Veto session roundup

By Jamey Dunn

The Illinois General Assembly's fall veto session was scheduled to continue through tomorrow, but both chambers canceled their Thursday sessions and hit the road after little legislative action this week. Here’s a rundown of what did happen: 

Veto stands 
The House voted not to override Gov. Pat Quinn’s veto of House Bill 1200. The measure would have cut the number of free days museums are required to offer from 52 to 26. Rep. Joe Sosnowski argued that lawmakers should give museums a break because the state has not given them an operating subsidy in more than a decade. He said that low-income residents would still have plenty of opportunities to attend on free days or through school and library programs. Sosnowski said that by allowing museums to offer fewer free days, they would have more money to spend on education and outreach programs. “It will enhance and increase what museums can do.” The measure passed in the House in April with 79 “yes” votes and 36 “no” votes. Today, only 49 members voted in favor of an override, while 67 voted to uphold the governor’s veto.

Several legislators rose during debate to argue that the change would cut off opportunities for many families.  “The governor is correct. The purpose of a museum is to educate, to provide culture. And when we deny that, limit access, we really hurt all of us in this state,” said Chicago Democratic Rep. Monique Davis. Quinn reportedly lobbied aggressively for support of the veto. “It’s always important to ensure that our residents with modest incomes have equal access to our world-class museums and cultural institutions,” he said in a written statement. “I commend members of the House for their vote today. They did the right thing.”

Budget issues 
Today, committees continued to debate adding additional spending to the current fiscal year’s budget. Gov. Pat Quinn is seeking about $200 million in additional spending. The money would cover back wages for state employees, which a judge ordered the state to pay with interest, set-up costs for the state’s concealed carry licensing system and operational costs in the Department of Corrections. The money would come from revenues that Quinn’s budget office said will come in higher than originally estimated. Budget committees held hearings today and yesterday but have yet to vote on any of it. Lawmakers said they plan to continue considering the new spending over the next week while they are out of session.

Same-sex marriage opposition rally 
After thousands of supporters of same-sex marriage held a rally and march yesterday, their opponents packed the Capitol today. Republican Sen. Kirk Dillard, who is running for governor, was one of several speakers who addressed the crowd. “I have said that I would veto the gay marriage bill,” Dillard said. “I believe that government which governs least governs best. But there are times when government has a solemn duty to stand up and protect its citizens.” Dillard emphasized his belief that children need both a mother and a father to thrive. “Every child in this state deserves to have a mom and dad.” Republican Sen. Jim Oberweis also spoke. He was at the rally collecting signatures to challenge U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin. He said he plans to run against Durbin if he can get the signatures required to get onto the ballot.

State retiree health care
The state is shifting many retirees from traditional Medicare plans to privately managed Medicare Advantage plans. Some lawmakers are unhappy that one provider did not qualify for the bidding process. The Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability held a hearing on the issue today.  You can read all about it in this post.

The House officially voted in Western Springs Republican Jim Durkin as the new minority leader yesterday. Illinois Issues interviewed him before he was sworn in. You can read that story here.

Lawmakers are scheduled to return for three more days of veto session starting on November 5.

Final state budget bills sent to governor

By Meredith Colias and Jamey Dunn

The Illinois Senate today approved the last two budget bills that the House sent over. Republicans echoed the same compliant they have had about the other pieces of the budget for Fiscal Year 2014, which was crafted by Democrats from both chambers.

House Bill 214 is general services spending, the General Assembly’s budget and the constitutional officers' budgets. HB 215 is public safety and transportation spending, Illinois Department of Corrections budget, capital construction spending for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources' budget. “It’s a responsible budget. We live within our means; we fund key programs; we’re paying down our bills,” said Park Ridge Democratic Sen. Dan Kotowski.

Sen. Chapin Rose, a Mahomet Republican, called the budget incomplete because it does not contain funds earmarked to pay back wages owed to state workers. “There’s a $140 million hole in this budget out of the gate,” he said.

“We’ll have to come back in the fall for a supplemental” spending bill to cover the back pay,” said Lake Barrington Republican Sen. Dan Duffy. “We should stay down here as long as we have to — all night and all summer if we have to — to come up with a balanced budget to pay down our bills.”

