Week of February 15th., 2010
Last week was a very busy week for committee hearings as legislation slowly began to filter through the process in order to be heard on the House floor. In one significant vote, a bill did pass that will allow the governor to delay delivering his budget address until the middle of March. HB2240 passed along partisan lines.
Basically, the legislation delays the statutory date for the governor’s annual budget address from February 17th until March 10th. It also sets up a system whereby the governor can seek input from citizens and Members of the General Assembly regarding the FY11 budget. The governor’s office will post on an official website, revenue and expenditure estimates for FY10 and FY11. The website (www.budget.illinois.com) will contain a feature that will allow for public feedback and input related to the budget. The governor states his reasoning is that, “a budget that reflects input from the people of Illinois will be a better budget for the people of Illinois.”
I voted against HB2240 for a variety of reasons. First of all, the governor has had over a year in office to begin to develop a plan to deal with the fiscal crisis we face. I don’t have a problem with seeking input from the public and legislators regarding the budget. But, the governor could certainly have requested input from the public and legislators without a law. When did it become necessary to pass a law to allow for public input!?
The real reason for this legislation was to delay very necessary work and deflect blame for this fiscal mess. The budget address was supposed to take place February 17th and the primary was February 2nd. This is simply a continuation of the lack of focus, responsibility and preparation that we have witnessed from the majority party related to the crisis we face.
Another major problem with waiting is that many of those who are required to take action based on the State budget are faced with statutory deadlines. For example, schools must, by law, inform teachers of dismissals or reductions in force sixty days prior to the end of the school year. For most schools that is sometime in mid to late March. Now, the governor and the majority party have delayed the budget address until March 10th which will make it more difficult for our schools to properly plan. In my book, this is just plain incompetency.
One of the lame excuses made this week was that there are never any suggestions regarding the fiscal crisis that come from the minority party. On Wednesday, February 10th, an attempt was made to establish by statute a policy that would require any appropriation made by the General Assembly to have revenue to match the estimated cost of the program. The legislation is known as “PAY-GO”. In other words, we need to pay for things as we go. No more deficit spending. After all, before you start to fill a hole it would be a good idea to stop digging!
A motion was made to release the legislation from Rules Committee for a House vote. Quickly, the majority leader of the House objected to the motion to release the bill. A motion was then made to override the majority leader and immediately have a full debate on the legislation. Unfortunately, the motion to allow this legislation to be debated and voted on was defeated along party lines. All Democrats voted against the motion and all Republicans voted for the motion. Since the Democrats hold a healthy majority, the motion failed and the idea was never even discussed.
Don’t let anyone tell you that there are not ideas being advanced about how we might responsibly deal with the fiscal crisis we face. Ideas are being advanced only to be bottled up without a vote. In a demonstration of the hypocritical nature of the majority party, Speaker Madigan described minority party members as “do-nothing”. Actually, he led the charge against even debating PAY-GO legislation that makes a great deal of sense when funds are not available.
There was also, once again, an attempt to vote on legislation that would limit campaign contributions to legislative leaders. Sadly, that attempt met with the same result. The Speaker, who controls the flow of all legislation to the House floor, likes the combination of that power coupled with the fact that he can accept unlimited campaign contributions from those seeking legislation to advance. As I sit and listen to those who try to defend that type of pay to play public policy, sometimes I ask myself when the people are going to rise up and rebel against this system. Soon, I hope.
HB 180 drew a lot of correspondence this past week. This legislation is an anti-gun bill that was defeated last year when it was in the form of HB796. I voted against the legislation last year and will work hard to defeat it again this year. In Illinois, we do not need more gun control, we need crime control. You can count on me to defend your Second Amendment Rights in Springfield against any infringement.
HB4654 also advanced last week. One of the things that former Governor Blagojevich did was to allow for free rides to all senior citizens on the Chicago transit system. HB4654 would provide for an income means test for free rides. It is estimated that the implementation of this law will provide the CTA with about $37 million in revenue. That means that the state could save $37 million in CTA subsidy in FY10. Perhaps this is an idea for the governor’s website on budget?
HB4888 appears to be dead. That bill would have required Illinois vehicles to only have a rear license plate. It was heard in Vehicles and Safety Committee last week. Although the savings annually was around $1 million, public safety officials concerns resulted in a vote of only two in favor and four against the proposal.
There is no doubt that this is going to be a very difficult budget year. I know that our Community Colleges are suffering cash flow problems along with our K-12 schools. Last year, I sponsored legislation that passed and is now law which allows K-12 schools, along with Regional Offices of Education, Vocational System and Special Education Cooperatives to borrow money based on anticipated state funding. The legislation will allow schools to continue to provide educational programs to students by borrowing money in the short run while they await payments.
SB2615, which I will sponsor in the House, will allow for the same type of borrowing for our Community Colleges. That means that cuts that might have to be made could be avoided by managing cash flow issues, in part, through short term borrowing at local banks.
More next week, in the meantime, you can reach me at: P.O. Box 125, Hutsonville, IL 62433, call me at 618-563-4128 or 217-558-1040 or e-mail me at reddyunit1@aol.com. You can also read more on my web site: www.peopleforeddy.com or and follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/RepEddy and www.tweetillinois.org.