Duffy Reports

This arrived from State Senator Dan Duffy today:

Rauner and Madigan actually solved a problem together

Governor Rauner Passes a Balanced, Bipartisan Budget Fix for 2015

Dan Duffy

Dan Duffy

The state’s first legitimately balanced budget in 12 years was signed into law last week by Governor Rauner. This could be a good sign of things to come!

In May of 2014, Gov. Pat Quinn and his Democratic leaders knowingly passed a FY15 unbalanced budget that did not contain the revenues necessary to fund state government for an entire year. Our fiscal year ends on June 30th and state departments/programs have been running out of money for critical services since January.

Governor Rauner inherited a $1.6 billion hole in the FY15 budget and had to take immediate action to solve the crisis. Rauner promised to fix the problem without raising taxes or borrowing more money as Speaker Madigan and President Cullerton suggested.

The governor kept his promise. He worked tirelessly with legislative leaders from both sides of the aisle to put together a legislative package that cut 2.25% in state government spending and shifted money over from special funds to fill the $1.6 billion shortfall. This legislative package was passed in a bipartisan, bicameral process that will hopefully serve as a template for future negotiations.

Our Illinois Constitution mandates that our budget must be balanced. Previous governors have ignored the constitution and used accounting gimmicks to justify unbalanced budgets. I have opposed every unbalanced budget since I have been in office.

The next major obstacle for Governor Rauner to solve will be to pass a FY 2016 balanced budget by the end of May. Our FY16 budget year will begin July 1, 2015. This will be an enormous puzzle for our new governor to solve since our general fund resources in 2016 are projected to be $4 billion below the amount needed to balance the budget at current spending levels. Some serious spending cuts must be made in order to legally balance next year’s budget and steer Illinois out of the current financial disaster. The good news is that Governor Rauner has proven to be up to the challenge and is already working on solving the problem.

Duffy Appointed to Governor Rauner’s “Government Consolidation” Task Force

I have been appointed by Gov. Rauner to his Local Government Consolidation and Unfunded Mandates Task Force. Illinois has 7,000 units of local government, the most in the United States by over 1,800 units. The governor requested that we develop long-term solutions regarding how we can make Illinois government more efficient and accountable to the taxpayers. This task force will analyze ways to reduce the size and cost of government in Illinois and present the solutions to Governor Rauner.

Stay Connected with Senator Duffy on Facebook!

If you would like to communicate with me on a consistent basis and stay up-to-date on legislative issues, please “like” my Facebook page. Through Facebook, I communicate daily about issues we are working on and even discuss bills in “real time” directly with constituents as we are debating them on the senate floor. Your feedback is critical to our success.

Please click on the following link:  www.facebook.com/senatorduffy

Happy Easter!


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