Gov. Rauner Quietly Drops Right-to-Work Zones from Agenda

SPRINGFIELD -- During his campaign and after taking office, Gov. Bruce Rauner often called for right-to-work zones in Illinois. However, that item is missing from the bills that make-up his legislative agenda that was introduced in the General Assembly.
Union leaders made sure the governor heard protests from their members at some of his stops around the state. And just last week, they showed-up in force in Benton, spurring the Franklin County Board to pass a resolution that decries this part of Rauner's economic plan.
"I think that the governor and his advisors recognized after touring the state repeatedly and running into some of that opposition and seeing the makeup of the House and Senate with Democratic super majorities that it was just not in the cards for something like this to be called and approved this year," said Madeleine Doubek, a veteran journalist and COO of Reboot Illinois.
Gov. Rauner's communications staff declined News 3's request for an interview Wednesday afternoon. However, press secretary Catherine Kelly seemed to confirm Doubek's belief that the deletion of the right-to-work zone proposal was an attempt at a compromise with Democrats.
"The Turnaround Legislation filed represents a compromise based off of months of discussions with Republican and Democrat legislators," Kelly said in an e-mailed statement.
"But the Democrats decided that's not good enough," Doubek told News 3 in an interview Wednesday.
As evidence of that, she pointed to the Democrats' announcement this week that they will pass a budget bill without Gov. Rauner's support. The Democrat's budget would put Illinois $3 billion deeper in debt without an increase in taxes. Speaker Madigan and Senate President Cullerton are trying to get it through the General Assembly before the May 31 deadline, which is Sunday.
Doubek believes that without the governor's support for the Democrats' budget, it will die, leading to a possible budget impasse. That could lead to Illinoisans waking-up in July to find their state government shut down, she said.
"Things like prison guards not getting paid and how does that all shake-out? And so I think probably sometime in July is when you start to have really serious problems," Doubek said.

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