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CTBA Weekly Review |
October 16, 2007 |
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FY 2008 Budget |
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 Senate
Takes Little Action on Budget Vetoes
The Senate restored just a few of the Governor's
budget vetoes last week, nowhere near the amount
overturned in the House. By a vote of
31-20, the Senate restored about $8 million,
mostly for legislative agencies, the auditor
general and Illinois' court system.
(See how your legislator
voted here).
Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago) has been
under pressure to allow a vote on restoring more
of the cuts because they hit areas such as
developmentally disabled care workers, veterans,
health care and schools.
Several Senate lawmakers voiced their
unhappiness about being able to vote on only a
selected amount of the Governor's budget
vetoes. Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson,
(R-Greenville) stated in the
State Journal Register
that, "This was all about walking
away from senior citizens, from the children of
the state, from students, from the people who
work on the front lines in the Department of
Corrections and other places." The State Journal
Register reports that Watson blamed Senate
President Emil Jones for not allowing the Senate
to vote on all of the roughly 1,500 individual
budget cuts made by the governor.
The
Chicago Tribune
reported that Jones angrily defended the move,
saying he felt no obligation to restore the
budget lawmakers originally sent to the governor
because other legislative leaders worked against
him behind the scenes on that and other issues.
Recall that last Tuesday, the Illinois House
overturned most of Governor Blagojevich's FY
2008 budget vetoes. The house
voted 104-4 to
override hundreds of the vetoes and then
voted 105-4 to
overturn many more. In total more than $460
million in vetoes was overturned.
Budget Implementation Bill
The General Assembly has still not
passed the "budget implementation bill"
(BIMP). The BIMP authorizes how to spend
any new money in the budget such as the
$400 increase in the per pupil
foundation level.
While local school districts can receive
their increased payments retroactively,
human service providers rely on Medicaid
funding, which can only be paid
prospectively. That means some human
service programs have lost funding this
year.
For a useful analysis of all 1,504 items vetoed
or reduced in funding by the Governor, read the
CTBA report
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Property Taxes |
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7 Percent Cap
Renewed
The Illinois Senate and House voted to override Gov.
Rod Blagojevich's amendatory veto of
House Bill 664,
which deals mainly with Cook County property tax
assessments but also includes provisions on
assessing wind farms.
On Friday, October 12, 2007, the Senate voted 55-1-0
to override the Governor's amendatory veto of the
bill (President Emil Jones (D-Chicago) cast the sole
vote against the override in the senate). Last week
the House voted 92-19-0 to override the amendatory
veto.
Residential Property Taxes
The "7 percent law", which was set to expire this
year, has granted homeowners an exemption cap of up
to $20,000 in an attempt to limit the annual growth
of their taxable-assessed value to 7 percent.
The new levels boosted the exemption cap to $33,000
for this fall's tax bills in Chicago, which would be
the first year of the three-year extension. The
relief would be phased down to $26,000 and $20,000
in the second and third years throughout Cook
County.
Governor Blagojevich tried to raise the amount of
relief for homeowners and make it permanent. The
override restored the lower level of relief that
lawmakers had agreed upon when they approved the
plan in the summer and set a three-year expiration
date.
Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas said tax
bills will probably be sent in late October and
due between Nov. 26 and Nov. 30.
Assessment of Wind Farms
HB 664 also changes the way property tax assessments for
Illinois wind farms will be computed. In the past
assessments on wind farms have been computed in
different ways depending on their location. That has
complicated property assessments for wind farms that
cross county lines.
They now will be calculated in a uniform manner.
Under the new standardization law, a wind farm
installed this year will pay a tax of $9,000 per
megawatt. Lawmakers included a "sunset" date of
2011 on the new law so they can analyze how well
the change works.
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Transit |
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Still at a Standstill
Discussed last week,
the gaming bill (HB 2035)
does nothing to fix the Chicago region's transit
funding problem. It simply provides a $200
million loan (from gaming revenues) to provide
operating funding for Chicago's mass transit
systems for the next nine months. At that point
the system would again need additional funding.
The Governor has said the
$200 million would give lawmakers more time to
come up with a long-term transit funding
solution in 2008. However, all it really does
is post pone the problem yet another year.
Further, there is no revenue source to pay
back the $200 million loan back to the state.
The next "doomsday" date for mass transit riders
in the Chicago area is November 4th. If there
is not an agreement on funding by state leaders,
the CTA will have to cut half of its bus lines,
including all express Lake Shore Drive
busses. Monthly passes will rise from $75 to
$94. One way fares on busses will increase to
$2.75 and rail to $3.25 during peak hours.
Downstate - Transit
Funding Opportunity for Accessing
Jobs
The Illinois Department of
Transportation, in partnership with the Rural
Planning Regional Coordinators, Metropolitan
Planning Organizations (for small urbanized areas),
and the State Oversight Committee are compiling a
list of organizations / agencies that maybe
interested in applying for funding for the upcoming
solicitation of Job Access Reverse Commute (JARC)
and New Freedom funding.
The attached memo requests
that you send the appropriate contact information
for your agency (or others you know who may be
interested) so that we can send out applications
once the official 'Call for Projects' begins. If
you have a mailing list already compiled, you can
forward that as well. Please
send all contact information by October 31
(including agency contact, address, phone, email and
fax) to Harriet.Fox@illinois.gov. (Note
the deadline has been extended.)
