There's intense pressure on Illinois lawmakers to pass a budget before Friday, when a new fiscal year begins. Governor Bruce Rauner spent hours meeting with legislative leaders Wednesday morning and negotiations are expected to continue throughout the day.
After a year without a state budget, word is an agreement may be shaping up between the Republican governor and the Democrats who control the General Assembly.
Here's Republican Rep. Dan Brady, of Bloomington.
"There's a likelihood of a, the bridge budget, the stopgap budget if you will," said Brady.
If it pans out, that would lead to a temporary spending plan for universities, social services and government operations. A source says that would be separate from funding for schools; something Brady calls a "tender nerve."
Democrats favor spending hundreds of millions of dollars more on education, in part to help out the financially struggling Chicago Public Schools.
A deal on that could be in the works -- perhaps by allowing Chicago to raise its property taxes. Brady says there needs to be a way to avoid the perception of what Republicans and downstaters call a CPS "bailout."