Former Governor Pat Quinn
Illinois has entered its fourth month without a budget, and former governor Pat Quinn says the piecemeal way some services are getting funded is a bad way to govern.
The Democrat says his Republican successor, Governor Bruce Rauner, is still in political mode when the state needs a leader. Quinn says the way the courts have stepped in to force the state to pay for certain human services goes against the Democratic system.
Courts have ruled in favor of state payments while governor and Democratic leaders haven't met for months to work out a budget deal...which Quinn blames on Rauner.
"You don't allow your own ideology in the case right now of trying to break unions, to hurt the wages of working people. If that's the policy of the governor, he's really harming the public of Illinois and the budget process that must go forward as part of democracy."
Quinn says the only way out of the state's budget impasse now is more revenue...something he campaigned on last year. Governor Rauner says he's open to more revenue...but only after the Democratically controlled legislature passes his pro-business "Turnaround Agenda," which includes union-weakening provisions.
Quinn made his comments at a rare public appearance in Champaign Thursday celebrating the opening of a Veterans Center on the University of Illinois' campus.
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