The governor, with menacing tuna steakSINCE he took over as governor of Illinois at the start of the year, Bruce Rauner, who has always been slender, has shed about 20 pounds (nine kilos). The stress of running one of America’s most dysfunctional and indebted states is starting to show. The Republican governor is fighting an epic battle with the Democratic supermajority in both chambers of the statehouse. At stake is Illinois’s budget: the Midwestern state has been operating without a proper one since the beginning of July when Mr Rauner vetoed the unbalanced budget lawmakers presented to him.
So entrenched is the conflict between the legislature and the former businessman, who has never before held political office, that it might drag into 2016. The main bone of contention is Mr Rauner’s pro-business, anti-union, agenda, which he wants the statehouse to pass before he approves the tax increases and expenditure cuts needed to achieve a balanced budget. The governor’s pet reforms are curbing the cost for businesses of workers’ compensation, an insurance policy against workplace injury, changes to tort law and...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/1M9sAqk
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