Former Gov Edgar Weighs In On Rauner’s Stopgap Budget Plan

A temporary budget – like the kind Governor Bruce Rauner began pushing Tuesday on the final day of the legislative session - is better than nothing. But not by much.  That's the message from a man who has been in Governor Bruce Rauner's shoes - former Illinois Governor Jim Edgar.

"In general, they're bad," he said. "I mean, we've kind of had a partial stop gap this last year, and it's just driven the state deeper into debt and unfortunately a lot of programs have been ignored. And so a stopgap is kind of the worst."

Rauner has been pushing for a "grand compromise" that combines a budget with his controversial economic agenda Democrats loathe. 

Rauner and Edgar are both Republicans.  But Edgar says the governor needs to move off of his agenda.  He says Illinois needs a full budget. 

The former governor, who appeared Tuesday on 'The 21st' says whatever budget plan legislators come away with to end Illinois’ impasse ultimately has to have the support of Governor Rauner. 

Edgar says negotiations might also require setting aside personal feelings in order to get a budget measure passed.

"The worst, really bad thing would be for the Democrats to be able to pass a budget even with a few Republicans helping them – and override the governor’s veto," he said.  "Because you got to have the governor on board to make the budget work. The governor administers the budget. I know, I did it. You can hold up spending and things. So the governor’s got to be part of the process in the end.”

Edgar says Rauner’s ‘Turnaround Agenda’ has made for a bitter, more personal fight as budget talks have escalated over the past several months.