Democrat leaders finally began sending pieces of their unbalanced budget proposal to the Governor. While the entire Democrat budget represents a $3+ billion underfunded spending plan, the education portion actually appropriates less money for schools than the Governor’s proposal. Nonetheless, it represented a slight increase from FY2015 funding, and the Rauner said he signed the measure into law to, “ensure our teachers are paid and our schools are open and funded.”
The Governor’s action will make it much more difficult for Democrat leaders to hold schools hostage by threatening that the schools wouldn’t open without a budget in place.
Last year’s budget prorated General State Aid at only 87%. The legislation Rauner signed will raise that level to 92%.