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Senate Democrats' budget plan called 'delusional'

Posted April 02, 2008 11:00 pm

Doug Finke

Illinois Senate Democrats put forward a plan Wednesday to fill the state's three-quarter-of-a-billion-dollar budget hole, but it calls for additional spending and raiding restricted funds.

House Speaker Michael Madigan's office called the idea "delusional."

Senate committees controlled by Democrats approved bills that expand health-care programs by $43 million for the budget year that ends June 30 and add back $53 million in House Democrat pet projects that Gov. Rod Blagojevich cut from the budget last fall.

To pay for it all, Blagojevich would be given authority to take $530 million out of hundreds of state accounts that are set aside to pay for certain programs and are not funded with general tax dollars - for example, regulatory funds set up to collect licensing fees from certain professions.

Money left over after the increased spending would be used to close the shortfall in the fiscal 2008 budget, estimated by Blagojevich's office to be $750 million. The shortfall, caused by lagging tax receipts from the economic slowdown, has further delayed payments to state vendors and others reliant on government spending.

Some Democrats said they were trying to send an olive branch to Madigan, who was furious when his members' pet projects were cut from the budget while those of Senate Democrats were left intact. Madigan believes Senate President Emil Jones, D-Chicago, broke a promise to restore any such cuts made by Blagojevich.

"This is a carrot that may get the speaker back to the (bargaining) table," said Sen. Donne Trotter of Chicago, the Senate Democrats' top budget negotiator.

However, Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said the plan makes no sense, even if some of the money would go to House Democrats' districts.

"We've been talking for weeks about a $700 million deficit, and now we are talking about new (spending)?" Brown said. "It's a delusional act."

Brown also said it makes no sense to again tap into restricted accounts, given the lawsuits that have been filed challenging the state's authority to do that.

The special funds have about $3.2 billion in them, Trotter said. Since 2003, the legislature have taken $1.6 billion from the funds to balance state budgets.

Although the health-care expansions would cost $53 million through June 30, Republican lawmakers said it will add $300 million to next year's budget.

"This is not chump change," said Sen. Christine Radogno, R-Lemont.

"We're not addressing the problem… We just keep spending more and more and more."

The bills approved in committee now go to the full Senate for a vote. They must also pass the House and be signed by Blagojevich before they would become law.

Doug Finke can be reached at (217) 788-1527.

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