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 »

Governor Signs Job Tax Credits for Small Businesses

Last week, Governor Quinn put pen to paper in signing legislation that will create the Small Business Job Creation Tax Credit.  The new program will provide a tax credit of $2,500 per new employee hired from July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011for small businesses with fewer than fifty workers.  The new law stipulates that the new hires must be full time employees who work at least 35 hours per week and are paid $13.75 or more per hour.

There is $50 million in credits available to carry out the program for the coming year, which is estimated to create around 20,000 new jobs.  This is a good program and I think it is long overdue.  For to long, our state government has taken Illinois employers for granted, especially small business owners who are the engine of our economy.  Instead of rewarding those who took big chances investing their personal capital to pursue their dream of starting their own business and creating jobs for others, these leaders of our economy have been unfairly hampered by higher taxes and additional regulations.  It’s about time our state government start working for our residents to provide needed job incentives in our struggling economy. Continue reading »

State Legislators call for Investigation into ACORN Organizations

I joined a group of legislators last week in sending Governor Quinn an open letter requesting a full investigation into Illinois branches and affiliates of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or more commonly referred to as ACORN.  Recent allegations leveled against ACORN came to light after a series of videos caught ACORN employees giving advice on a number of illegal practices, including child prostitution and money laundering.

Some of the hidden video footage shows ACORN workers giving detailed guidance about how to launder proceeds from child prostitution rings into a congressional campaign account, as well as suggestions to avoid paying taxes and even instructions on dealing with pimps.  If any of the allegations contained in the videos are remotely true, then it is pretty clear that any and all state contracts to the organization be halted until a full investigation is completed by the Illinois Attorney General.

Reports indicate ACORN received $53 million in federal funding since 1994, prompting both the U.S. Senate and House to vote last week to strip remaining federal dollars from appropriations aimed toward the organization.  As recently as 2008 Illinois ACORN received $100,000 is state allocations and an investigation to determine whether these funds were properly spent will show residents that the state is dedicated to transparent spending practices.

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End of Session Wrap-UP

The last week of session is always the most hectic time of year around the statehouse, and 2009 was no different.  Numerous reform measures, talk of an income tax increase, driving regulations and just about anything you can think of was discussed last week.  Below are some of the more notable legislative initiates that were shoved through the House and Senate during the waning hours.

• Texting While Driving-Bans the composition or sending of text messages, searching the internet or downloading content to your phone while in operation of a motor vehicle.  Fines for disobeying the ban range from $75 to $500.
• No Cell Phone is School or Construction Zones-Bans the use of cell phones while driving through school speed zones or construction zones.  Hands free cell phone devices would still be allowed.
• Recall-Allow, by general public petition, a provision to be added to the general election ballot allowing voters the option to recall (remove) the Governor from office.
• Campaign Contribution Caps-Legislation that makes changes to campaign finance regulations and caps campaign contributions at meaninglessly high levels passed both chambers.  This is a false-hope reform proposal.  It does nothing to truly limit large donations, and in fact will put more power into the hands of the Speaker and Senate President to dole out campaign funds in order to keep their powerful grip on state government.
• Freedom of Information Act Changes-FOIA reforms including a Public Access Counselor to settle disputes regarding the release of information, quicker response time to release information, and fines for intentional violations of the act.
• Budget-A no growth budget was passed and sent to the governor.  The spending plan is balanced, but it will assuredly run out of funds before the fiscal year ends.  The budget will keep education funding at current levels, but individual agency budgets will be reduced to 51% of their previous levels.  This essentially means that we are running on a temporary budget, and when the money begins to run dry we will have to come back and fix the mess. Continue reading »