Illinois' budget director says legislators should not have been caught off guard by budget cuts Governor Bruce Rauner made earlier this month.
Heading into the Easter and Passover holiday weekend, various social service agencies were told their state funding would be eliminated for the rest of the fiscal year.
Rauner's budget chief, Tim Nuding says he had been upfront about the possibility.
"I feel like I was completely clear in what we at GOMB believed had to happen."
The funding cut-off came just after a bipartisan compromise to address this year's 1.6 billion dollar budget deficit.
During an hours-long budget hearing Tuesday, Democratic Senators said they were frustrated the cuts came despite that agreement.
Senator Dan Kotowski, a Democrat from Park Ridge, was among them. He says the deal would not have passed had he known those cuts were coming.
"If we knew, that two weeks after this deal was passed that $26 million of grants -- of these line items, that we put into the budget - were doing to be suspended, I would not have voted for the bill."
A lack of trust could make it harder for legislators and the governor's office as they begin to tackle a broader issue ---- next year's budget.
The cuts include closure of immigrant welcoming centers, the zeroing-out of support for autistic children, and an epilepsy program.