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All Eyes on Senate as Tax, Spending Votes Loom

John Cullerton
Seth Perlman
/
AP
Illinois Senate President John Cullerton.

The Illinois Senate is expected to vote on a full budget Tuesday after the House passed a spending plan and a tax increase over the weekend to try and end the two-year long impasse.

In the House, 15 Republicans went against Gov. Bruce Rauner and voted "yes" on Sunday. But it’s not a given that the Senate has the votes to pass it.

Senate Democrats already passed a budget. It included more spending than the plan they’re set to consider Tuesday.

Senate Republicans opposed that budget, and the question now is whether they’ll oppose this one too.

Senate President John Cullerton, a Democrat from Chicago, says it would be “very difficult” to pass with just Democrats, even though they have a supermajority. 

"We have to do something," Cullerton said. "The House has acted but we’d prefer to do it with an agreement from the Republicans. That’s why we’ve asked them to come back here."

Republican leaders skipped a closed door meeting with Democrats on Monday afternoon.

Rauner has said he will veto the budget if it comes to his desk because citizens shouldn’t pay more in taxes when lawmakers have not passed his political agenda that he says would grow the economy.