Lost in the Shuffle: Financial Aid for 137,000 College Students

Lost in the shuffle of the current budget debate, the SJ-R gives some much needed attention to deep cuts in funding for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission currently sitting on Governor Quinn's desk.

But the real hattip goes to The Pantagraph. The Bloomington paper has provided some of the best coverage of the impact of proposed budget cuts, and not just to community-based providers.

They posted this handy chart which details the impact of financial aid cuts by legislative district.

Some tasty tidbits:

- 1700+ students in Senator Christine Radogno's (N-Taxes) district will see the largest cuts in financial aid in the Senate, averaging $2124 per family.

- 6 Senate Republicans will lose a net of more than $4 million each in financial aid to their district.

- State Rep. Karen May (N-Taxes) will see the largest average loss of financial aid in the House, at $2,345 per family, followed by Jim Durkin ($2,159) and Ed Sullivan ($2,154), two more opponents of a tax increase.

136,954 families will lose an average of $1,661 in financial aid. A family of four making less than $126,700 a year would have been better off with Pat Quinn's tax increase.

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Ill. delegation wants lawmakers to stop fighting

Hat-tip Newsalert. Surely they're not the only ones who wants the bickering to stop. From the St. Louis Post Dispatch...

Illinois' entire congressional delegation joined the pleas Monday urging the governor and state lawmakers to end months of acrimony and pass a capital spending bill.

Legislators return to work today in a Capitol building that remains hotly divided. A sign of the times, state House Minority Leader Tom Cross, R-Oswego, said in a Chicago radio interview Friday that the atmosphere in Springfield was "frosty" and predicted that the state government could be in for a repeat of last year's overtime summer budget session.

The legislative leaders and the governor's office seem to agree on only one point: The last capital construction bill was passed in 1999 and state roads, bridges, schools and more could sorely use a new one.

Hence, a letter signed by U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Barack Obama, both Democrats, along with the state's 19 representatives in Congress, Republican and Democrat alike.

"With each passing month, it becomes more apparent that our constituents want — and deserve — a new capital bill that addresses our state's extensive infrastructure needs," the letter reads. "Whether driving over multiple potholes or waiting for a late train or bus, Illinois residents are voicing their dissatisfaction with the status quo."

It's not the first time prominent officials have pleaded with Illinois lawmakers to put aside their differences. Both Durbin and Obama have made the suggestion previously.

But the question is and apparently has always been how to pay for it. Various proposals include more casinos or gaming positions, which has some support from some sides; leasing all or part of the lottery, which has enthusiastic support from Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Chicago Democrat; and some form of an income tax increase, which has fierce opposition from the governor.

The bickering last year forced the legislative session, which traditionally ends May 31, into August. At one point, Blagojevich and state House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, were practically not speaking. Even the friendly relations between the governor and state Senate President Emil Jones Jr., D-Chicago, were tested. Republicans Cross and Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson, R-Greenville, had to play peacemaker for a while.

The congressional delegation has an added concern: hundreds of millions of federal dollars for infrastructure remain in limbo, unmatched by the state. And more than a few officials fear that those dollars could dry up if intra-Springfield fighting continues.

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Stormy start to session

A week before Gov. Rod Blagojevich's annual budget address, the state's economy already casts a cloud over the Statehouse.

Amid national news that a full-blown recession is looming, President George W. Bush signed an economic stimulus package. It's supposed to send checks in late spring and summer to singles who made less than $75,000 and couples who earned less than $150,000 in 2007. (People qualify by filing their federal income taxes.)

If the national economy tanks, Illinois won't be far behind. That's the message of a report requested by the state General Assembly's Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability. The agency's January briefing says, “Illinois will most certainly succumb if the economy sinks into a recession - if it has not done so already.”

Moody's Economy.com also said in a report for the commission that the odds of a recession increased from 40 percent to 60 percent last month.

