* 10:52 am - As of yesterday, the governor was planning to call the General Assembly back next week for a special session. Plans often change up there on the 16th Floor, so this is not a sure thing yet, but that’s the word handed down from on-high as of now.
Kevin will be at the governor’s noon press conference, so we’ll know more then.
* 12:09 pm - Reporters were led into a conference room a few minutes ago, so the presser should be starting within the half hour.
*** 12:17 pm *** From the press release…
On July 9th, the governor will convene a special session of the General Assembly to address the revenue bills necessary to balance the budget, including the Illinois Works capital plan which will put 600,000 Illinoisans to work, and to pass a fund transfer legisltion that would free up $530 million…
*** 12:21 pm *** More from the release…
If the House does not act on July 9th, the governor will issue a second proclamation for July 10 to take action on any budget balancing steps he must take…
*** 12:26 pm *** No mention was made of the pension obligation bond. Interesting.
*** 12:29 pm *** Quotes from governor during presser…
“I want to reiterate my call to the House Democratic leadership to be straight with the public on a tax increase…
“The House shouldn’t do what the Cook County Board did - get elected and then sock it to the public with a tax increase…
“I call on Speaker Madigan to pledge to the public that he won’t raise income taxes.”
*** 12:40 pm *** Press conference is over. More info in a bit.
*** 12:42 pm *** The full press release can be viewed by clicking here.
*** 12:47 pm *** The reason given for not including the pension obligation bond was that the governor’s office called a couple of dozen House members who said they could support the capital bill and the fund transfers, but not the pension proposal. But that was worth a big bunch of money, so this is quite a bit of grandstanding because his “new” budget has an even bigger hole.
*** 2:57 pm *** The governor told reporters that he will keep Amtrak funding level with last fiscal year’s funding instead of slashing its entire appropriation, which was originally threatened.
Instead, he said, elected officials’ budgets (he hinted at the Secretary of State’s budget) would be cut.
*** 3:20 pm *** From the Sun-Times…
“We’ll be in Springfield next week. But the defects in the revenue bills are still the defects. I don’t know there’s any more support for this stuff than there was,” Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said.
Blagojevich also warned voters that Madigan might be setting up the passage of a statewide income-tax increase after the November election or early next year. […]
Brown, Madigan’s spokesman, responded that House Democrats ruled out an income-tax hike “a long time ago.”
The governor also wants the House and Senate to address a “drafting error” in one of the budget bills awaiting his approval that caused the administration to idle 39 ongoing projects throughout the state.
Brown disputed that the language was inserted in error and actually was intended “to prevent the administration from spending out of lump sums for projects that hadn’t been authorized.”