Week of May 1th, 2009
There are only two weeks left in the scheduled 2009 Spring Session of the Illinois General Assembly. After May 31st, if the FY10 Budget is not completed and passed, it will take a super-majority to pass a budget. In the Senate, the Democratic Party has achieved a super-majority and can pass a budget even in overtime without a single vote from the Republican Party. In the House of Representatives, the Democrats have seventy votes and a super-majority takes seventy-one votes. So, after May 31st, it would take one Republican vote in order to pass a budget if all seventy Democrats voted for a spending plan.
The real problem is obvious. This is going to be a difficult budget vote for all members of the General Assembly because either severe cuts have to be made or revenue has to be increased significantly if no cuts are made. Over the past several weeks, I have heard from hundreds of special interest groups who have been quite vocal about the fact that they do not want to see any cuts to THEIR program. Of course, some of the very same individuals will e-mail or call me telling me they do not want to see any tax or fee increases either. I must say though, I am hearing from a pretty large number of folks who think that some type of tax increase might be necessary.
One group that is being particularly vocal about a proposed cut are the people who provide home health care for senior citizens. Last week, the union that represents them (SEIU Healthcare) spent quite a lot of money to send mailers to homes in most legislative districts urging people to call their elected Representatives and Senators and tell them not to cut funding for Illinois senior citizens with disabilities. The governor has proposed a cut in the line item for those services as part of his budget. These are cuts that I do not support. Often, when senior citizens are able to get home care, the net effect is good for the individual because they get to stay in their home and good fro the budget because it is far less expensive to care for the person in their home that a nursing home or skilled care center.
The fact is, many of the cuts proposed by the governor and being considered by legislators are going to be very difficult. However, there is simply not enough money in the state treasury to pay for everything. I am hearing from 4-H Youth development educators asking for their funding to be saved, Soil and Water Conservation Districts need their funding, correctional officers want to save jobs, those who help with the disabled or provide drug, alcohol or abuse counseling are being cut, and school will receive less money.
In the next week or so, we will see what the approach will be. So far, Speaker Madigan has floated the idea of a bare bones doomsday budget scenario in order to get everyone to understand that either deep, deep cuts must be made or there must be enough political will to raise revenue.
I think that a combination must still be considered. While there are areas that cannot be cut, there are budget cuts that can be made and should be made before we ask the people of Illinois for more money. We need to look at what spending is essential and fund programs fully that are essential. If some spending is not essential, we need to reduce or eliminate that spending this year. I understand that there will be various definitions of “essential”. However, I believe that if we work together, we can come up with a plan.
The second major agenda item that must be addressed regarding he budget is whether or not full pension payments will be made. I happen to believe that we must make the scheduled payments to our state pension systems. The governor’s proposal to skip or reduce the payment is not acceptable. We have the worst funded public pension system in the nation because payments have been reduced or skipped in the past. For every dollar in pension payments we skip, it costs us around eleven dollars. The past six years, as we have mobbed toward this fiscal meltdown, on two occasions pension payments have been raided. This cannot happen again. Our children do not deserve the debt we are piling on them. It is time that elected officials acted responsibly and faced the issue head on.
Facing the issue head on could mean that we need to look at the benefits paid to annuitants in the public pension systems to make sure that we can afford to fund those benefits. That could result in discussions regarding a two-tiered system in which the new group would have different (reduced) benefits. We need to take a serious look at that. For example, members of the General Assembly who work for twenty years retire with an annual pension that is equal to eighty percent of their last days pay. Other public pension systems also have some decent benefits. Can we afford these benefits into the future? We need to take a serious look at that. But, reducing benefits in the future does not mean that we should skip or reduce payments to the current liability.
Finally, we have still not seen the major ethics reform package promised by the Speaker after the Impeachment and removal from office of former Governor Blagojevich. There must be major reforms made to campaign finance, the procurement process and the power of the leaders in Springfield. The Illinois reform Commission delivered an eighty-eight page report that outlines dozens of recommended changes. You can view the report at my website (www.peopleforeddy.com). It is imperative that we see some changes. Transparency is very important. I just hope that the people of Illinois are afforded the opportunity to see the reform legislation in time to read it before it is voted on! The Speaker refused to allow a day for a special Committee of the Whole in order for the report to be discussed by the entire House of Representatives recently.
Please keep in touch as the scheduled adjournment dates nears. You can e-mail me at reddyunit1@aol.com or call me at 217-558-1040 or 618-563-4128. Of course you can write to me as well- P.O. Box 125, Hutsonville, IL 62433. Last week, I also started twittering comments live at www.tweetillinois.org from the House floor and during meetings.