Governor Acts on FY’08 Budget
The Illinois General Assembly passed its omnibus appropriation for FY’08 six weeks into the new fiscal year. The General Assembly considered significant tax increases to address a number of critical issues – such as shoring up the pension system, additional public school funding, rate adjustments for community based services, and expansion of health insurance – but legislators could not come to an agreement on how to spend the new revenue. As a result, no significant revenue enhancement happened.
House Speaker Michael Madigan favored using the additional money to address the emerging crisis of the state pensions systems and their potential insolvency in the next ten to fifteen years. Senate President Emil Jones wanted to increase public education funding by one billion dollars. Governor Blagojevich intended the new funds to be used for health care coverage for the uninsured.
After the budget passed, Governor Blagojevich announced he would veto the $59 billion budget by half a billion dollars; most of that money would be used to cover the cost of health care expansion. State provided health care is now available to more working poor families and children of families with slightly higher household income. The state statutes call for Medicaid bills to be paid as funds become available, so the Medicaid line items do not have to be increased to cover the additional cost of additional eligible patients. The funding capacity would become available by the imposed under spending due to vetoes throughout the state government budget. The Joint Committee on Administrative Rules is expected to approve any changes in state rules or regulations to expand health care eligibility. The budget allowed for a $350 million increase in education funding for the current fiscal year, a reasonable sum in a budget with no major tax increases. Senate President Jones stated that he would not act to override any vetoes, so the vetoes are expected to stand.
On August 23, Governor Blagojevich announced his line item vetoes and veto reductions. Virtually all the Member Projects – funds distributed by House Democrats and Senate Republicans – were vetoed out. Similar spending by House Republicans and Senate Democrats were left intact. The few human services rate increases were either vetoed out or reduced from 2.5% to 1.6% for the year. Additionally, the governor also removed $10 million of new funding intended for parochial schools to meet unfunded mandate expenses.
The Jewish Federation and its Affiliate Agencies lost four Member Projects sponsored by House Democrats totally $181,850. Project funding of $50,000 from at least one Senate Republican was also taken from the budget. House Republican projects totaling $67,000 remain in place. Senate Democratic caucus projects are still unconfirmed, and may pick up some of the projects lost in the House.
The Illinois General Assembly will return to session in early September. At that time, there may be additional budgetary action including authorization for bond sales to fund capital improvements through state government facilities and other needs. For more information on the state budget, please contact Len Lieberman at 217-753-1010.
