The Frost Thickens Between Chicago Mayor, Illinois Governor
(CBS) -- Chicago Mayor Emanuel and Governor Rauner continue to clash publicly over the mayor's refusal to back the governor's union-weakening agenda, even as he asks the state for financial help.
The fragile friendship between the two appeared at the breaking point when Rauner's communications chief issued a blistering statement attacking Emanuel and his policies.
"The mayor needs to get serious about whether he is a reformer or just another tax-and-spend politician who wants to blame someone else for their failures," Mike Schrimpf said in a statement.
Earlier this week, Emanuel chided the governor for trying to put Chicago on the spot.
"Is there any other governor who is attacking their economic engine, anywhere?" the mayor told CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine. "I think it's a bizarre strategy."
Emanuel, meanwhile, wants the Illinois Legislature to approve an expanded homestead exemption to ease the burden of his more than half-billion-dollar property tax increase. Both the Chicago Transit Authority and the Public Schools have budgets that rely on hundreds of millions of dollars from Springfield.
The back-and-forth continued Thursday evening, as Rauner appeared in DeKalb. Protestors outside the governor's event at Northern Illinois University demanded he pass a budget.
"Unfortunately, in hearing the mayor's comments in Chicago, it sounds like he's trying to lay the blame for the failure of Chicago on other people," Rauner told reporters, including CBS 2's Dana Kozlov.
All of this boiling-over occurs as Chicago Public Schools officials hope to get $500 million from the state to spare schools another round of drastic cuts.
"Both Mayor Emanuel and Gov. Rauner are acting like petulant kids," says Jesse Sharkey, vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union.