Top House leaders face off over budget, pensions

WKMS | By Todd Hatton

Published May 31, 2012 at 9:35 AM CDT

The top Democrat and top Republican in the Illinois House traded jabs yesterday in a heated confrontation over state budget issues.

Representative Tom Cross and his Republican colleagues repeatedly accused the Democratic majority of bargaining in bad faith. They used parliamentary moves to delay action and demanded explanations from House Speaker Michael Madigan. Visibly angry, Madigan suggested Republicans were trying to block the state budget because they aren't getting their way on cutting pension costs.

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Todd Hatton

Todd Hatton hails from Paducah, Kentucky, where he got into radio under the auspices of the late, great John Stewart of WKYX while a student at Paducah Community College. He also worked at WKMS in the reel-to-reel tape days of the early 1990s before running off first to San Francisco, then Orlando in search of something to do when he grew up. He received his MFA in Creative Writing at Murray State University. He vigorously resists adulthood and watches his wife, Angela Hatton, save the world one plastic bottle at a time.

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