“Nobody ever wins the next cycle running on a tax increase,” said Pat Brady, a former Illinois Republican Party chairman. “The governor came out way ahead.”

To critics — including some of the Republican lawmakers who defied him — Mr. Rauner’s position was seen as a reflection of his refusal to acknowledge that the state’s finances had unraveled and of his unwillingness to ponder compromise. Some had alluded to “Governor Junk,” suggesting that Mr. Rauner ought to be blamed if the state’s credit rating were downgraded.

“He’s the governor, and he’s the one responsible,” said former Gov. Jim Edgar, a Republican who described a far different climate when he was clashing over budgets in the 1990s — one in which he and the Democratic leader would work through their disagreements over lunch. “The damage that has been done in the last two years is extensive, and it’s going to cost to get that resolved.”

When he ran for office against Pat Quinn, the incumbent Democratic governor, Mr. Rauner promised that breaking through the Democratic-majority Legislature in a blue state was possible. “If you’ve got an agenda and a steel backbone, you can get major transformation done through the power of the governor’s office,” he said at the time.

On the campaign trail, he wore the outfit of a working man, arriving at rallies on his motorcycle with an $18 Timex watch on his wrist, but his background was more boardroom than blue collar; he rose to prominence as a businessman, a native of the wealthy Chicago suburbs, a multimillionaire with nine homes.

Right away, in his first State of the State speech in 2015, he promised to take steps to restrict labor unions, overhaul the workers’ compensation system and change the tax code. He promoted his “turnaround agenda” all over the state, visiting diners and meeting halls and promising fellow Republicans that they would have a strong advocate in the capital.

Democratic lawmakers called his plans wildly unrealistic. And there was little middle ground when it came time to hammer out a budget more than two years ago.