Meanwhile, Senate Bill 2555 and SB 2556, which contain the funding for K-12 and higher education, passed the House on the final day of the spring session and now go to the governor. K-12 education funding has been cut severely since 2009, and Homewood Democratic Rep. William Davis said that he was pleased that unexpected tax revenues allowed general state aid to be held flat for the next fiscal year because the state has an obligation to fund education. “We have to put our money where our mouths are,” said Davis, who chairs the House education budgeting committee.

Even though the K-12 education budget for Fiscal Year 2014 includes more than $6.6 billion in funding, school districts will still have to make due with an 89 percent proration for general state aid and a 64 percent proration for transportation. Funding for bilingual education and early childhood education will remain flat. Republicans criticized smaller parts of the more than $1.9 billion higher education budget, such as $600,000 for a Quad Cities manufacturing center at Western Illinois University. “If you are going to vote for this budget, I get it. But I am not going to support a budget that is a sham,” Macomb Republican Rep. Norine Hammond said.

The dismal state of funding for universities has forced many to delay maintenance, institute hiring freezes and look for other ways to supplement their budgets, including raising tuition. Rep. Chad Hays, a Republican from Catlin, said he is concerned that tuition increases are pricing Illinois schools out of range for average people. “Public education is getting elbowed off the table,” Hays said. “We are pricing the average family out of the higher education arena. The state can't be everything to everyone. We have to figure out where our priorities are.”

What to watch for on the last day of session

By Meredith Colias and Jamey Dunn 

The legislature heads toward its final day tomorrow with plenty of issues still to address.

Here some things to watch for …

Same-sex marriage 
With a same-sex marriage vote possibly looming tomorrow, supporters at the Capitol urged lawmakers today to take up the issue before adjournment. Teresa Volpe, who came with her partner and young children, said it was “about the message that is being sent to our family.” Volpe said she wanted to show her children “they are not born into a society of inequality.”

The bill has been dormant in the House since February, when the Senate ushered it through the chamber on Valentine's Day. Since then, its sponsor, Chicago Democratic Rep. Greg Harris, has been secretive on its House prospects. Whether Harris has the votes to secure its passage is still unknown. Many undecided legislators are not publicly saying whether they will support the legislation, waiting until the final moment to reveal their intentions. Illinois barely passed civil unions in 2010, 61 to 52, and not all legislators who supported it then may necessarily support same-sex marriage now if the vote is called. President Barack Obama, a former Illinois state senator, waited until later in his presidency to publicly support same-sex marriage. During an appearance this week in Chicago, he urged the House to take up the legislation, Senate Bill 10.

Budget bills 
The House still needs to vote on budgets for K-12 and higher education. Better-than-expected tax revenues are allowing the legislature to avoid cuts proposed in the governor’s March budget next year for general state aid, transportation, bilingual and early childhood education. The legislature’s higher education budget also avoids a 5 percent cut the governor called for, as well.

The K-12 funding is included in Senate Bill 2555.  The higher education funding is included in Senate Bill 2556.

The Senate plans to take up two budget bills tomorrow as well:

• House Bill 214 is general services spending, the General Assembly’s budget and the constitutional officers' budgets.
• HB 215 is public safety and transportation spending, Illinois Department of Corrections budget, capital construction spending for the next fiscal year and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources budget. Both have been approved by the House.

Health insurance exchange 
The bill authorizing the “Obamacare” online insurance marketplace exchange passed the Senate and awaits a vote in the House to confirm or reject changes the Senate made that need to be reconciled before the legislation can be sent to the governor. Individuals would be allowed to purchase health insurance plans if they do not receive health insurance through an employer. The exchange is scheduled to begin in 2014. The bill is House Bill 3227.

Speed limit increase
A bill increasing the highway speed limit to 70 mph in most of downstate Illinois has passed both chambers and now heads to the governor. Freshman Republican Sen. Jim Oberweis of Sugar Grove sponsored the Senate version. Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, Will, Madison and St. Clair counties would be able to opt out of the increase. The bill is Senate Bill 2356.

Drones 
A bill narrowly defining drone use by law enforcement passed the House, and now the Senate needs to take up changes the House made. The Senate version allowed law enforcement to use a drone quickly to prevent extensive damage to property. The House version rejects that. The bill is Senate Bill 1587.

Pension changes 
The House and Senate appear to have reached an impasse on the issue, but anything can happen on the last day of session. Keep an eye out for an attempt at a last-minute compromise.

