Governor Bruce Rauner and the legislative leaders went half a year without all getting together. Today they met, for the third time in as many weeks. But a major player was missing.
The private meeting in the governor's office lasted an hour and 40 minutes. Senate GOP Leader Christine Radogno says it was a good meeting.
"We are still talking about the same issues we've been talking about; we'll be digging in a little deeper on pensions and workers' comp. We also talked about redistricting reform, term limits."
There's a caveat. House Speaker Michael Madigan wasn't there. Here's House Republican Leader Jim Durkin:
"The fact is we're not going to move this along unless we're all are fully participating and actively involved in these negotiations. We're four of us, we had a good discussion. But we're not going to get any further down the road unless we have everyone in this room."
Madigan's spokesman says the longtime Democratic leader had a "conflict in scheduling." He wouldn't specify what that conflict was.
