House Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Chicago) is like a child holding onto his ball and refusing to let anyone else play until he gets his way, the Illinois Republican Party suggested recently.
The problem is that that ball is funding for all of the public schoolchildren in Illinois.
"Mike Madigan is trying to hold schoolchildren hostage to get a $500 million bailout for Chicago, just like he held the budget hostage for years to pass his 32% tax hike," GOP spokesperson Steven Yaffe said in a press release. "It's a desperate ploy to direct more taxpayer dollars to Chicago by using children as pawns. It's sick, but that's the Madigan way.”
The GOP accused Madigan of pushing for a $500 million pension bailout of Chicago Public Schools that is part of Senate Bill 1, an evidence-based education funding bill that passed both houses before the spring legislative session but has yet to be sent to Gov. Bruce Rauner.
The Dispatch Argus said Democratic leaders are working on guarantees that they will have the votes to overrode a likely Rauner veto before they will move the measure forward.
Alerts Sign-up