Week of May 10th., 2010
Friday, May 7th was the scheduled adjournment date for
the Spring Session of the Illinois General Assembly. But, something unusual
happened on the way to passage of another bloated budget proposed by House Speaker
Madigan. His budget proposal was clearly based on false promises, borrowing,
pension raids, dedicated fund “transfers”, a cigarette tax increase
and other smoke and mirror tactics that have been relied on the past seven years. For
the first time in recent memory, the architect of this State’s fiscal crisis,
Speaker Michael Madigan, was unable to get enough support from his members to
pass another phony budget. The lemmings stopped just short of the cliff….for
now.
The Democrats have seventy votes in the House, which
is more than enough of the sixty votes necessary to pass many of the components
of the budget. However, the House Democrats fall one vote short of the super-majority
that is necessary to pass a key component of the Speaker’s proposal, which
is even more borrowing. The Senate Democrats have that super-majority and
did pass a budget that relies heavily on borrowing in three key areas. When
the Senate version of the budget reached the House, it became apparent that the
House Republicans were simply not going to provide even a single vote in order
for the borrowing scheme to take place.
What borrowing proposals did the House Republicans reject? Well,
first of all there was a proposal to borrow via bonding about $1.75 billion by
securitizing Illinois share of the money we receive from the tobacco settlement. In
other words, we would take all of the money Illinois would be getting in future
years from the settlement now and then it back for the next seventeen years. There
are many problems with this idea. The fact that this tobacco settlement
money is counted on now as general revenue creates a hole this year and in future
years. Secondly, the money is pledged to finance a number of existing programs
in state government and some of those programs were started with the idea of
using this settlement money as a dedicated fund to pay for the program. This
would consume future revenue today and increase the mountain of debt that the
majority party has amassed the past few years.
Another part of the borrowing scheme revolved around
an old stand by. Additional borrowing was proposed to the tune of about
$4.1 billion in order to make this years’ state pension payment. Once
again, more debt to pay for our current obligations. Believe it or not,
this proposal actually included a provision that in the first two years of an
eight year repayment we would pay nothing toward the principal. Instead
of making the payment due to the systems, this proposal would add even more debt
we are running up for our grandchildren.
Another part of the borrowing proposal would allow for
around $1.5 billion to be transferred from hundreds of “dedicated” funds
into the general revenue fund with the false promise of repayment within eighteen
months. The repayment would be impossible based upon the fact the Illinois
simply does not have the revenue to repay the funds. If you were adding
up the borrowing, it totals over $7 billion.
In addition to the borrowing, the proposal would include
an increase in the cigarette tax of one dollar phased in over two years. This
is the only real revenue proposal in the budget. There are some though
that doubt the state will make much with this increase because of the number
of border states surrounding Illinois and the fact that many people will go across
the border to purchase cigarettes. Studies show that that isn’t always
the case. But, this is a pretty hefty increase.
When the bills containing the borrowing provisions were
called for a vote in the House, even some members of the Democratic party rejected
more borrowing. It became clear that the budget plan was in trouble. Without
major borrowing, it would be necessary to make deep cuts, raise revenue some
other way or propose either a partial or complete raid of the pension system
and simply skip the pension payment again. There was never a plan prepared
that included responsible approaches to solving the problems we face. The
multitude of proposals that have been made by House Republicans the during the
past few years and again this year have been ignored.
The fact that the Speaker could not put enough votes
on a pure pension raid speaks volumes about the fact that rank and file members
of the party are beginning to question the budget strategy that has been used
the past seven years. My sincere hope is that as we move toward the end
of the month we move toward a budget that will show a responsible approach. Before
we can even begin to fill this hole, the first thing we must do is stop digging. The
fact that over $300 million in raises were provided to government bureaucrats
three days before the Primary election is evidence that the lesson has not been
learned.
I am ready to return to Springfield and continue to
work on a responsible approach to solving our State’s fiscal crisis. That
solution might include strategic borrowing and possibly some revenue enhancements. However,
until we stop digging, make serious cuts in wasteful spending, pledge no new
programs, freeze spending and make necessary reforms to Medicaid we will not
solve the serious problems we face fiscally in this state. I will not support
a budget that is based on debt or pension raids, period.
On a different note, after a very tense debate last
week, the private school voucher program proposal only received forty nine of
the sixty votes necessary for passage. I want to thank all of the people
who sent e-mails, made phone calls, and sent letters about this issue. This
is a tough emotional issue for many. The idea of attempting to provide
a better educational opportunity for some of the students who attend poor performing
schools in Chicago by providing a voucher to attend a private school is very
appealing to many and I respect that opinion. Most of the folks who contacted
me felt that it was more important to implement reforms for all public schools
so that all students might have a better education. I am not sure the voucher
proposal is dead and I am not sure it should be. But I do think that a
better proposal must be made than the one we debated and that if we are going
to provide some students an opportunity for a better education it should come
with important reforms for all Chicago Public Schools.
Finally, last week was another quiet week as far as
gun legislation. None of the bills that would further restrict gun owners
rights were called for a vote. I will keep an eye on these proposals though
and oppose any attempt to weaken the Second Amendment.
I will keep you informed of progress or pack of progress
on the budget issue. You can reach me at: P.O. Box 125, Hutsonville, IL 62433,
call me at 618-563-4128 or 217-558-1040 or e-mail me at reddyunit1@aol.com. You
can also read more on my web site: www.peopleforeddy.com or and follow
me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/RepEddy and www.tweetillinois.org.
Send a message to me