If you have any questionsabout
the process, please feel free to contact or Natashia
Holmes at the Illinois Department of Transportation
Natashia.Holmes@illinois.gov
or via phone at 312.793.3307.
For more information about
transit projects accessing jobs and the JARC
program, see the report,
New Opportunities for
Transportation-to-Work Projects in Illinois.
Resources:
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Capital Plan & Gaming |
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 House
to Hold Hearing
The House has planned a hearing to discuss the
capital and gaming plan HB
2035 on October
17th at 10:00AM in Chicago (Thompson Center Room
16-503).
Highlights of HB 2035:
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New land based casino in Chicago
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Two new riverboat casinos at unspecified
locations
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An additional 6,000 slot machines or other
positions at existing casinos
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More than $25 billion for state construction
programs when federal and local dollars are combined
with the $13 billion in state funds generated from
gaming
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Additional funding for mass transit and
education
Read testimony
given in May 2005 by economist Dr.
Victor Matheson to the Illinois General Assembly on the
fiscal impact of riverboat gaming.
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Calendar of Events |
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WHAT?
Property and Asset Management: Community
Housing Developers Institute
WHEN?
October 16-17, 2007
WHERE?
ICAA Training Facility, 3435 Liberty Drive,
Springfield, IL
Contact:
nate@housingactionil.org
or 312-939-6074 x 201 More info:
www.housingactionil.org.
WHAT?
2008
Illinois State Budget Briefing: What Nonprofits
Need to Know.
WHEN?
Wednesday October 24, 9-11am
WHERE?
Roosevelt
University, Congress Lounge, Second Floor,
430 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago
Hear what experts
have to say about the areas of the state
budget that will have the greatest
impact on the nonprofit sector and get
answers to your questions.
Donors Forum,
the Center for Tax and Budget
Accountability and Roosevelt
University will co-host a budget
briefing on the 2008 Illinois state
budget. Hear what experts have to
say about areas of the state budget
that will have the greatest impact
on the nonprofit sector, and get
answers to your questions. Speakers
will include Ralph Martire of the
Center for Tax and Budget
Accountability, and Lawrence J.
Suffredin,
Jr., Cook County Commissioner. A
panel of legislators will also join
us as speakers
Register online or
call 312-578-0090, toll free 888-578-0090.
WHAT?
Understanding Appeals & Domestic Violence and
Public Benefits
WHEN?October
24, 2007
WHERE?Naperville,
IL
Presented by the DuPage Federation on Human
Services
Register Here
WHAT?
Immigrants and Public Benefits & Putting the
Pieces Together
WHEN?October
25, 2007
WHERE?Naperville,
IL
Presented by the DuPage Federation on Human
Services
Register Here
WHAT?
Illinois Food Summit 2007 "Building on
Success Through Collaboration"
WHEN?
November 8, 2007
WHERE?
Kankakee Community
College,
100 College Drive,
Kankakee, IL 60901
More info:
http://inc.aces.uiuc.edu/
Sponsored by
Illinois Interagency Nutrition Council
and the
University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign Extension
WHAT?
Affordable Housing Month
WHEN?
November 1-30, 2007
WHERE?
Public education events and activities to be
held throughout the state
Contact:
nate@housingactionil.org
or 312-939-6074 x 201 More info:
www.housingactionil.org.
WHAT?
Release of the 2007
State of Working Illinois Report and Policy
Forum
WHEN?
Wednesday, December 5, 2007 from 8:30 to
12:30
WHERE?
Union League Club of Chicago, main Lounge,
65 West Jackson Blvd, Chicago, IL
INFO:
This is the second
detailed analysis of workforce and
economic trends produced by the Center
for Governmental Studies and the Office
for Social Policy Research, both at
Northern Illinois University and the
Center for Tax and Budget
Accountability. Statewide data as well
as data on individual regions and
counties will be presented in the
report.
WHAT?
Making the Connection Basic Training
WHEN?
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
WHERE?
Naperville, IL
Presented by the DuPage Federation on Human
Services the session contains practical
information in an easy to understand format
regarding many programs available to assist low
income persons.
Register Here
WHAT?
Making the Connection: Public Benefits and
Single Adults & Public Benefits for Youths up to
21
WHEN?
March 5,
2008
WHERE?
Naperville, IL
Presented by the DuPage Federation on Human
Services
Register Here
WHAT?
Making the Connection: Mental Health and Public
Benefits & Understanding Spenddown
WHEN? March
6, 2008
WHERE?Naperville,
IL
Presented by the DuPage Federation on Human
Services
Register Here
WHAT?
Understanding Appeals & Domestic Violence and
Public Benefits
WHEN?
March
18, 2008
WHERE?Naperville,
IL
Presented by the DuPage Federation on Human
Services
Register Here
WHAT?
Immigrants and Public Benefits & Putting the
Pieces Together
WHEN?
March 19,
2008
WHERE?Naperville,
IL
Presented by the DuPage Federation on Human
Services
Register Here
WHAT?
Making the Connection Basic Training
WHEN?
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
WHERE?
Naperville, IL
Presented by the DuPage Federation on Human
Services the session contains practical
information in an easy to understand format
regarding many programs available to assist low
income persons.
Register Here
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Do you have something to share in the
Weekly Review?
Please email
Chrissy Mancini
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