Understanding Illinois: A Pox on Both Your Houses
•July 29, 2015•
By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist
The relative handful who follow Illinois politics closely are captivated by the unresolved mano a mano tussle between Gov. Bruce Rauner and House Speaker Mike Madigan over the failure to enact a state budget.
The policy outcome is not in much doubt: a somewhat trimmed budget and a bump back up in the income or other taxes, to be hammered out sometime before Labor Day.
The open question is whether Rauner will, as part of the deal, achieve any of his “turnaround agenda” of business-friendly changes and votes on term limits and redistricting reform.
A related, more beguiling matter for political junkies is which combatant will come out of this adjudged the winner.
As a friend once observed, politics is “football without muscles,” so we love the political game going on.
At the moment, most of my political friends seem to think (worry?) that Speaker Madigan, the wily veteran, has the upper hand with Rauner, the feisty newcomer. But we are still in the early rounds of this contest, if I may mix metaphors.
To get an assessment of how the fight is playing out, I meandered from my home office in Toulon down the main drag to Connie’s Country Kitchen, the fount of all wisdom.