Week of June 2, 2008
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The Illinois General Assembly beat the May 31 st deadline to pass a budget. However, most observers feel that it is very likely that further action on the budget will be necessary. As I have stated several times in this forum, the budget passed by the Democratic majority in the House and Senate is not real. It is unbalanced to the tune of at least $2 billion and leaves around another $2 billion in unpaid bills at the end of FY 08. Nobody disputes the fact that the budget is not balanced. In fact, the Speaker admits openly that it is not balanced.

The actual budget comes in the form of about five bills: SB1115, SB1129, SB1102, SB773 and HB5701. These appropriation and implementation bills are loaded up with new spending. The major areas of funding increases are Medicaid (up $600 million), Education (up $500 million), DHS (up $300 million), Corrections (up $115 million), Aging ($115 Million), Veterans ($20 Million), Public Health ($20 Million) and Higher Ed ($100 Million). I would venture to say that much of the additional spending would be supported by a good number of people. The problem is that there is no revenue to pay for these increases and everyone knows it.

The truth is that the FY09 Illinois Budget actually reads more like a fairy tale than legislation designed to be a spending plan. Every individual budget bill is another chapter in this fiction. Nobody disputes that. I find this the most irresponsible and disingenuous approach to the budget process I have seen in the past six years. Every year, the Democratic Majority has loaded up the budget with new spending. But at least in the past years, they have provided for revenue in the form of fund raids, borrowing, sales of State assets, fee increases and other schemes to provide revenue for the spending spree.

This year, as far as revenue is concerned, the Senate did pass a couple of revenue enhancement bills to help with the deficit. Those plans included more fund raids and another pension bonding scheme. Speaker Madigan did not call those revenue bills for a vote. However, even if they had passed the House as part of the budget, the budget would still be at least $1 billion short and we would still have the $2 billion backlog of unpaid bills.

The most disgusting part of the budget is that the Democrats put revenue in the budget to make sure that a pay raise that they allowed to take place would be funded. Are you totally disgusted yet?

The budget battle is not over though. It is very likely that the governor will not sign the budget as is and that we will be back in Springfield sometime this summer to deal with vetoes or vote on some revenue enhancements- hold on to your wallet! Of course, they could just be waiting for the election to pass and then pull a “November surprise” in the form of an income tax increase after the election…they wouldn’t do that, would they?

The other big news of the week was the defeat of an attempt to pass some sort of Capitol spending plan in order to build roads, bridges, schools and repair water and sewer infrastructure around the state. A series of bills did pass the Senate that would have provided the revenue for this type of program. The revenue sources included a massive increase in gaming highlighted by a Chicago land-based casino and slot machines at horse tracks. In addition, the Illinois State Lottery would be leased to bring in billions to fund this program.

I am in favor of a capitol bill. We need to fix our roads and bridges, build new schools and provide for other needed infrastructure repairs. More importantly, we need to improve the job climate in Illinois. This program would provide thousands of good paying jobs for many years and certainly help our ailing economy.

The Speaker of the House stopped a vote on this bill because the projects were not defined as well as he would like in the spending portion of the legislation. He also has publicly stated that he does not trust the governor to fund the projects in the capitol bill if it is passed. There is no doubt that the governor has a lot of making up to do in order to gain enough trust to see this massive program pass. But, we need this program and I will work with my colleagues to find a way to see that a capitol bill passes soon. Since we will likely return to Springfield sometime this summer to fix the budget, maybe we can take up the Capitol Bill issue again too.

I will keep you informed if and when we go back as to any budget news or anything else that is acted on. The fall veto session is set for November, but I will report back sooner than that if we are called back into session.

Finally, I appreciate the many calls, e-mails and letters that were sent this past session. My work in Springfield depends on the input I receive form constituents. I also want to thank Kathleen in Hutsonville, Stephanie and Fred in Casey, Carrie in Springfield and Doug in Paris for their great work in my offices helping with constituent issues.

Stay in touch! My e-mail address is reddyunit1@aol.com and phone numbers to call are 217-558-1040 or 618-563-4128. Letters can be sent to Box 125, Hutsonville, IL 62433, or 222-N Stratton Office Building, Springfield, IL 62706. We also try to pass along important information on my website at www.peopleforeddy.com