Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner is backing off of his much maligned cuts to state-subsidized child care for working parents. It's not expected to be enough to ward off the legislature tomorrow. Already, thousands of kids have been cut off from daycare.
Rauner had used his executive power to suppress eligibility. Under his new rules, a parent working a minimum wage job, full-time made too much money to qualify. It led to a backlash; legislators were scheduled to vote on reversing those changes.
Instead, Rauner's come out with last-minute compromise. The Republican says he'll agree to let nearly everyone who was eligible before to remain so. That solves the matter for some advocates eager to get kids back into daycare; but it's not enough for others.
"It offers some resolution, but this resolution could have been obtained earlier on. What took so long for the governor to realize the error of his ways?"
James Muhammad, with the SEIU union.
"And secondly, it does not prevent him from coming back, several months down the line, and instituting these drastic changes that he wants to do anyway."
Muhammad says the House should proceed in passing a law that would strip Rauner of that authority.
