Playing the role of appeaser in one breath and admonisher with the next, Gov. Bruce Rauner, speaking in Oak Lawn on Wednesday, said Republicans and Democrats have the opportunity of "transforming the state," yet Democratic leaders are content to "just double down on the status quo."
But even as the Republican governor said it was "simply inexcusable and unacceptable" for Illinois to be more than three months into the fiscal year and still lacking a budget, there were signs that a quick resolution to the gridlock won't be coming any time soon.
Addressing the annual meeting of the Chicago Southland Convention & Visitors Bureau, Rauner said "we're at a turning point in Illinois' history."
"Will we stay on the failed path of the status quo" or chart a course toward "fiscal responsibility and stronger economic growth?" he asked.
He said that legislators and his office are "capable of doing big things together, we're capable of transforming the state."
"We owe it to the people of Illinois to do that," Rauner said.
The governor said that "legislators who like the status quo are holding up the budget," and that failure to come to a quick consensus on a spending plan will only "cause more people in our state to be harmed." House Speaker Michael Madigan, however, laid the blame for that harm at the governor's feet, accusing him of pushing an agenda that will "devastate Illinois' middle class."
Rauner says 'big things' possible with compromise - Daily Southtown
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