Rhythm Gives Way to Chaos Updated X2

February 19th, 2008 at 08:19am Aaron Chambers

The Capitol used to have a reliable rhythm.

Early each spring, the governor would announce his budget plan. Lawmakers would spend the spring debating the governor’s plan, as well as their own myriad plans. And by May 31, the official end of spring session, they all would either have a deal or be close to one. Once they finalized the deal, they would all go home for the summer. The budget they approved generally contained most of what the governor sought when the session began.

That rhythm is gone.

Gov. Blagojevich and lawmakers spent last year in a bitter fight over the budget and other matters that dragged session from the spring straight into this year. There were many firsts, from the governor suing the House speaker over procedural matters, to the Senate president violating an agreement he made with other legislative leaders to stick with them even if it meant overriding the governor’s wishes on the state budget, to the governor cutting more than $400 million in spending from that budget and claiming he could somehow unilaterally re-appropriate the spending on his own priorities.

This year promises to be yet another step toward the chaos of last year. The governor’s annual State of the State/budget address, the spring session’s formal kickoff, is Wednesday. But House Speaker Michael Madigan and Comptroller Dan Hynes, two of his fellow Chicago Democrats, have already moved to put the governor’s back against a wall — before he has a chance to get both feet on the ground.

Madigan and Hynes have attempted to redefine, or at least reframe, the spring session. Read more about Madigan’s strategy here, and about Hynes’ move here.

By the time state officials settled on a new state budget last fall, it little resembled the one Blagojevich introduced last spring. The governor’s ambitious plan for universal health care did not pass. Neither did his plan for a gross receipts tax on Illinois businesses (it would have been the largest tax hike in state history). Lawmakers took the budget in another direction. Blagojevich retaliated by cutting more than $400 million of their earmarks and other spending.

When Blagojevich announces his next budget plan on Wednesday, the question will be: How much does his budget plan even matter?

UPDATE 1

So much for keeping lawmakers in the loop on his budget plans. In a befuddling break from tradition, the governor’s office has not scheduled briefings for the staff of any legislative caucus.

Spokespersons for the four legislative caucuses — Senate Democrats, Senate Republicans, House Democrats and House Republicans — say the governor’s office has not alerted their budget staff to any briefing before the governor’s budget address on Wednesday.

In past years, budget staff for each of the four caucuses were briefed before the address. The staff are responsible for analyzing and explaining the governor’s budget plans to their respective lawmakers. Without a briefing, and the budget documents that come with a briefing, the staff obviously cannot do this.

Fascinating.

UPDATE 2

Cap Fax Blog weighed in on the no-budget-briefings fiasco, adding:

Reporters, legislators and a whole lot of others are pretty upset today because the governor will not hold any budget briefings tonight. Historically, off-the-record briefings are held the evening before a budget address, which allows reporters to get their stories ready (or simply break the embargo altogether) and allow appropriations staffs to prepare analyses for their respective caucuses.

So, no briefing means no analyses tomorrow, and no analyses means seriously grouchy legislators. I’ve talked to several today (in the House and the Senate in both parties) who all had about the same response: “This is not a good way to start off the session.”

Indeed.

Entry Filed under: Illinois Budget, Rod Blagojevich