Illinois' top political leaders remain divided. Come tomorrow there will be only eight days left for them to reach a budget deal. It's crunch time, says Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno:
"It is critically important that we complete this task within the next eight days or it becomes much more difficult."
More difficult, because it takes a supermajority, rather than a simple one, to pass a budget after the end of this month. Gov. Bruce Rauner has gone out of his way to strike an optimistic tone that it can happen.
"We've got eight days. That's one of the reasons I'm ringing the bell right now. Eight days is plenty of time if we focus.”
But while he spoke of compromise, Rauner refused to back away from his agenda, an agenda Democrats don't like, and that's at the heart of the nearly 11-month stalemate.
