Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Doomsday Budget Effects Make Headlines

From Jim Broadway, Publisher, State School News Service

Unless Illinois legislators pass a true, full-year FY 2010 budget - and the income tax increased required to fund it - state agencies will have to lay off 10,000 employees and non-profit social service organizations serving the poor, the ill, the elderly, veterans and children in a variety of settings will lose state grants that employ another 100,000 Illinoisans, Gov. Pat Quinn's Chief of Staff Jerome Stermer announced this week.

Among other consequences: Nearly 200,000 senior citizens would lose help with the costs of their medications; more than 140,000 poor families would lose subsidized child care services; foster care oversight caseloads would jump from 15 to 50 per DCFS agent; 145,000 low-income college students would lose 75% of their already meager MAP grants they need to continue to pursue higher education.

Infants and children, struggling young families, senior citizens - the pain of a doomsday budget reaches from the cradle to the grave. Speaking of graves, without a true budget for FY 2010, the state will have to stop paying about $1,500 each for paupers' funerals.

That's another 10,000 doomsday budget victims, assuming the number doesn't go even higher when funding for homeless shelters and food pantries is also curtailed.

The Illinois State Board of Education will surely add hundreds of thousands of young people to the list this afternoon when it begins slashing at least $400 million from its already reduced budget for discretionary (not including General State Aid and Mandated Categorical) programs.

Apparently the Board committee overseeing the cuts expects some push-back. The "public participation" segment of its meeting, which usually takes about five minutes, is scheduled to last two hours. Advocates for early childhood, career and technical, and gifted education, school technology, at-risk students, safe schools and other long-standing priorities will want to have their say before the axe falls.

Will the legislators respond to the apparent damage that will result from their insistence on keeping for Illinois the honor of having the lowest income tax in the nation, of ranking 45th among the state in per-capita support for public services at all levels? Quinn is counting on it. He is meeting with legislative leaders today to insist that the General Assembly return to Springfield next Tuesday to pass a tax increase and fix the budget.

While we admire his optimism, we doubt Quinn's goal will be reached next week. Political dynamics are now in control. Republican legislators, who have not given a single vote to any tax-hike bill, claim the governor is just trying to scare the citizens into supporting higher taxes. Democrats, who passed a tax hike in the Senate and put 42 votes on a bill for one in the House, now require GOP participation for such a politically volatile measure.

That will probably happen, but not next week. The issue now seems truly up to "the people," and they will need proof - not just projections - of the pain before they will prevail on the GOP to "do the right thing." Proof means the meals on wheels have to stop coming, facilities have to shut down, workers have to be laid off, programs they like to see in their schools have to stop. We are two months away, perhaps three, from the moment of proof.

Scandals are a distraction. Recent revelations that legislators have added getting children of their supporters admitted to the University of Illinois to the long list of hidden political perks they enjoy are starting to stink up the Capitol pretty much. Quinn has appointed a credible commission to investigate the matter. A report is due in 60 days. The Chicago Tribune, which broke the story, has had to sue the university to get more documentation on the case.

Using the university as a political asset is a bipartisan abuse of power, as are most abuses. But this one will play out in the coming weeks. Names will be named. Situations will be scrutinized. Coming as it does with the MAP grants for less affluent students being slashed just adds to the justifiable outrage spreading around the state.

Speaking of outrage, there's the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency's misuse of about $100,000 in Amistad Commission funding. The Amistad Commission was established in 2005 legislation to fund education on slavery in the United States and "vestiges of slavery" that remain in this country. Instead of putting the program with the Illinois State Board of Education where it belonged, the measure put it with Histor ic Preservation where it would be more hidden from view.

The educational materials that were to have been developed and delivered to the schools of Illinois never materialized. The potential of the Amistad Commission was never realized. Instead, a nice dinner was held for 250 people. Four "experts" were given $10,000 each, plus $1,000 for travel and lodging, to make speeches. Catering costs exceeded $18,000.

The Agency spent about $400 per invitee to this dinner.

According to a report from Illinois General William Holland [see Page 14], the Agency didn't provide receipts for its Amistad dinner expenses. About $10,000 wasn't accounted for in any way. It was just part of a scathing report of fiscal mismanagement by the agency, now headed by a woman recommended for the job by former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. She was equally incompetent as Blagojevich's appointed director of the Capital Development Board.

There will be more on this. The ISBE is fortunate to have been shut out of the Amistad program. It is a situation, on a smaller scale, consistent with the types of abuse of office that, after being revealed by Holland, led to Blagojevich's impeachment. This time, meddling legislators' careers are on the line.

We care what you think. Click here to comment to SSNS. Your policymakers may also care what you think. You may want to call, write or email them on the issues described above or other matters. Click here for their contact information, including email addresses.

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