Weekly Review
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September
9, 2008
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From the Capitol
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House to Meet
Tomorrow
Focus on
Capital Plan Possible Lease of Lottery
Will also
discuss budget cuts and Governor's amendatory
vetoes
The House is scheduled to hold a two day
session, beginning September 10th. The session
will focus on the lease of the state library, a
capital program, Fiscal Year 2009 budget cuts
and bills vetoed by Governor Blagojevich.
Representative Gary Hannig, (D-Litchfield) told
the State Journal Register (SJ-R) that the House
is developing a plan to lease the state lottery
that will differ from both the Governor's plan
and the planned passed by the Senate. He said
the House version will require the comptroller
and treasurer to approve any lease agreement
approved by the Governor, providing additional
oversight. The bill would also attempt to cap
legal and consultant fees that would be a result
of the lease. "Right now, they could be
hundreds of millions of dollars," Hannig said to
SJ-R of the legal/consultant costs.
The SJ-R reports that the some parts of the
House bill will be somewhat similar to the
Governor's original proposal in that:
- The state would accept no less than $10
billion from a private vendor wanting
exclusive rights to run the lottery.
- Enough money would be set aside to
ensure that public schools continue to get
at least $600 million a year from lottery
proceeds.
- The state would retain a 20 percent
interest in the lottery.
Hannig also said the House will consider the
capital spending bill. A capital bill passed by
the Senate in May left billions in spending to
be outlined at a later date. The House believes
that is "unacceptable because they do not trust
Blagojevich to be fair in spreading projects
throughout the state."
Any legislation passed by the House must be
debated and passed by the Senate. Cindy
Davidsmeyer, President Jones' spokesperson said,
"We'll have to see what the House gets done, the
Senate still has no plans to return to
Springfield until after the Nov. 4 election."
The Center for Tax and Budget Accountability
testified against leasing the Illinois State
Lottery due to concerns over lost revenues for
education. Lottery revenues for schools usually
increase each year. Any proposal that sets up a
flat funding mechanism to replace those revenues
would mean a funding decrease for schools after
accounting for inflation. Further, sale or
lease of a long term revenue generating asset to
cover ongoing operational expenses is
questionable fiscal policy. Once the asset is
sold or leased and the money spent the state
loses all or most of the ongoing revenue,
putting pressure on other revenue sources to
cover the lost revenue.
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Budget Cuts
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House to Consider Fund Sweeps Plan to Help
Restore Budget Cuts
Tomorrow
the House may discuss possible fund
sweeps to restore some of the $1.4
billion in cuts to the FY 2009 budget.
The
House could approve a "fund sweeps" bill
worth between $300 and $400 million.
The plan would divert monies from
special state funds to the General
Revenue Fund.
Special
State Funds are various, smaller funds
identified and held in the State
Treasury as "special funds" under in
Section 5 of the Illinois Finance Act
restricted in use to the specific
purpose for which they were created.
There
are over 300 of these special state
funds that support activities as diverse
as medical assistance and environmental
cleanup. They are, for the most part,
designed as segregated accounts,
restricted in use and funded from
specifically earmarked revenue or fee
sources. Examples include the Illinois
Affordable Housing Trust Fund, the Youth
Drug Abuse Prevention Fund and the
Brownfields Redevelopment Fund.
Since FY
2003, the state has transferred almost
$1 billion from these Special State
Funds to the General Revenue Fund.
However, this is not new revenue, it is
simply a transfer of revenue from
Special State Funds into the General
Fund. This revenue swap would not be
available next year without legislative
approval.
Read
more about how the state transfers
revenue from special use state funds to
the General Fund on page 25 of the CTBA
report,
Citizens Guide to the Illinois State
Budget and Tax System.
The report contains a wealth of
information on all of these budget
issues.
The
Senate would have to approve any fund
sweeps bill passed in the House.
Background
Two weeks ago Governor
Blagojevich announced that 450 state
workers will be laid off along with the
closure of 12 historic sites and 11state
parks. The cuts come as a result of the
$1.4 billion in cuts the Governor made
to the fiscal year 2009 budget.
Four departments will be hit with the
lay offs, including 300 positions at the
Department of Children and Family
Services, 75 at the Department of Human
Services, and another 75 from the
Department of Natural Resources and the
Historic Preservation Agency.
According to the State Journal Register
(SJ-R), the lay offs will be effective
December 1st. The historic sites will
close Oct. 1st and state parks Nov. 1st.
The union that represents the laid off workers,
the American Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employees (AFSCME) along with state
lawmakers told SJ-R the layoffs and closings
were unnecessarily heavy just a couple of months
into the new budget year that began July 1.
"Every time I think he can't do something worse,
he does," Sen. Larry Bomke, R-Springfield, said
of the governor.
AFSCME warned that the cuts will put abused
children and needy families at risk and further
hurt parks and historic sites. It urged
lawmakers to return to the Capitol soon to try
to reverse them.
"These cuts are irresponsible, and they are
deep," AFSCME executive director Henry Bayer
said.
Department of Natural Resources spokesman Chris
McCloud told the SJ-R, "This is a tough day for
DNR and Illinois." Jonathan Goldman, executive
director of the Illinois Environmental Council,
said state parks had about 45 million visitors
last year, and the resulting loss in economic
activity probably will outweigh any savings.
