A central Illinois state lawmaker remains optimistic an agreement over a stopgap budget bill will be reached by the end of this week.
Republican Dan Brady of Bloomington says there is much agreement among negotiators on a measure that would provide social service agencies and higher education six months of revenue. But he says House Speaker Mike Madigan is standing in the way.
"My focus and the focus of many of my colleagues is to implore the Speaker of the House to allow us what we are there to do and that is to represent the people of our district and allow us a vote on a stopgap measure that is supported by his own Democratic caucus," said Brady.
Brady told reporters in Normal Tuesday the key stumbling block is disagreement on funding for Chicago public schools. He's hopeful some revenue for K-through-12 education will be included in the stopgap measure.
"It's going to give funding particularly to higher education and social service agencies. Is it everything they want? No, it's not everything they want, but it's going to bring most of our universities up to between 82 percent and 90 percent funding. That's critical right now," Brady added.
