SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Gov. Bruce Rauner has signed legislation authorizing $600 million in emergency funding to keep major Illinois universities operating until fall.

The Republican signed the bill Monday after a debate last week over the temporary spending plan in the General Assembly.

The package includes $170 million for the Monetary Award Program, a needs-based grant that colleges doled out this past school year without state reimbursement.

Kaskaskia College expects to get $3.75-million of the $74.1-million set aside for community colleges in the higher education funding bill. That’s only to about 27-percent of their normal state funding.

But another bill making its way through the legislature would provide some additional money to higher education and social service agencies for the current fiscal year.

Rauner and Democrats who control the Legislature have been unable to agree on a plan for the budget year that began July 1.

In a statement Monday, the first-term governor said the law doesn’t solve the crisis but is “a first step toward compromise.”

He wants business reforms and union-power curbs while working with Democrats to reduce the deficit.