Gov. Quinn faces hurdles as session looms

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In this December 2008 file photo, Illinois Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn speaks to reporters in his office at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, Ill. After Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested on corruption charges and tossed out of office, Quinn suddenly found himself running a state shaken by scandal and nearly paralyzed by a budget crisis. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File)

SPRINGFIELD — It’s tough being governor of a state weighed down by massive debt, overdue bills and rising expenses. It’s even tougher when lawmakers seem happy to ignore your ideas when it suits their mood.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn introduced a budget last year and saw it put on a shelf by legislators, who drafted their own plan with much lower spending. His vetoes were overturned on issues as important as the state’s power grid and as minor as roadkill. Ideas like consolidating small schools and restructuring state debt to pay overdue bills were brushed aside.

As Quinn prepares for his State of the State address this week, he faces twin challenges. He must come up with ideas to ease some of the country’s worst financial problems and a strategy to enact them at a time when the budget crisis demands extraordinary action before the problems grow too big to solve.

The lawmakers giving Quinn a hard time aren’t just from the opposing party. The Illinois Legislature is controlled by his fellow Democrats. Its top leaders are, like him, are from Chicago.

Yet Senate President John Cullerton has been known to tell audiences that if Republicans had nominated a different candidate in 2010, Quinn would not be governor now. And House Speaker Michael Madigan last week damned Quinn with the faint praise of calling him “very well-intentioned” and noting that he was once a political gadfly of little influence.

The upcoming legislative session is likely to be particularly challenging.

Quinn has said he will make it a priority to solve Illinois’ $85 billion unfunded state pension plan. In his address Wednesday and then his budget, he may propose reducing Medicaid, forcing schools to pay more for teacher retirements, cutting state jobs and trimming spending in other areas.

But lawmakers will be skittish about doing anything controversial in an election year. In particular, any effort to solve the pension problem could pit Quinn’s fellow Democrats against union allies whose votes and campaign help they will need.

Quinn says he has the skills to lead legislators through difficult decisions. He points to passage in 2011 of bills restricting teacher strikes, cutting workers’ compensation costs, establishing civil unions and more.

“I thought we did pretty well last year,” Quinn said.

Certainly, Quinn has worked effectively with the Legislature’s Democratic majority when they share the same general goals. His relationship with lawmakers doesn’t begin to resemble the poisonous atmosphere under his predecessor, Rod Blagojevich. But when they want to go different directions, Quinn is sometimes left behind.

Legislators complain that he can be inconsistent, throwing out proposals and making threats but then backing away. Negotiating with him is frustrating because he isn’t clear about his demands, said Rep. Lou Lang, who met several times with Quinn last year to discuss gambling expansion.