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Senate Democrats eyeing restoration of some $50 million

Posted October 10, 2007 11:00 pm

Doug Finke

Democrats in the Illinois Senate are preparing to restore at least some of the money cut from the state budget by Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

However, senators said Wednesday it will not be anything close to the $424 million in restorations approved by the House last week.

Sen. Donne Trotter, D-Chicago, said Senate Democrats are working on reinstating about $50 million of the $463 million cut from the fiscal 2008 budget. A detailed list of what might be restored was not available Wednesday.

"There will be some restorations of some of the reductions," Trotter said. "We are still looking at some of the things we need to do that were inadvertently done. There's been some reassessments."

Although the list isn't necessarily complete, Trotter mentioned that money could be restored to give cost-of-living increases for home care workers, and that money cut from court operations could be put back in. Trotter said none of the money set aside for Senate Republican pet projects that was cut from the budget is on the list to be restored.

Shortly after the General Assembly approved a $59 billion budget in August - more than a month after the fiscal year began - Blagojevich cut $463 million from it. He said he would use the money instead to pay for expanded health-care programs that he wanted, but which the General Assembly did not approve.

At the time, Senate President Emil Jones, D-Chicago, said he would not allow the Senate to vote on restoring money cut by the governor. On Wednesday, Jones said he is keeping his pledge that the Senate will not vote to override Blagojevich's budget vetoes.

"We're not doing overrides," Jones said. "There were some mistakes made in the governor's reductions, so we may do some corrections."

Just what the Senate may end up doing hadn't been determined Wednesday.

Motions were filed that would allow the Senate to vote on all 1,500 separate items cut from the budget. The House voted last week to restore $424 million of the money cut by the governor. Any of that also approved by the Senate would go into effect automatically.

The Senate also could decide to restore some of the money by passing a supplemental budget bill. However, the House would also have to pass such legislation.

"We want whatever we do to actually pass," Trotter said. "There are still discussions going on of what others feel is necessary to do. Nothing has been set in stone right now."

House Democrats, led by Speaker Michael Madigan, orchestrated hearings around the state to publicize the effect of the budget cuts. Although Blagojevich said he was eliminating "pork" and "special interest spending," witnesses maintained that wasn't the case. The cuts affected schools, mental health services, community health clinics, universities, museums, hospitals, nursing homes, and other health and human service programs.

Rank-and-file Senate Democrats have been clamoring for Jones to allow at least some of the money to be restored.

Doug Finke can be reached at (217) 788-1527 or doug.finke@sj-r.com.

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