The Illinois Senate on Tuesday overrode Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of an Illinois spending plan and tax increase amid a budget battle that threatens to ruin the state’s credit rating.
Rauner’s veto of the fiscal 2018 budget came just hours after the Democrat-controlled state Senate hastily passed the $36 billion legislation and $5 billion income tax hike. But the Senate, with the help of about a dozen Republicans, overrode his veto less than a half hour later. The House also has to override the veto for the financial package to become law, but the House leader said his chamber would not vote on Tuesday.
The legislature worked over the past three days to hammer out the spending plan as Illinois teeters on the edge of a financial crisis.
The state has limped along without a complete budget for two years and again missed passing a spending plan for its new fiscal year, which started this month, threatening to make it the first state with a junk credit rating.
The Democrat tax plan in the budget legislation would increase personal income tax rates from 3.75 percent to 4.95 percent, and corporate income tax rates from 5.25 percent to 7 percent, the Tribune reported.