Gaming 
Blue Island Democratic Rep. Robert Rita, the sponsor of SB 1739, said today that he hopes to have a final bill tomorrow. It wouldn’t be the end of session without a push for a gambling expansion.

Concealed carry of firearms
Players from both chambers are reportedly meeting on this issue. The two bills from each chamber are not that far apart, so a compromise bill is a possibility.

House passes the bulk of its budget

By Jamey Dunn and Meredith Colias

Illinois House Democrats passed several pieces of their budget today as Republicans bemoaned being cut out of the process.

Both higher education and K-12 will be funded at essentially flat levels, compared to the current fiscal year. Human services would see cuts under the plan, but the outlook is not nearly as gloomy as it seemed just a few weeks ago. Sponsors of the various budget bills say that the situation would have been much bleaker if a windfall of $1.5 billion in unexpected revenues had not come in. “In April, there was a large surge because people sold a bunch of assets at the end of [Fiscal Year] '12 in anticipation of capital gains rate changes,” said Rep. Greg Harris, who sponsored the human services budget bill.

House Minority Leader Tom Cross said Republicans do not support the $35.6 billion budget proposal, the bulk of which passed today. He said Republicans had been working on the budget, but Democrats stopped inviting his political party to talks in the last few weeks. “When it comes to spending ... the willingness to work with us goes by the wayside, and that is unfortunate,” Cross said. “Clearly we’re not going in the direction that we need to go if we intend to get our bills paid and if we intend to do away with the tax increase.” Republicans said they saw the budget bills for the first time last night.

While Republicans blasted the spending in the proposal, Harris, who took over the human services budgeting committee this year, said this is the first budget in recent years that will fully fund human services. “We’ve made cuts across the board but we’ve retained funding in core community services such as mental health, substance abuse, homelessness programs,” he said. This year and several other times in recent history, human services agencies have had to come back to the General Assembly midway through the fiscal year and ask for more money to avoid the shutdown of programs. “In other years, they’ve not appropriated for a full year, and they’ve always come back for [supplemental spending bills]. ... We wanted to pass something that was fully reflective of the realities of each department’s need,” he said. “I would say woe betide the department that comes back to us with a supplemental [request] this year.”

The budget does not explicitly include the raises promised to state union workers in a new contract. But personnel costs are provided in lump sums, and each agency is left to figure out how to work in the raises. “What we accounted for was their FY 14 raises, and they way we did that was to give our departments maximum flexibility.” A bill that would appropriate back raises, which Gov. Pat Quinn has said he will now give members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union after earlier freezing them, was not called for a vote in committee today.

Some of the unexpected revenue would be used to immediately pay down nearly $600 million in old human services bills. Harris said many of those payments would be eligible for federal matching funds under Medicaid. Some of the additional revenues were incorporated to the revenue estimate for next fiscal year and will be used to defer cuts to education and corrections. Republicans expressed concerns that the additional revenue projected should not automatically be used to increase spending in the budget. “We were conservative a year ago, and it served us well,” Arlington Heights Republican David Harris said.

Chicago Democratic Rep. Louis Arroyo said that the additional money allowed Democrats to funnel $70 million to the Department of Corrections to prevent the potential closure of more state prisons. “I believe there will be no prisons closing,” Arroyo said in a budget committee hearing this morning. “Corrections is going to be OK.” The House approved a public safety budget sponsored by Arroyo today. Higher education is seeing only a slight drop in funding.

Chicago Democratic Rep. Ken Dunkin said that higher education would avoid the 5 percent cuts the governor called for in his March budget proposal. The extra funds would give "additional breathing room for some of our communities," Dunkin said. The House higher education budget, which was also approved today, calls for the Monetary Award Program, which provides scholarships to low-income students, to be funded at a level slightly less than what Quinn presented in his budget. The program has suffered cuts in recent years.

The House did not approve its K-12 budget, but House Democrats who worked on it say a vote is expected tomorrow. The proposal adds more than $150 million to General State Aid for schools to keep the state's proration at 89 percent of the recommended funding level to schools. The bus transportation budget will be kept at 64 percent of recommended levels for schools. The new budget figures will also keep early childhood education and bilingual education at flat funding, compared to last year's budget.

