and promised more action in six months. We'd seen this show before many times and knew what to expect.

Now the stopgap has ended. Some social services in crisis have gotten a little help. Schools got enough money to get them through the year. The election - which is what the stopgap was really about all along - has come and gone with but a minor relaxation of the Democrats' legislative stranglehold on the legislature.

And the $8 billion backlog of unpaid state bills on July 1 has ballooned to nearly $11 billion.

With a new General Assembly due to be installed next week, we sadly remain no closer to a Fiscal Year 2017 budget, much less a long-term structural financial solution, than we were when Republican House Minority Leader Jim Durkin fretted after the stopgap vote that failure to act would have led to a "public revolt (like) we have never witnessed before."

There are no signs of revolt today. Thus, there are likewise no signs of an agreement. Gov. Bruce Rauner and legislative leaders have met a few times, producing nothing more than new rounds of accusation and finger pointing. And the most striking - and fearsome - feature of the crisis is a looming sense that no one intends to do anything. The leaders have found that they can stave off revolt by making sure the schools and critical services get funded, and that, like Dr. Seuss' two famous petulant South- and North-going Zax, they can refuse almost indefinitely to veer from their chosen paths.

Almost being the operative word. Unfortunately, unlike Dr. Seuss' children's story, Illinois cannot simply go its merry way around the stubborn adversaries at the state's helm. It is dependent on them. Would that rank-and-file lawmakers had the backbone to declare no confidence in their leadership and find replacements with more creativity and cooperation. But they do not and will not. So, we are left with the shocking impression that our leaders seem willing to bet everything on the 2018 elections - two years away. The governor dumped $50 million into his campaign coffers last week and promised more to come. Could it be that he sees his own re-election with some potential - but far from likely - shift in the legislative balance of power as the only way to break the budget logjam? And that the Democratic leaders of the General Assembly are just fine with playing that waiting game?

Such a strategy certainly qualifies as playing the long game. But it also represents the abdication of negotiation and compromise, further institutionalizes the state's blame-hustle-and-muscle approach to political maneuvering and, worst of all, leaves the state's social and educational infrastructure in tatters, with tens of thousands of our most-vulnerable citizens ultimately paying the price.

When the stopgap budget passed, Gov. Rauner rightly declared that it was no real budget. He described it as a "bridge to reform."

To no one's surprise, it has instead proved to be the proverbial - and common in Illinois politics - bridge to nowhere. With a new General Assembly less than a week away from taking office, is there any chance we could hope for something more?