CHICAGO (AP) - The Latest on the Illinois budget and a school funding plan (all times local):
1:05 p.m.
Gov. Bruce Rauner has summoned lawmakers into special session to settle the public education funding issue weeks before the school bell is set to ring.
The Republican ordered the House and Representatives and Senate to report to Springfield Wednesday. This was after the Senate missed a noon deadline to send to him a school-finance plan legislators approved in May.
Rauner pledged to issue an amendatory veto of the measure. He suggested he wanted to excise a portion of the bill that would require the state to pay the employer portion of Chicago Public Schools’ teacher pension costs - like every other district.
John Cullerton is the Democratic Senate president from Chicago. He says he wants to discuss the matter with Rauner instead of starting a costly special session.
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The bill is SB1 .
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11:15 a.m.
Gov. Bruce Rauner is reiterating his call for Illinois lawmakers to send him a school funding overhaul by noon, or he’ll call a special session this week to deal with the issue.
Legislators have approved a plan to ensure the neediest school districts get money first. But it also requires the state to pay the employer portion of Chicago Public Schools’ teacher pensions. The Senate has yet to send it to Rauner’s desk.
The Republican governor has said he wants to use his amendatory veto powers to make changes because the plan unfairly benefits Chicago, but he refused to discuss them in detail during a Monday morning news conference ahead of his deadline.
Rauner accused Democratic leaders of holding the plan “hostage” to force a school funding crisis. Rauner says if there’s a special session, it’ll start on Wednesday.
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10:30 a.m.
The Democratic Illinois Senate president wants Gov. Bruce Rauner to forgo his planned veto of education-funding legislation.
John Cullerton of Chicago says in a statement Monday that he’d “like to have a conversation with Gov. Rauner” to find out where the Republican stands on the revised school-funding formula.
Rauner says that money is on top of another grant and amounts to a “bailout” to help the strapped school district make up for past pension-payment shortfalls.
The Senate never sent Rauner the legislation. Rauner set a noon deadline Monday for receiving it or he’d call a special session.
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