McHenry Times

State Rep. Jack Franks (D-Woodstock) is under fire from Republican candidate Steven Reick in House District 63 following Gov. Bruce Rauner’s budget address on Wednesday.

During the address, Rauner said an unbalanced budget would put “everything on the table” for spending cuts except funding for early childhood education and general aid to schools.

The Republican governor began his speech by stating how devastating the budget stalemate has been on Illinois’ residents and emphasizing that a tax hike will not solve the state’s financial crisis.

Rauner, who has been governor for a little over a year, said he believes the state’s priority should be on the next generation, not the next election.

Franks said he is still processing the governor’s speech.

“I appreciate that the governor wants to spend more on education; I agree with him,” Franks said. “He’s going to have to identify revenue sources. He’s the same governor that told us not to vote for the education budget last year then he called it his No. 1 achievement.”

Franks said the Democratic Party has the same goal of increasing spending for education, but stressed the importance of addressing the budget as a whole, not in a vacuum.

“I’m happy to work with him though," Franks said. "I think he was being very pragmatic. I don’t think he was being overly confrontational. I think he was just laying it out as he saw it.

Illinois has been operating without a budget since Rauner vetoed a spending plan sent to him by the Democrat-controlled legislature last July, forcing a long list of painful cuts to many services across the state.

Rauner encouraged lawmakers to work together to make “real reform” that will create jobs and save taxpayers. The governor also told legislators to stop sending him spending plans that will be vetoed, stating that more jobs will translate to more people working and, ultimately, more people paying taxes.

Rather than addressing Rauner’s speech, Reick went after Franks on his blog Illinoyances, calling into question Franks’ voting record.

“Today we found out what Jack Franks’ favorite tactic is when having to choose between supporting a governor who carried his district by 36 percent and bowing to the interests of his supporters in the public sector unions: he punts,” Reick wrote.

Reick said Franks has been walking a fine line by refusing to take a hard stand on important issues by not casting a vote on a bill that would have restricted Rauner’s ability to engage in collective bargaining with American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the union to which an overwhelming number of state employees belong.  

“If you recall, back in September, Franks voted 'present' on the vote to override the governor’s veto of House Bill 1229, which would have placed similar restrictions upon the governor’s ability to bargain with AFSCME,” Reick wrote. “He did so only after it was learned that one of the members of the Democrat Caucus was absent and thus the Speaker (Michael Madigan) did not have his full supermajority needed to override the veto. In other words, Jack took the easy way out and ran for cover to suit his own political purposes.”