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From the Capitol |
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Midnight Saturday is Deadline for
State Budget
Last week the House and Senate each
passed an FY 2009 budget.
The House actually passed two
budgets. The first simply maintains
spending with an estimated $600
million from natural revenue growth
and another $650 million from the
sale/operation of the 10th casino
license. The other (some are
calling a "Christmas tree budget")
provides about $2.3 billion in
spending growth, but no new revenue
stream to pay for it.
The Senate passed a budget with $1.8
billion in spending growth reliant
on: $1.2 billion in natural revenue
growth from "a good economy," $500
million from the savings on the sale
of $16 billion in pension obligation
bonds and $530 million from "fund
sweeps." The Senate did not vote on
either the pension obligation bond
sale or the raid of fund sweeps.
Without those two components, the
budget is out of balance.
Just
to maintain the FY 2008 budget in FY
2009 requires about $1.1 billion in
spending growth (Based on the
Consumer Price Index, April 2008).
Speaking to the State Journal
Register, the Senate Democrats' top
budget negotiator, Senator Donne
Trotter (D-Chicago) stated, "We
still have days left (to
negotiate)," Trotter said. "Our
timing is adequate to get our job
done by the first of June."
Resources:
See how education fares in the
different budget proposals here
Read about the last pension
obligation bond sale here
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Ethics |
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State Ethics Bill
HB 824, the bill
that would help end "pay to play politics"
unanimously passed the Senate Friday. The bill
has been placed on the House calendar.
The bill would prohibit entities with more than
$50,000 in state contracts from giving political
donations to the elected officials who control
those contracts.
Currently, Illinois has no campaign contribution
limits.
If the House approves the plan as is it will
then go to the Governor, who can sign it into
law, veto the entire bill, or amendatory veto
portions of the bill. If Blagojevich vetoes it,
lawmakers would then need to rally support a
second time to override his rejection.
Supporters of the measure in both chambers have
said they ultimately expect to have enough
support to override any veto.
Track HB 824 Here.
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School Finance
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Governor Authorizes 23rd and 24th General
State Aid Payment for Schools
Illinois State
Superintendent Christopher Koch announced that
Gov. Blagojevich has requested State Comptroller
Hynes and State Treasurer Giannoulias pay in
June the 23rd and 24th General State Aid (GSA)
payments that were scheduled to be disbursed in
July. The total to be distributed to Illinois
elementary and secondary schools is $390 million
total, $195 million for each payment that
normally would not arrive until after July 1.
In past years of
revenue shortfalls, governors have delayed the
23rd and 24th school state aid payments until
the following fiscal year. This is problematic
for school districts, which budget the final two
payments as part of their current fiscal year
that ends June 30th.
School district
officials have said delaying the payments until
July create serious cash-flow problem for them.
A majority of school districts are on a cash
basis. As a result, they count on receiving an
advance of their final two July GSA payments in
June in order to close out their current fiscal
year books (ending June 30th). Without the
advance, school districts that are on a cash
basis could find themselves in deficit spending
for that fiscal year which may affect their
financial rating.
General State Aid payments typically are made
semi-monthly from August to July. However, a
clause in the State Finance Act allows the
governor to contact the state treasurer and
comptroller to "effect advance distribution to
school districts of amounts that otherwise would
be payable in the next month." The governor has
opted to do this in the past several years.
SB 1955 and
HB 4522
Section 18-11 of
the School Code provides for 24 semimonthly
General State Aid payments to be made during the
months of August through July. These payments
are in an amount equal to 1/24 of the total
amount to be distributed. By law these payments
are to be made as soon as possible after the
10th and 20th days of each month.
SB 1955 and HB
4522 would fix this problem. These proposals
would change the General State Aid Payment
schedule from 24 payments (received from August
to July) to 22 payments (August to June). This
only changes the payment schedule to ensure all
funds are received in the same fiscal year -
school districts are not "losing" any payments.
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Education Funding & Fiscal Reform |
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Schools and Kids Need Your Help!
Is Your Senator a Co-Sponsor of SB 2288?
The lead
sponsors of SB 2288, Senator James Meeks and
Senator John Cullerton, are committed to
bringing the bill to a vote in November.
This gives us the spring and summer to work
for the passage of the bill.
Senate Bill 2288 provides a new, permanent
revenue source for schools, property tax
relief for homeowners and
$1 billion
for debt service for a state infrastructure
program. It is the only piece of legislation
that will truly reform the way education is
funded in Illinois by making the state the
primary funder of K-12 education. The bill also
provides $300 million for community colleges and
universities.
Read the bill here
SB 2288 makes significant changes to tax
and school funding laws.
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It
reduces our reliance on property taxes
to fund schools by mandating an annual
property tax abatement of $2.9 billion
(indexed to inflation for each
subsequent year) with every property
owner seeing a minimum of 20% property
tax relief on the portion of the bill
designated to education.
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The
Invest in Illinois Fund is created and
funded with $1 billion each year to
provide funding for debt service and
fees on bonds for capital projects, such
as roads and schools, throughout the
State.
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The
bill also mandates a $300 million annual
appropriation (indexed for inflation)
for grants to institutions of Higher
Education.
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Increases for Early Childhood education
are phased in, from $45 million in
2009-2010 to $180 million in 2012-2013.
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Increases to the Foundation Level are
phased in, raising it from $6,253 for
the 2009-2010 school year (from $5,734)
up to $7,809 for the 2012-2013 school
year. The Foundation Level and
Supplemental General State Aid (Poverty
Grants) are automatically tied to
increases to the Employment Cost Index
to control for inflation.
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Creates a School
Improvement Partnership Fund to target
resources to proven programs such as
smaller class sizes, literacy coaching,
longer school days and teacher
mentoring;
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Maintains and
expands grants for high-poverty schools
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The
personal income tax is increased to 5%
(from 3%), and the corporate income tax
is increased to 8% (from 4.8%).
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Family Tax Credits
are provided to single taxpayers earning
less than $26,695 and married couples
earning less than $53,694.
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Calendar of Events |
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WHAT?
Shout Out for Schools Rally
WHEN?
June 10, 2008, 10am to 12pm
WHERE?
Soldier Field
Join
thousands of Chicago Public Schools
students, parents and teachers to
celebrate education and rally for
improved school funding and quality in
Illinois.
"Shout Out for Schools" will be a
ticketed event. For FREE tickets, please
call 773-553-1000, or send an e-mail to
studentrally@cps.k12.il.us with the name
of your school or organization, your
phone number, and the number of
requested tickets.
Soldier Field parking available for
school buses only; others are asked to
take public transit or park in nearby
Grant Park or downtown lots.
DOWNLOAD a flyer to distribute to
your school or community. For more
details, please visit. www.cps.edu.
WHAT?
Making Media Connections
WHEN?
June 11-12
National new-media experts like Beth
Kanter as well as some of Chicago's most
prominent journalists such as Renee
Ferguson from channel 5 will
keynote. For $150 you can take two
half-day workshops highlighting new
media tools that nonprofits are using to
tell their stories and raise money or a
one-day Media Boot Camp class. For
another $150 you can hear Chicago-area
journalists and veteran nonprofit
communicators offer advice on everything
from how to work with newspapers'
editorial boards to planning a nonprofit
public relations career.
The conference organizers, Community
Media Workshop, offer a range of
discounts and scholarships for
nonprofits; with budgets under $100,000,
they offer everything at half-price.
If you can't make it to the conference
but want free communication tools and
tips and info about communications
workshops in the future, you should
check out their home page,
www.newstips.org,
where you can also sign up for the
Workshop's free email list.
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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