Senate Democrats emerge as top foes of Rauner budget cuts
As Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner tries to win approval for a state budget with severe spending cuts, Senate Democrats have emerged as the loudest opponents, holding news conferences and committee hearings to denounce the governor's proposals as "unworkable" and "unconscionable."
The latest front in that effort unfolded Monday, when lawmakers grilled Rauner's newly appointed social services chief at a Chicago hearing packed with low-income parents, people with disabilities and senior citizens who said they rely on the services that Rauner plans to cut back.
One by one, the Democratic senators questioned Gregory Bassi, acting secretary of the Department of Human Services, which under Rauner's proposed budget would lose an estimated $424 million come July 1.
"When you decide to cut a program (or) you decide to reduce funding, it's one thing when you see it on paper," Sen. Michael Hastings, D-Tinley Park, said as he capped off a tense back-and-forth with Bassi. "But when you look behind you and you come to the suburbs and you see what it's like on the ground, you may think differently about these cuts."
Dozens of people who filled the hearing room were on hand to drive home that point: A eighth-grade student who gave a rave review of her after-school program, a day care provider who begged against cuts to subsidized services, a man using a wheelchair who worried about losing the assistance he said keeps him out of a nursing home.
Many of those who were set to talk at the hearing were made available to reporters beforehand. It's a time-tested way for social service groups to push back against proposed budget cuts putting a human face on what otherwise could remain slices on a budget pie chart. Such groups generally don't have the campaign cash to get lawmakers' attention like other interest groups at the Capitol.
Democratic Senate President John Cullerton tried a version of that last week when he addressed a different crowd at a luncheon hosted by the City Club of Chicago.
"Gov. Rauner sees the budget as merely a math problem. I see the people behind those numbers, people struggling to get ahead," Cullerton said before attempting to play a video featuring a young woman who had benefited from a state scholarship program. But Cullerton's plan to pepper his speech with similar videos to illustrate his point that Rauner's budget is "as unworkable as it is unconscionable" was foiled by a technical glitch.
Cullerton has been on the opposite side of Rauner and Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, who both said last month that a deal was close on fixing a $1.6 billion shortfall in the current budget passed under former Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn. Talks stalled in the weeks since, and Cullerton's staff indicated a reluctance among the more liberal Senate Democratic caucus to give the governor broad authority to make cuts. Instead, Senate Democrats tooled up their own version that would give Rauner more narrow authority, which Republicans dismissed as a political stunt.
That tension surfaced at Monday's hearing, with Republican Sen. Matt Murphy of Palatine becoming visibly frustrated after Bassi faced tough questioning over this year's still-unsolved budget woes.
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Senate Democrats emerge as top foes of Rauner budget cuts