House plans human services cuts

By Jamey Dunn

The Illinois House is planning to fund human services in its budget at a lower level than Gov. Pat Quinn proposed in his budget.

“We’re looking at cutting $770 million form the governor’s introduced budget, which are horrendous cuts,” Rep. Greg Harris said this morning before heading into a working group meeting, which is not open to the public, to negotiate the human services portion of the House budget with other members of the House human services budget committee. Quinn called for an increase of about $340 million for the Department of Human Services for next year when compared with the current budget.

Harris said that he hopes pass a bill that would spend more on human services this fiscal year as an effort to soften the blow of next fiscal year’s cuts. Income tax revenues for the current year will exceed previous estimates by $1.3 billion. However, some of that money has been used to pay down a chunk of the state’s overdue bills to schools, vendors, social services providers, local governments and others. “The economy has begun the rebound; not a lot but a little. So we have had money come in that was above our target for FY 13,” Harris said. He said spending some of that money on human services this fiscal year, which ends on June 30, “would certainly make our job less horrible and the cuts less painful on people. I hope that everyone will go along with doing that so that we can minimize the cuts, but we still have to continue to look for ways to live within our means and not overspend our budget every year.”

Harris said he did not know when the human services portion of the House budget would be complete. He said members of both parties serving on the committee, which he chairs, are trying to reach agreements. “We’re all trying to work together, and we want to work in a collegial way.” Whatever the House passes would also have to be approved by the Senate and signed by Quinn.

Budget plans could start to move next week

By Jamey Dunn with Meredith Colias contributing

Budget bills from both legislative chambers could emerge as early as next week.

“The clock started ticking today. We have two weeks left, for all practical purposes, to get it done,” said Chicago Democratic Sen. Donne Trotter, who is a key player in the budgeting process in his chamber. The spring session is scheduled to adjourn on March 31. “We can’t miss a beat as we go forward,” he said, adding that legislators working on the budget in the Senate hope to get a bill or bills passed through committee next week. “Nobody knows what form it’s going to be in as of yet.”

While he said he doesn’t know the specifics yet, Trotter said he knows many in the Senate would like to keep education cuts as shallow as possible. “I don’t think there’s anyone in this chamber, or even across the [Capitol] rotunda, who feel that cutting $400 million out of the education budget is the way we should be doing business in this state. If we want a viable state, we certainly have to have an educated community to get those jobs and to want to stay in the state of Illinois. So cutting dollars out of K-12 and in higher education — another 5 percent out of higher education — is not the way to achieve that goal. So many of us are looking at how to put dollars back in there.”

Lewistown Democratic Rep. William Davis, who is the chair of the House education budget committee, said the committee has about $6.5 billion to work with, the same amount that it received last year. In recent years, House leaders have given committees lump sums and then asked them to determine how the money will be spent in their areas of state government. Because of cuts, general state aid to schools has been prorated over the last two years, leaving schools with smaller payments near the end of the fiscal year. In Fiscal Year 2013, general aid was prorated at 89 percent. Davis said that if the same amount of money were allocated this year, the proration would be set at 86 percent. That means the state would fall 14 percent short of meeting the foundation funding level, which is $6,119 per student. “I would say that my priority as chair is to try to keep general state aid level,” Davis said. But he added, “It’s going to be very difficult to not have to make some cuts somewhere.” Davis said he and other budget committee chairs hope to pass bills out of their committees next week. However, he said, that they may be shell bills with no specific language in them.

Trotter said those working on the budget in the Senate are not doling out set amounts to different areas of the state budget but instead are trying to find savings where they can and weigh different areas of spending against one anther. “It’s called prioritizing, and that’s how you have to do a budget.” He said that he and others realize that it will likely be impossible to avoid any cuts to education. “We’re broke. I mean, you can’t get past that. And certainly there has to be some reductions. It’s called just being smarter with our money that we have.” He said they are focusing on some personnel cost increases in Quinn’s proposed budget but do not plan to skip out on appropriating money for raises negotiated in the state’s new contract with union workers. “The raises — if they’re, of course, by union contract — we have to do the raises.” Trotter said he hopes that both chambers can take a broad look at the budget and try to problem-solve. He said Senate President John Cullerton, House Speaker Michael Madigan and Gov. Pat Quinn have been meeting to discuss the budget. A spokesperson for Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno said Radogno had not been invited to any budget meetings with the governor.

