Even in an normal year - getting an Illinois state budget approved is complicated. But this is no normal year. And lawmakers have just a week left to get it all done.
Given that lawmakers never approved a budget last year, they now have not one, but two state spending plans to finish up. A budget for last year, and a budget for next year. That means figuring out where to make cuts, and maybe where and how much to raise taxes.
Gov. Bruce Rauner won't have that discussion until the Democrats get on board with a series of controversial changes he's promoting. He says it can happen.
"Well, we've been working on all of them for well over a year. So it's not like we're out of time, or this is too much to do too quickly. This has all been working on for over a year," he said.
But for over a year, bipartisan talks haven't reached resolution.
