A $454 million bill to increase funding for financially struggling Illinois colleges and universities has cleared the state Senate. Lawmakers approved the bill on a near unanimous vote and sent the measure to the House on Thursday.
Governor Bruce Rauner's appearance at an awards ceremony for student tech entrepreneurs at the University of Illinois Urbana campus was cut short by demonstrators who heckled him over the state budget impasse.
Gov. Bruce Rauner has signed SB 2059, which provides $600 million in emergency funding for Illinois' public universities through the rest of the semester. In a statement, the governor says "now is the time to build on this bipartisan momentum and focus on enacting a truly balanced budget for Fiscal Years 2016-2017." But he reiterated his call for business reforms at the same time.
The Illinois House and Senate both voted Friday morning to approve a $600 million short-term funding fix for financially struggling colleges and universities that have been without funding during the state budget stalemate.
To the shock of Republicans, the Democratic sponsor of a bill to provide partial state funding for state colleges and universities withdrew her measure just before a scheduled vote Thursday night.