“The House is known to look at things in silos. Hopefully as these next couple weeks advance, we can maybe bust into those silos and look at some other things,” Trotter said. “As we know, the budget is a whole, not just all these little parts to it.” He echoed the complaints heard from Senate Democrats in recent years that budget cuts are hurting those who most need help from the state. “Many of us feel the most vulnerable ones are being attacked. Last year it was health care; this year it is education,” Trotter said. “Why do you go to these programs? It’s like the old joke: because that’s where the money is. But at the same time, that is where [the most vulnerable people] are, too. We need to find a balance, and I think we can.”

State police say they need more funding for concealed carry

By Meredith Colias 

The state police say they will need additional money and staff to oversee a new concealed carry law in Illinois.

In December, the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals invalidated an Illinois law banning residents from carrying concealed guns. The law was the only one in the nation. The court gave the state 180 days to pass new legislation. In addition to their other duties, the state police approve Firearm Owner Identification [FOID] applications for prospective gun owners. Under legislation currently being considered, the state police would also issue concealed carry permits. Under the proposals, applicants would pay fees for their permits, creating a funding source for administering the program.

Hiram Grau, director of the Illinois State Police, estimates his agency will need at least 60 staff members and a minimal $25 million in additional funding to devote to administering a concealed carry system in the state. “While our numbers and personnel are dwindling, our responsibilities are growing,” Grau said during an Illinois House hearing today.

Rep. John Cavaletto, a Salem Republican, said he wanted to help the state police as much as possible, but money is tight under the current budget situation. “When you're dealing with X amount of dollars, X amount of dollars is all you've got,” he said.

The Illinois State Police is asking for nearly $383.6 million for Fiscal Year 2014 operations. The number is down slightly from the $383.8 million the state police estimates it will spend in FY 2013. Grau said he planned on instituting three new cadet classes. He estimates seven to nine cadets from a class of more than 40 would be used to police some high crime areas in cities such as Chicago and East St. Louis.

Return-to-session preview

By Jamey Dunn

Lawmakers return from a two-week break in the legislative session to begin the slog through the final two months before the May 31 adjournment date. They have plenty to consider in the coming weeks:

Pension changes 
Before the House went on break, the chamber took an important vote on changes to state employees’ retirement benefits. They approved House Bill 1165 on a vote of 66 to 50. The bill would cap the amount of salary on which retirees could earn the compounded 3 percent cost of living adjustment [COLA] at $25,000. Anyone earning more pension income would receive a flat COLA of $750 annually. Under the proposal, retirees would not be eligible for a COLA until they have been retired for five years or they reach age 67, whichever comes first. The bill also would apply to current retirees who are now receiving COLAs. Supporters of pension changes said this was perhaps the most difficult vote on the issue taken so far. The House has already approved legislation that would cap pensionable salary at the Social Security wage base, which is $113,700 in 2013, or the employee's current salary, whichever is greater, and a bill that would increase the retirement age for employees younger than 46. Employees from 40 to 45 would see a one-year increase, employees 35 to 39 would see a three-year increase and employees 34 and younger would see a five-year increase.

House Speaker Michael Madigan said those components, potentially along with some other provisions that have been up for debate recently, would likely be part of comprehensive legislation yet to come. “I think we’re in a position to finalize the preparation of the bill and then move a bill from the House to the Senate that treats all aspects of the problem,” he said.

Rep. Elaine Nekritz, who has been leading the push for pension changes in the House, said she and Evanston Democratic Sen. Daniel Biss, her counterpart on the issue in the other chamber, have spent the two-week break trying to form a picture of what might be in the final plan. “When we last voted to changes to the COLA, the speaker talked about how the next step would be to put together a comprehensive package,” she said. “So I have put together a list of things that I think we need to be considering.” But Nekritz said it is too soon for her to pin down what may actually end up in that final plan or when it may be up for a committee hearing or floor vote. “At this point, I don’t anticipate that that would happened in the next two weeks, but I've been wrong before.”

Same sex marriage 
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments related to same sex marriage last week, and longtime observers say the court may opt to rule portions of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional. If that happens, couples in states that have same sex marriage could become eligible for the federal benefits currently available only to heterosexual married couples.

