In the News

Daily Herald, June 7, 2007

SPRINGFIELD — Earlier this week, Gov. Rod Blagojevich sent a spokeswoman out to say lawmakers needed to spend a full work week at the Capitol focusing on an elusive state budget deal.

Soon after, the governor left the building, boarded a state plane and flew home to his family in Chicago.

He flew back to Springfield Wednesday afternoon to meet for a couple hours with legislative leaders in hopes of finding common ground on the budget to avert a government shutdown looming at month’s end.

But little progress was made and Blagojevich flew back to Chicago again Wednesday evening with plans to return to the Capitol today.

Stuck at the Capitol, lawmakers who’ve long bristled at the governor’s work schedule began publicly mocking it.

“I want the governor’s schedule, so I can have dinner at home and a good night’s sleep. I’ll have the state airplane pick me up tomorrow morning at about 10. That’ll get me here at 11. I can have lunch, come to the floor, maybe go jog with somebody. Maybe a chess game,” state Rep. Bill Black, a Danville Republican, told House colleagues, tongue firmly planted in cheek.

A Blagojevich spokeswoman took issue with criticism.

“The governor does work five days a week. In fact, he works more than five days a week; he works seven days a week,” said Rebecca Rausch. “The governor is 100 percent committed to passing a budget sooner rather than later.”

The reality and frustration of the current situation is that there’s little for rank-and-file lawmakers to do other than wait for their leaders to sort out the festering budget mess.

Adding to their frustration, lawmakers are now on their own for hotels and meals. The $125-a-day taxpayer allowance vanished when lawmakers blew a June 1 deadline for a budget and the spring session careened into overtime.

The governor doesn’t get such a daily perk. Instead, taxpayers provide him with a mansion and staff a few blocks from the Capitol. He rarely stays there.

But lawmakers have grown increasingly restless as the overtime session lingers with no end in sight.

“I miss my family,” said state Sen. Susan Garrett, a Lake Forest Democrat. “My son was home over the weekend. He flew in from Europe. He’s home now, and I’m here. It’s a sacrifice that I knew about when I took the job.”