Week of May 19, 2008
Two weeks from now, the Spring Session of the Illinois General Assembly is scheduled to adjourn. During that next two weeks, legislation could move very quickly and there will be little time for your input. If you want to follow the action or track legislation that is important to you, go to www.ilga.gov on the Internet. Live sessions of the House can be viewed and you can always contact me quickly via e-mail by sending your thoughts to reddyunit1@aol.com .
Among the issues that we will be watching closely are some gun restriction bills that are still alive, legislation requiring a photo identification when voting, a measure that would eliminate all legislative member initiatives from the current budget in order to pay down current Medicaid debt, the FY09 budget, plus dozens of other bills that are currently on third reading. There are dozens of Senate Bills that successfully passed the Senate awaiting final action by the House prior to being sent to the Governor or simply failing during the current session.
HB6334 is an interesting Bill that is being proposed by several House Democrats. The measure would basically remove all “member initiatives” from the current FY08 budget due to the fact that there is a projected $500 million deficit expected in that budget, plus the fact that Medicaid providers like hospitals and nursing homes are so far behind in receiving payments. The sponsors would simply state that it is bad public policy to pay out money for member initiatives (also known as pork) when the budget will be $500 million out of whack and one nursing home has closed and others are in deep trouble. Hard to argue with that logic.
If you will remember back to the fall, a deal was made between the four leaders and the governor regarding the FY08 budget. That budget included member initiatives for Representatives and Senators from all four caucuses. Each member was to advance about six hundred thousand dollars in projects important to their district. My contained funds for public safety, education, senior citizens programs and youth activities. I considered these very good, worthwhile programs to fund with state tax dollars and I was not going to turn down an opportunity to bring tax dollars back home for good projects.
You might also remember that the governor promptly cut some of the member initiative projects out of the budget. Gone were projects for the House Democrats and Senate Republicans, except for those in these caucuses who served on the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (J-CAR). J-CAR is the rule making body in the General Assembly. The governor did not want to anger these folks because he wanted that group to permit an expansion of health care through rule making. That was the program which would provide state sponsored health care to a family of four making up to around $84,000. That was also the program rejected by the General Assembly. By cutting the so-called pork, the governor was punishing his political enemies who would not go along with his plan to circumvent the law making process.
The real question is whether or not the House Democrats would be pushing for the elimination of member projects (HB6334) if the governor had not cut their projects out. They certainly had no problem taking millions of dollars from previous budgets that were balanced by raiding pension funds. The other question is whether it really matters at this point. When schools might not receive their final state aid payments, Medicaid providers are close to filing for bankruptcy, nursing homes are closing and the budget is likely to be $500 million in the red, should these member initiatives be paid out?
Another proposal that we might vote on this week has to do with whether or not photo identification should be required in the voting process. Recently, the Supreme Court upheld a similar requirement. Many feel that it could harm voter turnout and there are those who feel it is essential in order to fight voter fraud.
We will also begin to see a series of budget appropriation Bills advanced this week by the Democratic majority which will, by department, propose spending for next fiscal year (FY09). It is rumored that the sum total of these individual budget proposals could very well increase the budget by several hundred million, if not over a billion dollars, on the spending side. This new spending spree comes while we have a projected $500 million deficit this fiscal year and there are $1.7 Billion in unpaid vouchers sitting at the Comptrollers office because revenue expectations fell hundreds of millions of dollars short of projections.
Also keep in mind that built in budget pressures like an increased pension payment of over $700 million (due to past pension raids), new money for Cook County Mass Transit, increased costs for state worker health care, increased wages for state workers to pay already negotiated contracts and mounting Medicaid bills could easily increase spending by over $1 Billion. Add it all up and we could be at least $3 Billion in the red in FY09. Payments will once again not be made to fund education, 4-H, Soil and Water Conservation Districts and many others. Then, the only way to pay for the debt will be an income tax increase. A one percent increase would net an estimated $3.6 Billion.
Of course, the income tax proposal will come after the November elections, sort of a “November surprise”. That way, legislators can vote for all the goodies in the Spring without voting for a tax increase until after they are safely re-elected. I will not vote for the additional spending unless and until we show the honesty and courage to also vote for the revenue. We do not have the money, this is an entirely irresponsible and disingenuous way to run government and I will not support it.
Let me know what you think, please either phone me at 618-563-4128 or 217-558-1040, write to me at Box 125, Hutsonville, IL 62433 or e-mail me at reddyunit1@aol.com , or keep informed by checking the website at www.peopleforeddy.com.