Quinn Makes Budget Decision

Governor Quinn has officially put into place budget legislation passed by Democrats back in May.  The Governor issued a reduction veto of the overall spending plan, and signed into place a number of the other budget measures, including one giving him extraordinary power to borrow and manage revenue.

What remains to be seen is just what specifically the Governor has cut.  There were $1.4 billion in cuts passed within the budget signed by Quinn with the reduction veto containing about $150 million of those specific cuts.  What programs will be effected by all these cuts is still uncertain.  As the Governor said, “This is a day by day, case by case, agency by agency, program by program enterprise.”  That may be true, but the fact is that on July 1 this budget is law, and it represents the spending agenda for the state of Illinois over the next year.  People need to know what services are going to be available and those who administer the services need time to plan appropriately for any reductions.  The time for generalities has passed; the people of Illinois deserve some specific answers on just how we are going to erase a multi-billion budget deficit and an estimated $6 billion in unpaid bills. Continue reading »

A Couple of New Laws from 2010 Legislative Session

Over the next few weeks we will began to see a number of new laws signed by the Governor.  I will keep you updated on the recently enacted legislation and what the laws may mean for you and your family.  Below are a few proposals that have already become official statutes in the state of Illinois.

• McPier Reforms-Due to extremely lucrative conventions and expositions threatening to leave Chicago’s McCormick Place convention center for cities with far cheaper alternatives, the General Assembly passed a number of reforms to drive down the costs and keep these expositions in the state of Illinois.  These conventions bring in hundreds of millions in revenue for Chicago, but also provide quite a bit of tax revenue to the entire state.  Some of the reforms included in the legislation will allow competition for electrical service and end the practice of charging outrageous rates for food and beverage service (reports surfaced of $85 cases of soda).  A new seven member interim board was named, as well as a new trustee to serve 18 months. Continue reading »

Strong People, Strong Minds-This Community Will Rebuild

I wanted to take some time and commend the many residents of Dwight and surrounding communities for their strong wills and generous dedication to rebuilding the tornado ravaged areas throughout the region.  I think we have all heard time and time again that possessions can be replaced, lives can not.  We are all grateful that there were no casualties when the ferocious tornados ripped through two weeks ago, but we all are also aware that we have a lot of work before us.  I want everyone to know that the people of Illinois are the toughest, most resilient people in the nation, and we are all going to work together and do whatever it takes for each other to overcome this devastation.

Many times the worst brings out the best in people, and I can say first hand I saw this as neighbors, family, friends, and even complete strangers banded together to help each other out over the past couple weeks.  I want to assure you that at the state level we are going to provide all the necessary assistance possible.  As I am writing this the counties of Livingston, LaSalle, Kankakee, Peoria and Putnam are all considered state disaster areas.  The categorization of a federal disaster area at this time remains unknown, as damage estimates and financial losses are still being calculated. Continue reading »

63 Tries at Reform, House Democrats Stop them All

During the last week of session most of the talk revolved around the disastrous budget situation, but there was some other little noticed action that could have been extremely beneficial to the taxpaying citizens of Illinois.  While the Democrat House members were busy pushing their woefully unbalanced and unconstitutional spending plan through the General Assembly, my House Republican colleagues and I were trying to get over sixty bills that would reduce and reform the overspending practices of the past eight years called for a vote.  As hard as we have tried all year long to get our proposals to the House floor for a simple debate, the Democrat majority pushes back even harder to ensure they are never heard before the public body.

The obvious question is what are they so worried about?  What could be in these legislative initiatives that they fear so much?  Is there a chance that if some of these ideas are brought up for an actual vote they may just be too good pass up and therefore jeopardize some of their sacred spending priorities that simply can not be afforded right now?  All of those questions are probably true, so why is it that members of the majority party actually sign on to co-sponsor some of these bills only to turn around and officially declare they should not be allowed to be called for a vote.

All you have to do is look no further than a few of the actual measures proposed that were not allowed to be debated.  They are not controversial and as I said before it is hard to come up with a reasonable excuse not to support them.  One of the most common-sense initiatives would allow the Auditor General to conduct a forensic audit of all state spending, hiring, and contracts.  If there was ever a better time to review the billions in spending with a fine-toothed comb than right now, I can’t think of one. Continue reading »

Borrow, Borrow—Spend, Spend—Oh What a Mess This Is

Last week a spending plan passed the House and was sent on to the Governor for final approval.  I guess you could call it a budget, but in reality it is more comparable to a document full of false promises that grants money which is not available to a number of programs and services.  It’s similar to going to a store trying to buy a $40 product by giving the cashier a $20 dollar bill and just walking away.  Essentially about half of the spending included in the budget bill does not have revenue to back up the costs.  So once again Illinois taxpayers are on the hook for a woefully unbalanced budget that does nothing to stop the eight years of overspending which have created a deficit that is expected to top $13 billion.

