Posted by Monique Garcia at 1:05 p.m.
As lawmakers enter the waning days of the spring session, Gov. Pat Quinn today toned down his sometimes heated rhetoric about making an income tax increase part of a new state budget.
Quinn refused to say if he’d sign a budget if it did not include his proposed 33 percent income tax rate increase. The governor said he was confident lawmakers would find a solution next week before their scheduled departure May 7.
"Most of the time the Illinois legislature in its last week gets more done in terms of actually passing bills than all the previous weeks put together," Quinn said following a Chicago news conference to commemorate Polish Constitution Day. "So I am anticipating next week to be very busy."
Quinn also signaled that he would be open to alternatives to fill the budget hole beyond his tax hike proposal, including a cigarette tax increase and additional borrowing, though he called that "the least best alternative."
"I think the most important thing is to have proper education funding in Illinois, that’s the outcome that’s just indispensable," Quinn said.
Still, Quinn warned that he wouldn’t sign off on any plan just so lawmakers could go home for the summer, noting he vetoed the first budget that was sent to him last year.
"I want to see the final product of the legislature, if it doesn’t have proper funding for education you can bet your life that, you know, we will be working and working until we get to that point," Quinn said. "You cant go backwards on education and have a strong economy in Illinois."
Lawmakers today went home for the weekend in anticipation of addressing the budget starting Monday.