The following
Department of Natural Resources sites are
scheduled to close Nov. 1:
Castle Rock State Park, Oregon
Lowden State Park, Oregon
Hennepin Canal Parkway State Park, Sheffield
Illini State Park, Marseilles
Channahon Parkway State Park, Channahon
Gebhard Woods State Park, Morris
Hidden Springs State Forrest, Strasburg
Kickapoo State Park, Oakwood
Moraine View State Park, Leroy
Weldon Springs State Park, Clinton
Wolf Creek State Park, Windsor
SJ-R: A list of how the cuts will affect
historic sites.
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Campaign Funding Reform
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House Could Vote to Override Governor's
Amendatory Veto of Ethics Bill Tomorrow:
Groups Criticize Actions
When the House convenes tomorrow it could vote
to override the Governor's amendatory veto of HB
824, the campaign funding reform bill.
Two weeks ago Governor Blagojevich greatly
expanded the reach of the legislation using both
amendatory veto and executive order powers.
The original bill would have banned businesses
with more than $50,000 in state contracts from
making political donations to constitutional
officers who award the contracts and candidates
for those offices.
First, the
Governor's amendatory would expand the original
bill. The original bill only banned
political donations by state contractors to
those officer holders that oversaw the
contract. The Governor's expanded this by
executive order to ban political donations from
ANY contractor with a contract worth $50,000 or
more at any agency from giving to not only the
Governor but all other statewide officeholder,
lawmakers and political parties.
Second the
amendatory bill would prohibit "Dual
Employment." The amendatory veto states:
"No member of the General Assembly, during the
term for which he has been elected or appointed
may be employed by the State, a municipality, or
unit of local government. This prohibition does
not extend to employment as an elected official,
firefighter, police officer, school counselor,
teacher, or university instructor."
Third, the
Governor's amendatory veto requires lawmakers to
vote to approve a pay raise. Currently,
lawmakers pay raises go into affect unless they
vote the raise down.
Cindi Canary, director of the Illinois Campaign
for Political Reform told the State Journal
Register, "If we are saying we should be
regulating money and politics, then step back
and do it holistically, not just carve out
groups of people, Illinois should be learning
from the best practices of other states rather
than set up some kind of cockamamie system."
The Governor
also rewrote SB 2190. His rewrite would
prohibit all government employees from making
contributions to political campaigns. The
amendatory veto states:
"Any political committee established to promote
the individual candidacy of a candidate for
Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General,
Secretary of State, Comptroller, Treasurer, or
for membership in the General Assembly may not
accept any contribution made by an employee of a
State agency, or an employee of a municipality
or unit of local government. Nothing in this
Section shall prohibit an individual from making
a contribution to a political committee
established to promote his or her own candidacy
for public office. If a political committee
receives a contribution in violation of this
Section, then the State Board may assess a civil
penalty up to $10,000 for each violation."
Kent Redfield, a campaign finance expert and
political science professor at the University of
Illinois at Springfield, told the State Journal
Register that the governor's actions are
unconstitutionally broad and designed simply to
get headlines.
He said to call Blagojevich disingenuous would
be "like saying Mount Everest is a small hill."
"It's so disproportionate and so wrong in terms
of the basics of the process," Redfield said.
Cindi Canary, director of the Illinois Campaign
for Political Reform, credited the
administration for bringing the idea to the
forefront but said she has real questions about
the proposed ban.
She said barring state officials from taking
donations from thousands of state and local
employees could be a logistical nightmare in
tracking donors' employers. She also said the
pressure to donate isn't apparent when local
government employees give money to their
legislators or the comptroller, for example.
"I have no sense of how it would be enforced,"
Canary said to the SJ-R.
In fact, Dan White, executive director of the
Illinois State Board of Elections also expressed
doubts. White told the SJ-R the board has no way
of screening reported contributions to verify
that the contributor is not an employee of one
of the hundreds of units of local government in
the state. Nor could it oversee state officials
to prove they are not taking small contributions
from public employees.
"They (officials) could police themselves,"
White said. "We would need assistance to bring
this to our attention. It would be very hard to
enforce."
Background
HB 824 has awaited the Governor's action for
months. Many state officials, including
Comptroller Dan Hynes, have urged the Governor
to act on the bill. Hynes criticized
Blagojevich for accepting more than $300,000 in
campaign contributions the first half of this
year alone from holders of contracts worth at
least $50,000.
Hynes has told the State Journal Register, it
appears that Blagojevich wants to amend the
ethics legislation and send it back to lawmakers
in hopes that the revised version will die. "I
don't think the governor is at all sincere in
saying he wants to go further. They've spent the
last three years trying to stop reform," Hynes
said.
Browse Open Book, a searchable database of state
contracts and contributions.
http://www.openbook.illinoiscomptroller.com/
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Calendar
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WHAT: Dupage Federation on Human Services
Reform, Making the Connection: Accessing Public
Benefits for Low Income Persons
WHEN: October 1, 8, 15, 22, 29
February 18, 25
March 4, 11, 18
June 3, 10, 17, 24
July 1
WHERE: All trainings held at NIU
Naperville, 1120 Diehl Road, Naperville, IL
INFO: Making the Connection training
sessions contain information in an
easy-to-understand format regarding many
programs available to assist low income persons.
Individuals who register for a Making the
Connection training session now receive
membership access to the Federation's newly
developed Making the Connection Illinois
website, www.mtcil.org.
To register and for more information please
visit www.dupagefederation.org.
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Do you have something to add to the
Weekly Review?
email Chrissy Mancini @
cmancini@ctbaonline.org
___________________________________________________________________________
Center
for Tax and Budget Accountability
70 East Lake Street, Suite 1700
Chicago, IL 60601
312-332-1041
www.ctbaonline.org
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