Illinois U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, a Republican, announced his support of same sex marriage this week. Kirk, who suffered from a debilitating stroke last year and has been working hard at recovery, said his personal experience paved the way for his stance. “Same-sex couples should have the right to civil marriage. Our time on this Earth is limited, I know that better than most. Life comes down to who you love and who loves you back — government has no place in the middle,” Kirk said in a prepared statement.

Legislation to legalize same sex marriage in Illinois has passed in the Senate, but Madigan said it is about a dozen votes shy of the support needed for it to clear the House. (Go here to read selected Illinois Issues coverage of the issue on the state and federal level.)

Concealed carry 
A federal court ruled the state’s ban on the concealed carrying of firearms unconstitutional and gave Illinois a deadline for approving legislation to regulate it. The House has followed a similar process on this issue as it has on pensions. However, the chamber does not yet seem close to agreement on any final comprehensive plan for concealed carry. Expect to see more debate on the topic, as well as other gun related issues, such as bans on assault weapons and high capacity magazines, in the coming weeks.

Medical marijuana 
Skokie Democratic Rep. Lou Lang thinks this might be the session that a bill to legalize the use of marijuana to treat chronic medical conditions might gain the needed backing to pass in the House. A House committee approved House Bill 1 in March, and Lang said the legislation is gaining support. He says the measure is just a couple votes shy of being passed. Lang has said many times that if every lawmaker who told him they supported the idea would cast a vote in favor of the plan, he would have far more support than the majority he needs. He has called medical marijuana bills for three separate floor votes in the House, only to watch them fail. But he is dealing with many new lawmakers this time around, so perhaps it is Lang’s year. The Senate has approved medical marijuana legislation in the past.

Gaming expansion
Expect efforts to pass another gaming expansion plan in the final months of the scheduled spring session. Lang and Waukegan Democratic Sen. Terry Link, who have backed other expansion plans, say they would like to try again. Lawmakers approved two gambling bills in recent years, only to have them vetoed by Gov. Pat Quinn. The newest proposal contains many of the provisions that were in those two bills, but it also has stricter regulations and a ban on campaign contributions from casino owners, which Quinn has called for many times. But the bill has a wild card provision: It would legalize some forms of online gambling, which would fall under the supervision of the Illinois Lottery. The lottery currently sells tickets online, but allowing online gaming such as Internet poker would be a huge gambling expansion. Residents would be able to place bets from their computers or even their smart phones. Two other states, Nevada and New Jersey, have approved such online gambling. The idea is new, and Quinn has been careful not to be too critical of the legislation in public. However, as the negotiations move in, it is possible this component could make him shy away because he has said he opposes “top heavy” bills that would make gambling in the state too readily available. At one point, the governor was even shying away from putting slot machines at horse racing tracks, an idea he seems to have softened to if the state revenues earned are spent on education.

Budget
As lawmakers debate these and other issues, they will also be working to craft a budget for the next fiscal year. That plan will likely contain some controversial cuts. Spending pressures such as pension costs and health care expenses are growing, and competing interests will be vigorously battling over resources for Fiscal Year 2014.

Universities ask legislators to restore Quinn's proposed cuts

By Meredith Colias

The presidents of four of Illinois' public universities testified today before the Senate Appropriations Committee, hoping to avoid Gov. Pat Quinn's proposed budget cuts for higher education.

The universities said they were operating with growths in enrollment over the past decade, growing costs for employee health care and millions in deferred maintenance, all while facing cuts and delayed payments from the state. In his budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2014, Quinn proposed to further cut 4.9% in state funding for higher education. Al Bowman, president of Illinois State University, said reduced state funding had a direct impact on ISU and the ability of many students seeking a college education. “The impact on affordability is certainly something that we can’t ignore,” he said. He said more money is needed to provide some salary increases and maintenance updates.

The state has only paid about 20 percent of what it owes to public universities at this point, three months from the end of the current fiscal year. Even though the payments are slow coming, Bowman said the payment schedule is predictable and “something we’re able to deal with.”

Recently, Moody’s bond rating agency revised credit ratings for some state universities, including the University of Illinois, the state's largest university system, citing debt concerns and reliance on state funds for their operating budgets.

The U of I, with campuses in Chicago, Urbana-Champaign and Springfield, estimated it would lose $32 million in the next fiscal year under Quinn’s budget. University President Robert Easter said the U of I is still waiting on $480 million in late payments. He said the university hopes to receive flat funding this year instead of the cut in Quinn’s proposed budget.