The three main components of the House Democrat budget plan include borrowing to pay pension obligations, granting Governor Quinn unilateral power to borrow, spend and cut, and normal spending authority to pay for day-to-day programs and services.  The overall spending authority in the actual budget legislation is almost identical to last year, which is somewhat ironic considering when the current fiscal year comes to an end in July the budget will have incurred a $13 billion deficit.  So instead of even trying to make a significant dent in that deficit, spending will continue to outpace actual available revenue by at least that much. Continue reading »

Legislation Overlooked During Budget Fallout

When the legislature adjourned early on May 7^th there was so much attention on the budget debacle that not a lot of time was dedicated to other proposals which were debated during that week.  Being the last week of session on the official calendar, there were a number of important initiatives discussed on the House floor.  Most of these bills passed the House and were sent on to the Governor, and some remain to be debated this week.  Governor Quinn has already vetoed one piece of legislation which made changes to policy surrounding the awarding of General Assembly scholarships, and some other very prominent bills have come under scrutiny recently.  Because this week’s session will be focused on the budget I figured we could take a look back at some of the measures that were acted on earlier this month.

Senate Bill 365, vetoed by the Governor, made a number of changes regarding the awarding of tuition waivers from members of the General Assembly.  Reforms such as banning individuals or a parent who has made a contribution to the legislator from receiving a scholarship, requiring admission to a state university before a tuition waiver can be awarded, and terminating a scholarship after the school year if the student relocates outside a legislators district. Continue reading »

Time’s a Wastin’

Illinois legislators abruptly left Springfield without accomplishing the most important task for the upcoming fiscal year; passing a budget.  I don’t think this came as a total surprise to anyone, as it has been pretty clear all year long that the Governor and Democrat leaders in both chambers favor putting off the tough decisions.  However, on May 7^th General Assembly members were sent home at the behest of the Speaker and not told when session would reconvene.  We don’t have a budget agreement, but isn’t that all the more reason to stay in Springfield and work together to hash out some sort of responsible spending plan for the coming fiscal year which begins in July?  Normally session isn’t adjourned until May 31 (after which time a supermajority vote is need to pass legislation), but leaving town three weeks early says a lot about why our states’ fiscal condition continues to deteriorate.

These last couple of weeks could have been used to hold discussions on ideas to alleviate at least some of the concerns regarding our budget mess.  We could have met in appropriations committees and broken down areas where tax dollars could be saved.  Representative Black has been calling all year for a “Committee of the Whole” type hearing for an hour or so everyday where the entire chamber can discuss budget ideas in a bipartisan manner.  This two week break would have been the perfect opportunity for that.  Instead, the same failed strategy of the past years has been employed, where the Governor is privately meeting with specific legislators trying to secure their votes for a budget full of false promises.  This time should not be committed to backdoor budget meetings, it should be committed to open discussions on how and where we can reduce state spending and reform the practices that created this mess. Continue reading »

Budget Process Falls Apart

The Illinois House Democrats and the Illinois Senate Democrats prepared what they referred to as a budget last week.  However, not many others saw it that way as the spending documents failed to pay for next years required pension payment totaling $3.7 billion, leave $6 billion in unpaid bills unresolved, does nothing to reduce the multi-billion dollar deficit, and relies on a number of one time gimmicks and tricks to get past the November election.

The only spending plan to pass either chamber was House Bill 859 which made its way through the Senate with only democrat votes. The measure would grant the governor extraordinary powers to manage a 26.1 billion operating budget.  The spending agenda and the Emergency Budget Act would allow the governor additional responsibility to sweep special state funds of around $1 billion, borrow $1.75 billion of tobacco settlement proceeds, and ignore making the states pension payment.  The failure to pay pension obligations this year will result in the loss of $36 billion over the next 35 years in pension investments, and increase the budget deficit by around $4 billion.  Emergency procedures granted to the Governor would also allow the state to continue delaying payments for an additional four months by extending lapse period spending through December 31, 2010. Continue reading »

Let the Sunshine In

A measure unanimously approved by the House earlier this year and recently approved by the Senate would create the Illinois Sunshine Commission if it receives the signature of Governor Quinn.

House Bill 4836 establishes guidelines for the Illinois Sunshine Commission with the goal of conducting a thorough review of the relevance, efficiency and effectiveness of state government programs.  The newly installed commission would consist of four legislators and four members of the public to make formal recommendations to the General Assembly.  Legislators would then be required to approve or reject the commission’s recommendations within sixty session days.

The Sunshine Commission would have three options when evaluating specific programs, including: the elimination of obsolete or ineffective programs; consolidation of duplicative programs; and suggestions to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of a program.  Suggestions from private sector business experts combined with legislative know-how should result in a number of worthwhile ideas to rid unnecessary, out-dated and costly state programs. Continue reading »

Senate Bills Moving through the House

Last week we began to see bills already approved by the Senate come up for consideration in the House.  The same was true of previously approved House bills moving there way through the Senate.  If legislation receives approval from both chambers of the General Assembly, without being changed, it then heads to the Governor for his final decision.

A couple interesting pieces of legislation were considered last week, with some being sent on to the Governor, while others couldn’t garner enough support for final approval.  One bill I have recently discussed here would have allowed local school boards the option to create a 4-day school week, so long as students were not shortchanged in their guaranteed classroom time.  Senator Frerichs took up sponsorship of the measure in the Senate and worked hard to come to a compromise which would allow a form of this legislation to move forward.  However, a Senate committee dominated by Chicago interests, had no intention of allowing the full chamber to debate the proposal and killed the bill.  Instead of looking at the fact that this does not require any schools to move to a modified school week, the Chicago politicians again voted in favor of  “one-size-fits all government.”  Local control was pushed aside for larger government at the behest of the biggest city in the state. Continue reading »