Democratic State Sen. Andy Manar of Bunker Hill is accusing Gov. Bruce Rauner of trying to kill his school-funding legislation.
He says the administration fed erroneous information to a Republican operative's website.
The story appears in the Kankakee Times, one of a dozen community news organs created by Dan Proft, who runs a political action committee supported by Rauner.
Manar's school-funding bill, which passed the Senate on Wednesday, doesn't decrease funding for any district. But the kankakeetimes.com story claims some Kankakee-area districts would lose as much as 44 percent of their state funding.
Manar is crying foul, claiming the dollar amounts used in that story are way out of date; they came from a bill Manar sponsored last year.
"They complain about me not negotiating in good faith,” he said, “and at the same time they're cooking up numbers and documents and sending them over to the campaign apparatus in order to kill a bill."
Manar held a news conference Friday to try to keep the story from spreading.
"Okay,” he said, “I guarantee if we weren't here, it would be the Metro East Sun next, or the Sangamon County whatever it is, next."
Manar is asking how the information ended up with a Rauner-backed political group and wants the inspector general to investigate.
A spokeswoman for Rauner calls the accusations “false and outrageous,” and notes the outdated information was available on a public website.
The governor's office has denied any wrongdoing and demanded an apology from Manar.
