Suburban lawmakers helping drive budget debate

SPRINGFIELD — Suburban lawmakers were front and center for the daylong budget debate Friday that ended with more work to do before the state has a final spending plan.

Both the House and Senate approved competing budgets Friday that call for less spending than Gov. Pat Quinn’s proposal, but lawmakers and the governor all have to agree on the same budget before a final plan is in place and the Capitol can empty out for the summer.

So, after months of lawmakers negotiating with members of their own chambers, negotiations begin again.

“I don’t expect that this budget will be the final spending plan,” said House Speaker Michael Madigan.

In the House, Democrats and Republicans largely worked together to craft their spending plan, leading to the GOP lending votes to a budget proposal — rare in Springfield in the recent past. Both parties in the House touted their plan as more conservative than the Senate’s version.

Rep. Mark Beaubien, a Barrington Hills Republican and traditionally a budget point-man in the House, said he expects the Senate would want to lean toward the House’s smaller spending numbers during tough budget times.

“My sense is our numbers are the ones that will be more or less accepted.”

The Senate’s budget debate, on the other hand, saw a divisive debate between Republicans and Democrats.

Sen. Dan Kotowski, a Park Ridge Democrat, sponsored much of the Senate’s budget legislation and was grilled often during the Senate floor debate by Sen. Matt Murphy, a Palatine Republican and a Senate GOP budget leader.

After Kotowski answered one of Murphy’s questions, Murphy called the answer an “extremely vague and utterly useless response.”

Kotowski replied: “While I appreciate the passion of your remarks, I disagree with what you’re saying.”

In the end, the Senate approved nearly all of the Democrats’ budget plans.

Now, top lawmakers have to find some kind of budget compromise. They’re scheduled to be done by May 31.

It might not be easy. For example, the Senate has proposed spending about $63 million more than the House on schools. And Quinn has proposed spending even more than that.

And on human services for the disabled, elderly and others, the Senate has proposed spending $885 million more than the House.

Quinn wanted more spending there, too. His budget spokeswoman, Kelly Kraft, said talks with lawmakers are well under way.

“Everything’s still a moving target right now,” Kraft said.

The negotiations are perhaps lawmakers’ most important undertaking of the year — deciding how to spread out limited amounts of money among interests who are hungry for a little bit more. This year’s budget debate carries a little extra emphasis, too, as lawmakers increased Illinoisans’ income taxes just months ago.

“We always look at proposals and try to come to some agreement, but we feel we’ve done a pretty good job and will probably try to hold our conservative view on things,” Elgin Democratic Rep. Keith Farnham said of the House plan. “We would rather do that than promise people money that we can’t deliver later.”