House lawmakers returned to Springfield July 21 for hearings that Democrat legislative leaders said showed the perils of adopting Rauner’s pro-business agenda. The Senate has its next session days scheduled for Aug. 4 and 5.
The General Assembly’s Democrat leaders need to stop the public relations gimmicks like the Committee of the Whole political theater, and make more attempts at compromise. Gov. Rauner has already offered to come more than halfway by scaling his policy agenda down from more than 40 items in his Turnaround Agenda to only a handful, and backing away from right-to-work legislation. He has also offered movement on tax reform to find additional revenues to help balance the budget.