Tomorrow Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner is scheduled to give the second “State of the State” message of his term of office. Would anyone care to bet that the commentary that will be written or pronounced afterwards could just as well have been written or said before the speech?
He faces a state that is facing economic decline and dwindling population with a legislature with veto-proof Democratic majorities in both houses that are determined to fight his every initiative tooth and nail for any number of reasons not the least being his emphasis on reducing the power of Illinois’s public employees’ unions.
The state is going on nine months without a budget. Gov. Rauner has said he won’t sign an unconstitutionally unbalanced budget and wants some action on his priorities. The legislature has refused to enact a balanced budget and won’t have any part of his priorities.
Good times.
So, whose fault is it? Will the dems be viewed as out-of-line . Or, will the republican governor take the heat for being out of step with what the dem majority wants to do?
So far the Democratic leadership has been very successful in deflecting blame onto the governor.