The Illinois State General Assembly will be reconvening after the new year, and local lawmakers are preparing for the yearly battles they have for their constituents. 48th District State Senator Andy Manar is among those people preparing for the 2018 legislative session.

Manar says Governor Bruce Rauner has not given lawmakers a balanced budget by the required February 14 deadline each of the past three years. His advice for Rauner is simple, give lawmakers a balanced budget.

One of Manar’s biggest accomplishments of 2017 was leading the effort to finally get school funding reform passed in Illinois after four years of work to get it done. He says now an education issue that needs to be dealt with is the shortage of teachers in the state.

Manar appeared as a guest on the Newstalk WTIM Morning Show.