 Several committee members pushed back against some salaries at U of I, noting the university budgeted for a $1.1 million total salary increase for its top 10 officials. “The increase in that could probably pay for three additional faculty members,” said Sen. Michael Hastings, an Orland Hills Democrat. Easter said some of the increased salaries were for medical faculty who are also being compensated for their work in medical facilities. Some of the employees who received raises, including Easter, had moved from temporary status to permanent employment.

Easter said after the committee meeting that the U of I is left to figure out how to continue research and provide quality faculty with a reduction in state funds. The university has had to raise tuition, delay building maintenance and increase class sizes, he said. “Every one of these requires us to recalibrate.”

Governors State University asked lawmakers for additional funding beyond the $24.6 million it received this fiscal year. The university wants $2.5 million for a new building that would house classrooms. However, President Elaine Maimon said administrators would be glad just to avoid Quinn’s proposed reduction. “We requested a modest increase in the budget because we need it. However, we would be really pleased with a flat budget,” she told committee members. She said the school limited the freshman class that they plan to admit in 2014 and would like to be able to expand admission in the future. “Even with all we are doing to increase enrollment ... we really believe that if you could give us a flat budget, we could manage all of this and make the state proud of us."

 The president of Southern Illinois University, Glenn Poshard, said his university needed to continue to be able to provide a college education to students from more impoverished areas of the state. He spoke of the growing difficulty for families in southern Illinois to send their kids to college, due in part to the historic rise in tuition rates.

Poshard said regional disparities in income and K-12 education leave many students not as academically prepared to attend college or as financially stable as students from more affluent areas. “The other Illinois struggles to make ends meet,” Poshard said. “Illinois’ prosperity here is uneven and declining.”

He said for an average family in southern Illinois, the cost of in-state tuition for a single student was about half of the family’s annual income. The affordability gap “risks pricing students out of post-secondary education,” he said. SIU expects to see a $10 million decline in funds from the state in the next fiscal year. Poshard said the state has paid about 21 percent, or $42.8 million, of the $204 million it owes the university the current fiscal year.

House preempts Quinn and approves a spending cap the day before his budget speech

By Jamey Dunn

The Illinois House kicked off its budgeting process a day before Gov. Pat Quinn is scheduled to present his budget plan.

The House approved a spending cap of $35.08 billion today, preempting the estimate that will presumably be a part of Quinn’s plan. “It ... means that if the governor walks into this chamber tomorrow, walks up to that podium and proposed to spend more than $35.081 billion, then he puts himself at odds immediately with this chamber,” said Arlington Heights Rep. David Harris, the ranking Republican on the House Revenue and Finance Committee, which produced the estimate. Rep. John Bradley, who chairs the committee, said it moved ahead because Quinn’s budget office was “all over the place” with its revenue estimates. “If the House adopts this number today, the House will have already spoken,” he said before the floor vote.

The revenue estimates approved in the last two years have been the basis for the budgets that lawmakers ultimately sent to Quinn. Those estimates were approved, however, after Quinn presented his plan. “It’s the same process we’ve used for the last two years ... and it’s the first and most crucial step in beginning the budget process,” said Bradley, a Marion Democrat. The projection means lawmakers will have more to work with than last year, when the estimate was $33.7 billion. “The revenues are expected to be stronger this year than last year, and we have significant spending pressures that we’re going to have to deal with,” Bradley said. “I think we’re going to have close to $2 billion of additional pressures this year, and that’s not including whatever may or may not have happened with regards to the contract announcement.” He said that the committee was still working to estimate the cost of the new contract for state workers. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is in the process of ratifying the proposed three-year contract, which includes pay raises and requires employees to contribute more to their health care costs in retirement. He said the estimate also takes into account federal across-the-board budget cuts, known as the sequester, that went into effect on Friday.

The revenue committee’s estimate was created by the bipartisan legislative Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability. “We drove down into the numbers of the COGFA report, and we determined that the COGFA numbers, unlike in previous years, we believed were accurate,” Bradley said. He said he thinks the estimate will be lower than Quinn’s projection. “I anticipate and I predict we’ll be below the governor’s number tomorrow.” Quinn’s office did not respond to questions about the House’s projection.

