Illinois lawmakers are planning to return to the State Capitol Thursday to continue working on a temporary budget deal.
Illinois Public Radio's Amanda Vinicky reports that's as big a sign as any of actual movement since the lawmakers were supposed to be in Springfield Wednesday only.
There's intense pressure on Illinois lawmakers to pass a budget before Friday ... when a new fiscal year begins.
After a year without a state budget ... word is an agreement may be shaping up between the Republican governor and the Democrats who control the General Assembly.
Here's Republican Rep. Dan Brady, of Bloomington:
"There's a likelihood of a, the bridge budget, the stopgap budget if you will."
If it pans out, that'd lead to a temporary spending plan for universities, social services and government operations.
A source says that would be separate from funding for schools; something Brady calls a "tender nerve."
Democrats favor spending hundreds of millions of dollars more on education, in part to help out the financially struggling Chicago Public Schools.
A deal on that could be in the works -- perhaps by allowing Chicago to raise its property taxes.
Brady says there needs to be a way to avoid the perception of what Republicans and downstaters call a CPS "bailout."
