美国国家公共电台 NPR Illinois Lawmakers Override Governor, Pass Budget For 1st Time In 2 Years

 

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

For the first time in two years, the state of Illinois has a budget. Late today, the Illinois House of Representatives overrode¹ the governor's veto of the spending plan that enacts² $5 billion in tax increases. We're going to talk now to Brian Mackey. He's the statehouse reporter of Illinois Public Radio. And Brian, why did it take two years for the state to pass a budget?

BRIAN MACKEY, BYLINE³: Well there - there's really two things that happened about two years ago. We had a big tax cut that took effect here, and we had a new Republican governor who came into office. He had campaigned on big changes, shaking up Springfield. He had a very long list of conservative policies. One of the big ones was weakening public sector⁴ labor⁵ unions. He also had a lot of things he wanted to do to - he says would have helped improve the business climate.

We've seen these policy changes in some of our neighboring states - Indiana, Wisconsin. But unlike those states where Republican governors have had more success getting those policies through, the Illinois Democrats⁶ had supermajorities in the Illinois Legislature. You know, the governor says he wasn't interested in really negotiating on the budget until he got his agenda through, and that's basically where we've been for two years.

MCEVERS: If Illinois hasn't had a budget for these two years, how has the state been able to function?

MACKEY: Yeah, you know, we really haven't had a shutdown like you see in Washington D.C. or even this week - right? - New Jersey⁷. There were those stories about the beaches that were shut down.

MCEVERS: Right.

MACKEY: Here, nobody would have really noticed, or I should say most people in Illinois didn't really notice. There was a court order that went into effect, so state employees have stayed on the job. They've continued to get paid. You can still get your driver's license⁸. State parks are still open. But there are a couple of sectors⁹ that were really hard hit. Higher education took a big whack¹⁰ from this. The social safety net has been hard hit. So there are some social safety net providers, these - they take care of elderly people. They take care of people with disabilities. Some of them have not been paid all year. There was a stop gap about a year ago that got some of them, you know, sort of kept them going. But you know, basically the state has been held together with bubble gum and scotch¹¹ tape.

MCEVERS: (Laughter) The governor, you know, had vetoed the original budget. And now that the legislature has overridden¹² that veto, does this mean it's over; Illinois' budget problems are solved?

MACKEY: Not by a long shot.

MCEVERS: OK.

MACKEY: So we still have - built up during these last two years, we have this $15 billion backlog¹³ of unpaid¹⁴ bills because we've been doing all this spending even though we didn't have a budget. That's not the same thing as not spending money - right? So we've been spending basically out of control. And I mentioned that tax cut that had taken effect. So we were spending as though we had all this money coming in that we no longer had. And on top of that, we still have the largest unfunded government employee pension liability in the country. It's about $130 billion. And finally, we had this threat of going to junk bond status. There were - but it's not even clear that this will be enough to hold that off.

MCEVERS: Brian Mackey of Illinois Public Radio, thank you very much.

MACKEY: You're welcome.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHRIS JOSS' "DRINK ME HOT")

1 overrode   

越控( override的过去式 )； （以权力）否决； 优先于； 比…更重要

参考例句：

• The chairman overrode the committee's objections and signed the agreement. 主席不顾委员会的反对，径行签署了协议。
• The Congress overrode the President's objection and passed the law. 国会不顾总统的反对，通过了那项法令。

2 enacts   

制定（法律），通过（法案）( enact的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The legislative branch enacts laws; the executive branch enforces them, and the judicial branch interprets them. 立法部门制订法律，行政部门执行法律，司法部门解释法律。
• Hold phasic characteristic correctly, ability enacts the policy with an actual suit, measure. 正确地把握形势特点，才能制定出切合实际的政策、措施。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

5 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

6 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

8 license   

n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许

参考例句：

• The foreign guest has a license on the person.这个外国客人随身携带执照。
• The driver was arrested for having false license plates on his car.司机由于使用假车牌而被捕。

9 sectors   

n.部门( sector的名词复数 )；领域；防御地区；扇形

参考例句：

• Berlin was divided into four sectors after the war. 战后柏林分成了4 个区。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Industry and agriculture are the two important sectors of the national economy. 工业和农业是国民经济的两个重要部门。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

10 whack   

v.敲击，重打，瓜分；n.重击，重打，尝试，一份

参考例句：

• After years of dieting,Carol's metabolism was completely out of whack.经过数年的节食，卡罗尔的新陈代谢完全紊乱了。
• He gave me a whack on the back to wake me up.他为把我弄醒，在我背上猛拍一下。

11 scotch   

n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的

参考例句：

• Facts will eventually scotch these rumours.这种谣言在事实面前将不攻自破。
• Italy was full of fine views and virtually empty of Scotch whiskey.意大利多的是美景，真正缺的是苏格兰威士忌。

12 overridden   

越控( override的过去分词 )； （以权力）否决； 优先于； 比…更重要

参考例句：

• The chairman's veto was overridden by the committee. 主席的否决被委员会推翻了。
• Property '{0}' is not declarable, and cannot be overridden. 属性“{0}”是不可声明的，不能被重写。

13 backlog   

n.积压未办之事

参考例句：

• It will take a month to clear the backlog of work.要花一个月的时间才能清理完积压的工作。
• Investment is needed to reduce the backlog of repairs.需要投资来減轻积压的维修工作。

14 unpaid   

adj.未付款的，无报酬的

参考例句：

• Doctors work excessive unpaid overtime.医生过度加班却无报酬。
• He's doing a month's unpaid work experience with an engineering firm.他正在一家工程公司无偿工作一个月以获得工作经验。