Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner has followed through on his pledge to reject funding for MAP grants --- which help low-income students pay college tuition.
Rauner vetoed legislation Friday that also gets money to community colleges ... but which leaves out public universities.
He says spending $721 million on MAP grants and community college operations "would explode the State's budget deficit" and exacerbate an already challenging cash flow situation.
Illinois is nearing the end of its eighth month without any state budget.
Certain social services ... as well as higher education ... are taking the brunt of the impasse. They've gone that entire time without dollars they've always counted on from the state.
It's led some universities and colleges to layoff professors and to close programs; there are reports of students looking to go out of state for school.
Thursday, the governor called that "tragic."
"It's very upsetting to me. It's a failure of the government process that this is occurring. I would encourage the students to stay and see if they can be patient and persistent along with us."
The governor also encouraged them to contact their lawmakers, to support a Republican-backed effort to fund MAP grants. That measure would also give him authority to cut the budget elsewhere.
The version he's vetoed passed with only Democratic support; Rauner says there's no funding to back it up.
