News

Budget, supplemental spending await governor's action

Posted August 13, 2007 11:00 pm

Doug Finke

Day No. 13 without a budget Monday was just as unlucky as the previous 12 for Illinois.

A new spending plan for the fiscal year that began July 1 did finally make to the governor's desk, but there was no indication what he might do with it or when.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich could sign the budget into law, veto the entire thing or reject certain parts. He has 60 days from Monday - when the budget formally arrived at his office - to take action or it will automatically become law without his signature.

Lawmakers and Comptroller Dan Hynes urged Blagojevich to act quickly.

"The sooner he acts, the sooner we can react," said Sen. John Sullivan, D-Rushville, referring to the General Assembly trying to override a budget veto. "The longer he waits to make a decision ... the longer it will take before we have a budget in place."

Hynes' spokeswoman Carol Knowles said that while a union agreement last week will allow state employee paychecks to go out on time in August, there are hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of other expenses that can't be paid without a budget in place.

That includes another $170 million in school aid payments that would normally be paid Aug. 20. The first batch of payments due out last Friday were delayed. If a new budget isn't in place Thursday, Knowles said, checks can't be processed in time for the Monday payment.

"School aid payments, as well as millions and millions of other payments, are being held up because the governor has not acted on the budget," Knowles said. "We need him to act on it now."

Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch said the governor needs time to study the 1,400-page budget bill before deciding what to do.

Blagojevich said last week the budget overwhelmingly approved by the legislature is full of "false promises," loaded with pork, does not address capital spending and doesn't do enough for health care.

Not everyone thinks Blagojevich needs to act quickly.

"There's no real pressure because the employees are going to be paid," said Senate President Emil Jones, D-Chicago. "I don't know what all of the hoopla is about."

Sen. Donne Trotter, D-Chicago, said the budget won't be complete until the General Assembly passes three more bills that more specifically spell out how some money is spent. The Senate, which was in session Monday, may act on those bills this week, but there is no indication when the House, which has no scheduled sessions this week, might act.

"Signing the budget bill itself will be more ceremonial if there's no language to make it work," Trotter said.

Steve Brown, a spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, said there is nothing in the bills mentioned by Trotter to prevent the governor from acting on the budget itself.

Also up in the air Monday was the fate of a supplemental spending bill that added money to the budget that expired June 30. Lawmakers passed the supplemental bill two months ago, but Blagojevich has never acted on it. His office said Monday he would act on the bill sometime before the midnight Monday deadline.

The supplemental bill contains money for hospitals that treat the poor, payments to families of slain soldiers and pay raises of nearly 10 percent for state officials. It also contains $150 million for school districts awaiting funding under a long-delayed school construction grant program. That includes Rochester, which has been waiting for years for a promised $10 million.

However, a spokesman for Blagojevich's budget office said none of the 23 school districts on a waiting list for funding will get the money contained in the supplemental spending bill. Justin DeJong said that since the supplemental covers the 2007 budget year, school districts would have had to execute agreements during that year to get the money. None of them did in the 60 days the supplemental spending bill has been awaiting action by Blagojevich.

DeJong said the only way for the school districts to get the money now is for the General Assembly to pass a fiscal 2008 capital spending program or for lawmakers to pass an addition to the budget on Blagojevich's desk.

Jones repeated Monday that he considers a capital bill dead.

There was speculation Blagojevich might veto out the money for lawmaker pay raises in retaliation for their refusal to pass either his universal health-care plan or his gross-receipts tax. That move might further poison his relations with lawmakers, particularly with those Senate Democrats who have made no secret of their desire for a pay raise.

"I strongly favor the pay raise. I voted for it," Jones said. "I have many members in my caucus that's their only income."

"People are going to be upset, but it's not as if there are a lot of positive thoughts going around now (about Blagojevich)," Trotter said. "It's all relative how much worse it can get."

Sullivan agreed some Senate Democrats would be upset if the money is removed, but he also said it will be politically tough to override a veto of the pay raises.

"Given the fact we don't have a budget in place that affects many, many people throughout the state, I think it would be very, very, very difficult for us to override a veto for our cost-of-living increases," Sullivan said.

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

Article Categories
News