 Harris said that several issues before the legislature could bring in more revenue next fiscal year. “There certainly are unknowns out there, and maybe those unknowns will be favorable. Depending on what we do with hydraulic fracturing and gaming and telecommunications, maybe the revenue will be higher.” But he cautioned his colleagues not to expect new spending. “While the number is big, I believe that it’s reasonable, but let’s not plan to go out and spend it right away. Because my friends, we can’t spend it on education, or health care, or assistance to the developmentally disabled, or roads or any other needed service because our pensions payment alone goes up by $1 billion. So unless we make reforms to the pension system, this $1 billion increase in revenue goes to one place, and that’s for pensions.”

The next step in the House budgeting process will be to take fixed costs, such as debt service and the pension payments, off of the top of the estimate and then dole out spending numbers to the various appropriations committees. Members of those committees then make spending decisions in their specific areas of state government, such as education. “This was the first step of a long journey we have ahead of us this year,” Bradley said.

Sequester would make Illinois' bad budget situation worse

By Jamey Dunn

Days before Gov. Pat Quinn is scheduled to present his budget plan for the next fiscal year, the reality is setting in that federal spending will be cut across the board.

A plan, referred to as the sequester, to cut $85 billion from the federal budget is expected to kick in. The cuts were meant to force a compromise on deficit reduction measures that would have averted the draconian and widely unpopular reductions, but Congress and President Barack Obama’s administration were unable to work out a deal before today’s deadline. Obama today called the cuts “arbitrary” and “dumb.” The president told reporters in Washington D.C.: “Now, what’s important to understand is that not everyone will feel the pain of these cuts right away. The pain, though, will be real. Beginning this week, many middle-class families will have their lives disrupted in significant ways.”

U.S. House Speaker John Boehner said at a Washington, D.C,. news conference today that “there are smarter ways to cut spending.” However, he said that his chamber had done its part to avert the cuts. “The House has laid out a plan to avoid the sequester. I would hope that the Senate would act.” He added that “discussion about revenue .. .is over.”

Boehner said he would move next week to ensure that the government does not shut down when current spending authority is scheduled to end on March 27. “I did lay out that the House is going to move a continuing resolution next week to fund the government past March 27,” Boehner said today after a meeting with the Obama administration produced no solution to stop the sequester. “And I’m hopeful that we won’t have to deal with the threat of a government shutdown while we’re dealing with the sequester at the same time. The House will act next week, and I hope the Senate will follow suit.” Many hoping for a sequester deal had looked to the March 27 deadline as a potential opportunity for a compromise to avert the cuts.

If a deal is reached soon, much of the brunt of the cuts could still be avoided. However, if the sequester remains in place, Illinois would lose:

• $33.4 million for primary and secondary education.
• $24.7 million for educating children with disabilities.
• $6.4 million in funds for environmental protection.
• $3.5 million for substance abuse treatment.
• $1.4 million for job placement programs.
• $764,000 in food assistance for seniors.
• $587,000 in law enforcement and public safety grants.
• $357,000 for children’s vaccinations.
•  $273,000 programs that serve victims of domestic violence.

According to the Obama administration, cuts to the Head Start program would mean that more than 2,700 children in Illinois could lose access to preschool. Education cuts would put more than 700 educator’s jobs at risk. The state will also be subject to national reductions in military spending. If federal layoffs kick in as scheduled in April, travelers at airports, such as Chicago’s O’Hare, could see long wait times. (For more information on Illinois and a comparison of all the states, see this handy breakdown from The Washington Post.)

 But Illinois will not be hit as hard as some states. According to an analysis from the Pew Center on the States, the cuts would be equal to of 2.5 percent of Illinois’ Gross Domestic Product. That compares with states such as Virginia, where the cuts would equal almost 20 percent of GDP. States such as Virginia, with high levels of defense spending, will be especially hurt by the $43 billion in defense cuts called for under the sequester. (For more information, see this analysis from Pew.)

While the federal cuts in Illinois may not be as dire as in some other states, Illinois is heading into an especially difficult budgeting year. Growing pension costs are putting pressure on other areas of spending. The pensions contribution for Fiscal Year 2014 would be more than $6 billion, and the state is projected to have more than $8 billion in unpaid bills by at the end of the current fiscal year. Quinn’s budget office did not return a request for comment on the sequester. Quinn is scheduled to give his budget address on Wednesday.