The state budget impasse could continue well into July as no pressing deadlines are looming.

“We will get there,” state Rep. Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield) said. “Both sides are waiting for someone to blink. We’ll get there. A lot of times it takes the pressure of a pending deadline to get things worked out.”

Batinick said the first pressing deadline he sees in the budget stalemate is July 15, when state payroll needs to be met. Even that deadline can be averted, the freshman representative said, by the General Assembly continuing the current budget for another month.

“Schools need their money by mid-August. Chicago has a July 30 budget deadline,” Batinick said. “So there are some (state) budget deadlines along the way.”

State Sen. Don Harmon (D-Oak Park) said the confrontational politics being practiced by Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Republicans are not sitting well with the public or lawmakers.

“This is not the way to get things done in Illinois,” Harmon said. “I have spoken to many Republican colleagues who don’t like the tone of the public debate and would like to do things differently, but it appears to me that they are intimidated by the wrath of the governor.”

Harmon said the General Assembly and the governor are not that far apart on the budget and that if it was only the budget on the table a deal likely would be hammered out in short order.

Rauner has said he will not sign a state budget deal until other measures, such as workman’s compensation reform and property tax relief, are also addressed.

“We agree with the governor that property taxes are too high. We’d like to not only freeze them, but also to lower property taxes,” Harmon said. “However, you can’t address the property tax burden without directly addressing its cause, which is education funding.

“The state, for generations, has failed to adequately fund public education and, as a result, we rely on local property taxes.”

State Rep. David Leitch (R-Peoria) said it is no mystery what is keeping the two sides apart on the budget.

“It is easy,” Leicht said. “The Democrats want to raise taxes; the governor wants some business reform so we can grow out way of this mess rather than tax-and-spend out of this mess.”

He felt Harmon’s claim about Republicans drawing the line in the is off-base — at least in the state House.

“I think it is the opposite,” Leitch said. “Democrats in the House are the ones being confrontational.”

Leitch said business reforms are needed in order to move the state forward. The Peoria representative said he hopes the budget battle does not drag out through the summer, “but I am not optimistic.”

Leitch said until Democrats are willing to consider reforms a budget impasse will continue.

“All they want to do is raise taxes,” Leitch said of the Democrats. “The governor is not going to raise any taxes until the business climate improves.”

A bill crafted by state Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont), that would have frozen property taxes across the state, got as a far as the Senate Executive Committee, which Harmon chairs, before it got axed. The vote went along partisan lines, with all six Republicans on the committee voting in favor of the measure and all 11 Democrats on the panel voting against the proposal.

Harmon said the legislation would have frozen taxes, but also hit many residents in the pocketbook.

“The Radogno bill was a Trojan horse. Its true purpose was to end collective bargaining and reduce people’s pay,” Harmon said. “The problem of our state is not that we pay teachers too much money.”

Harmon said Democrats will not allow a budget deal to be on the back of working families.

“We are not willing to attack teachers and construction workers and to cut the legs out from the middle class to advance the corporate agenda and put even more money into the pockets of the CEOs and the billionaire class,” Harmon said.

Batinick said it is clear that other issues will need to be addressed before a budget deal is brokered.

“I think we need to understand that reform is a part of the budget either directly or indirectly,” Batinick said. “It includes issues like workman’s comp. Illinois businesses pay much higher workman’s comp costs. Even if we were just the same as other states, there would be $190 million in direct savings. That drives a lot of jobs out of Illinois.

“In the long term, a healthy budget is going to grow the economy. A lot of Democrats want to say the budget should be the only issue, but we need to look at the big picture.”

Batinick, who took office in January, said he has already been targeted in three mailers.

“We have to stop looking at the next election and start looking at the pressing business,” Batinick said. “I am not concerned with the next election.”

Batinick said he is not optimistic about a quick end to the budget stalemate.

“I am still hopeful,” Batinick said. “Sometimes it is the smallest thing that turns everything. It could be the smallest conversation that turns things around.”