After withholding nearly $2 billion from towns in motor fuel tax funds, fee revenue for 911 dispatch centers, local video gambling money and other funds for four months, Illinois House Republicans and Democrats joined together in a rare display of bipartisanship on Tuesday and voted 115-1-1 to release the money.

The vote was hailed as a rare display of sanity amid the continuing budget battle between Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago.


But, as with everything in Springfield, nothing is as simple as it appears. The various forms of revenue, including money for towns to purchase road salt for the winter, may not be available by the time the snow begins to fly. That's because the Senate did not vote on the measure before adjourning until January.

The House never sent the bill to the Senate because House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, viewed as Madigan's floor leader, moved for the House to reconsider the bill.

State Sen. Bill Cunningham, D-Chicago, told me that during a Senate Democratic Caucus meeting earlier Tuesday the Senate Democrats decided they wanted to amend the bill to include natural gas revenue that was withheld by the state and that's normally used for emergency heating assistance for poor people.

There were discussions about including other amendments that Rauner had suggested previously, including money for road salt for state highways, if he would agree to allow Republicans to support the energy assistance for the poor.

Cunningham said it's his understanding the plan is to have the House reconsider its vote, with the amendments, in early December and have the Senate convene immediately thereafter.

"President Cullerton has made it clear that although we are not scheduled to reconvene until January, we are on call until that time," he said. "We all know this money is badly needed by municipalities throughout the state so I have no doubt we are going to meet before January. It's just a matter of getting an agreement on the amendment to release even more funds."

Cunningham said he assumed that's why Currie placed the motion to reconsider on the bill.

State Rep. Al Riley, D-Olympia Fields, the assistant House majority leader, told me Currie's motion was just a parliamentary tactic to prevent anyone else from "putting a brick" on the bill that would stop it from being approved.

"It's a tactic to prevent anyone else from coming in and stopping the measure," Riley said. "Nothing more."

In an Oct. 1 column, I explained that mayors throughout the state, but particularly in the Southland, were stepping up pressure on legislators to release the motor fuel tax (MFT) funds to their communities. I was the first to report that Rauner was withholding that money in early July.

State Rep. Marty Moylan, D-Des Plaines, and the former mayor of that suburb, was the chief sponsor of the legislation to release that money, along with revenue raised through lottery sales to pay off lottery winners.

The governor's office had taken the position that without a budget agreement, the state could not legally release the money. Specifically, the office told me in an email that the "state will not have the appropriation authority to distribute the money collected by the motor fuel tax to local municipalities because Speaker Michael Madigan and the legislators he controls failed to pass a balanced budget."

I pointed out that the MFT funds in question were not traditionally considered part of the state budget process and that the state basically acted as a pass-through agent — collecting the money from the tax assessed at gasoline pumps on behalf of the towns, counties and townships and passing it on.

As pressure continued to mount on Republicans to release the funds, the governor offered to loan money to municipalities at low interest rates if they needed it to purchase road salt or make road repairs.


That only fueled more outrage among mayors throughout Illinois, both Republicans and Democrats. They noted that they were being asked to take out loans for money the state owed their towns, comparing it to a bank asking for interest when a customer seeks to withdraw funds from his savings account. In the end, local taxpayers would be paying more money for their money, and the plan simply didn't make financial sense.

In defense, the governor's office responded that even if the House Democrats passed the legislation, the Senate wouldn't be able to do so for several weeks and then it would take weeks to get to Rauner's desk. So the loan idea was simply a way to help financially distressed communities meet their emergency needs during the state's financial crisis.

The Illinois Municipal League, South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association, Southwest Conference of Mayors and many others stepped up pressure on elected officials to release the funds that were owed municipalities.

As Madigan and the House prepared for a vote on Moylan's bill this week, Rauner's staff announced that he would support the bill — provided that several amendments were added, including one to provide more money to purchase road salt for municipalities and funds for four state veterans homes.

But the House Democrats announced they were going ahead with the original version of the bill. Rauner, apparently under pressure from Republican legislators who were barraged with calls from their mayors and faced with casting a "no" vote on a bill that would help their communities, sent word that he would not oppose the legislation.

You can laud that as a display of the governor's willingness to be reasonable, applaud it as a victory for Democrats and Madigan or simply see it for what it was — the right thing to do after months of foot-dragging by everyone involved.

But the money, as things stand now, may not be released in time to help the communities that most need it, just as Rauner's office predicted.

State Sen. Steve Landek, D-Bridgeview, who is also mayor of that suburb, said he understands the need to move the money quickly to municipalities and that Cullerton understands that as well.

"We are not going to wait until January to reconvene," Landek said. "We are prepared to return to Springfield as soon as the bill passes out of the House and is sent to us."

Palos Hills Mayor Gerald Bennett — president of the Southwest Conference of Mayors and who was instrumental in bringing public pressure on Rauner and legislators to release the MFT and 911 funds and the local share of video gambling revenue — said "we are very pleased," not only that the House voted to pass the bill, but that Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle last week responded to pressure to back off from extending an amusement tax to cable TV, golf courses and bowling alleys.

"It's been a very good week for suburban mayors," Bennett said, noting that the MFT bill still must be approved by the Senate and signed into law by the governor.

For a brief moment Tuesday evening, I thought common sense and reason had actually prevailed in Illinois. I never understood why the state withheld the money owed to the municipalities.


There were indications that it could have been a ploy by the governor to get mayors to ramp up pressure on Democrats to accede to his "Turnaround Agenda" and break the state budget impasse. If that were the case, it backfired badly.

But now we have everyone claiming victory while the money owed to your town is still being held by Springfield. Everyone is on record as agreeing that the money should be released.

So do it. Now!