"Was it a good budget?" asked State Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie.  "Not very." 

So began a Chicago town hall meeting hosted by Currie and State Sen. Kwame Raoul at the Hyde Park Neighborhood Club last Thursday.

About 50 constituents from the Democratic lawmakers' overlapping South Side districts attended to learn more about how the state legislature came to approve a dismal "stopgap" state budget last month. In discussing the issue, Currie and Raoul attempted to strike a difficult balance.  They repeatedly emphasized their own support for raising the state income tax rate and expressed dismay regarding the plan they ultimately passed (which depended heavily on both borrowing and delayed payments to vendors and social service providers).  At the same time, the legislators spared the leadership in Springfield much criticism and offered few solutions for fixing the apparent dysfunction within the state's Democratic majority. 

Currie noted that another vote for additional revenue would likely come next January and suggested that more external pressure from those affected by the resulting budget cuts might change the outcome. Watch it:

Prior to the event, members of the group Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation (SOUL) handed out leaflets featuring a picture of House Speaker Michael Madigan alongside this question: "Who continues to stand in the way of adequate education funding and vital services for Illinois most vulnerable?"  At one point during the town hall itself, two dozen SOUL members stood up and a pair of them read prepared statements that described Madigan as the "one common denominator" in the failure to raise adequate state revenue (an issue we've written about extensively) and urged Currie and Raoul to ask him to resign if this record continued through the end of the year. 

The first statement came from Kathy Anderson:

SOUL, and its predecessor MAC [Metropolitan Alliance of Congregations], have worked hard on education funding reform since 1996. Every year we have gone to Springfield by the busloads and at one point, we were in Springfield to lobby every day for six weeks. SOUL’s commitment to this issue is strong. The unfair tax system and the resulting inadequate revenue creates a funding disparity that consigns many young people, especially those in the city of Chicago, to a second rate education and locks them out of opportunity. The over-reliance on local property taxes creates these inequities and drives businesses and jobs out of our communities as well.

Many legislators have supported our efforts, but they couldn’t make it happen. Key leaders, Pate Phillip and Governor Ryan, blocked this reform. When Democrats finally seized control of the Illinois senate, Governor Blagojevich blocked reform by refusing to raise taxes.

We now have a governor willing to sign a progressive tax increase that will cut the deficit and fund schools. The Senate even passed a bill to that effect. But it still hasn’t happened.  The one constant is Michael Madigan. Obviously something is more important to the Speaker than funding our schools and vital services. Can you tell us what that is?

The subsequent statement was read by Jake Werner:

We are standing here today as concerned citizens. Our leadership in Springfield has continued to fail us. Even as you claim innocence, you hold a clear majority, a majority for which you are responsible in the House, and the Governor is on board for a balanced budget. Senator Raoul and his colleagues did their job – passing a revenue stream that is balanced, fair, and adequately funds our services and schools. The bill that the Senate passed died in the House, at your feet and at the feet of Speaker Madigan. That is unacceptable leadership. Madigan is the one common denominator. He could have passed this if he wanted to – Crain’s said it, Senator Meeks has said it, the Sun Times said it, and we’re saying it. That’s why we’re asking you here today -- Will you pass House Bill 174, the Senate budget plan, by January 30^th or ask Speaker Madigan to resign?

In the video below, you can see Anderson's statement and Currie's response, in which she tried to downplay Speaker Madigan's influence:   

Not surprisingly, neither Raoul or Currie agreed to the group's pledge and the SOUL members filed out of the room following their exchange with the lawmakers. 

The discussion went on for another hour, however, and hit on some interesting notes. Several audience members voiced real concern about the fate of the social service providers affected by the budget cuts and backlog of bills. Furthermore, the lawmakers both offered their thoughts on Gov. Pat Quinn's handling of the budget process:   

RAOUL: When you're dealing with someone like the speaker or Cullerton, you're dealing with well-seasoned politicians.  And the budget negotation was essentially a stare-down -- someone's gotta move.  This year, it's been the governor.  Does that mean he's been indecisive? I don't think so.  ... I think he genuinely wants to do the right thing.

CURRIE: He's always been a political gadfly, always on the outside throwing darts. This means, in his new task as governor, he didn't start out wil all the necessary tools.  ... I'd like to see him quickly become a bit more seasoned.

It will be interesting to see what individual lawmakers do when it comes time to pick sides between Quinn and Dan Hynes in next year's Democratic primary.  While Quinn's handling of the budget process was certainly flawed, Hynes has not voiced any support for the income tax proposals being advocated by Currie and Raoul.