Elmhurst College News

By John T Slania

Spending cuts are a good first step toward alleviating the state budget crisis but lawmakers need to demonstrate even more fiscal restraint, Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan said at the College’s Governmental Forum.

With Illinois facing a projected $500 million budget deficit, a backlog of $8.5 billion in unpaid bills and $6.8 billion in pension obligations, solutions won’t come easily. “I’m not going to sugar-coat it,” Madigan said. “It’s not going to be a short-term process.”

Madigan, who also is chairman of the Democratic Party of Illinois, appeared at the 5th Annual Elmhurst College Governmental Forum at the invitation of his former longtime political rival, Lee Daniels, who now is special assistant to the president for government and community relations at Elmhurst and a distinguished fellow in the College’s Department of Political Science.

The forum on January 24 also featured Lance Pressl, president of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce Foundation, who presented new research on the Chicago region’s economic competitiveness.

Although onetime rivals, Daniels and Madigan were able to put aside their differences when it mattered. Madigan, who represents the 22nd District on Chicago’s Southwest Side, is the state’s longest-serving speaker, having held the position for all but two years since 1983. Those were the two years–1995 to 1997–when Daniels served as speaker. Representing the 46th District in DuPage County, Daniels served in the Illinois House from 1975 to 2007, and was the Republican leader from 1983 to 2003.

“When at times we said disparaging things in public, in private, we were able to come together and get the people’s work done,” Daniels said of his relationship with Madigan.

Click here for the full report from Elmhurst College News

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