Republican Governor Bruce Rauner says he'll sign a budget fix passed Thursday by the Illinois Senate as soon as possible.
Illinois' budget has a $1.6 billion dollar gap --- the result of a spending plan Democrats passed in the spring; some had hoped then for a post-election tax increase that never came to fruition. Democratic Senator Heather Steans of Chicago says this will fill that gap.
"We clearly had a significant budget challenge we needed to get through for this fiscal year. We knew it was an incomplete budget. This takes care of that, without adding any debt and without any new tax revenues."
Rather, the plan calls for sweeping money from special funds meant for other purposes. It also relies on near across-the-board cuts to state spending.
Mental health, pension payments and a couple of other areas are spared; schools are not. But there's money set aside for the governor to draw on should a district find itself hurting, and in need of more cash.
The deal saves a state-subsidized daycare program for low-income families that was out of cash, and ensures there'll be money to pay prison guards and court reporters.
While it passed with bipartisan votes, only a dozen of the Senate's 39 Democrats went along with it. And in the House, support from Democrats in suburban swing districts was noticeably missing.
The minority party was all in though; every Republican legislator voted "yes."