Rauner details cost-cutting ideas for Illinois

Published June 12, 2014 10:38pm ET



CHICAGO (AP) — Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bruce Rauner on Thursday laid out the first specific cost-cutting proposals of his candidacy, saying Illinois could save hundreds of millions of dollars, including by selling most of its airplanes, merging the comptroller’s and treasurer’s offices and reforming the agency that oversees state property and purchasing.

The Winnetka businessman, who blasted Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration for everything from flying in prairie chickens from Kansas— he had a crate of domestic chickens as a prop — to spending more than $600,000 on copper-plated doors at the state Capitol, has yet to detail a budget plan, including how he would make up an estimated $1.8 billion in lost revenue if a temporary income-tax increase is allowed to expire in January.

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