Those reports couple with the Illinois comptroller's recent warning that state government is unprepared for a recession. His office released a report to the General Assembly. In his Statehouse office Wednesday, Comptroller Dan Hynes said, “The bottom line is that the state of Illinois, unlike many other states, has not taken advantage of our five years of economic growth. And now as we face a recession, our financial problems are daunting.”

He said the state accumulated “tremendous revenue growth” of $5.5 billion during the past five years. But lawmakers spent it on new programs rather than putting it toward compounding, long-term obligations. While the state devoted more money to pensions, Medicaid, health care, higher education and general education in that time, Hynes said it hasn't necessarily made a difference or addressed a structural deficit that the Blagojevich Administration often misrepresents.

“Each year, the governor has made his budget presentation and has declared that the deficit has been eliminated -- each and every year. And each and every year, that has been proven untrue when the final numbers come out. And that's a problem in and of itself, but it's especially problematic when the economy slows down," Hynes said. (For more information about whether the budget is balanced, see Charlie Wheeler's Illinois Issues column about the governor's 2006 budget address.)

Stormy Smoke Free Illinois debate
Rep. Bill Black, a Danville Republican and vocal GOP leader, blew his top in a House committee, later calling the chairwoman an “idiot” for not acting on her own and instead relying on behind-the-scenes staffers to tell her what to do.

Black threw a tantrum because the committee chair didn't call for his amendment to be attached to the Smoke Free Illinois Act, which went into effect January 1 but doesn't have all rules in place. Committee chairwoman Rep. Karen May of Highland Park said leadership told her that other amendments weren't ready and that they're expected to be called for debate next week.

This could happen a lot this session. New measures will have extra amendments that spell out the rules for implementing them. That's a direct shot at the governor, who publicly stated that the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules - which reviews such rules - doesn't matter. Blagojevich's office previously suggested the bipartisan legislative panel plays only an advisory role after the panel denied his rules for expanding health care to more low- and middle-income adults.

Black's measure, by the way, would change wording in the definition of private clubs. It would allow veterans' halls to vote on whether they want to allow smoking in their halls.

That's just one proposed exemption. A more sweeping measure sponsored by Rep. Harry Ramey, a Carol Stream Republican, would allow smoking in bars, bowling alleys, veterans' halls, strip clubs and casinos. In other words, restaurants would be one of the only mandated smoke-free facilities. Some Illinois veterans testified at the House committee. One urged lawmakers to retain the ban on smoking in all public places for the sake of public health. Another urged them to let veterans, many of whom started smoking while serving in World War II and Vietnam, smoke in their own halls.

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Pay now or later?

State Comptroller Dan Hynes wrote a letter to the editor that published in Springfield’s State Journal-Register that continues his effort to force conversation about the state’s delayed Medicaid bills. The topic is old, yet there could be an increased interest, some say urgency, to fix the problem in light of Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s recent statements that he’ll continue to push to expand a state health care program to 147,000 people without legislative approval.

Another 147,000 people in a Medicaid program means more bills to pay and, without adequate cash coming in to pay those bills, more debt. The comptroller’s point for rekindling the debate relates to “Section 25” of the State Finance Act (scroll down to the bottom to “fiscal year limitations”). State agencies are allowed to — and often do — defer medical bills until they can pay them with next year’s revenues. And they don’t have to notify the General Assembly to do so. The comptroller’s letter to the editor says, “In essence, then, the General Assembly has given the governor a blank check for health care spending.”

Hynes adds that the “loophole” also misrepresents the state’s current fiscal condition. His office says currently, Medicaid bills aren’t as backlogged as they have been, but the backlog exceeded $2 billion two years ago according to a March report. (You can see a here chart dating back to 1990.) Health care providers are currently waiting an average of two months for payment from the Department of Healthcare and Family Services. The agency can make expedited payments to doctors and hospitals that care for a lot of Medicaid patients, but everyone else has to wait as a result, says Carol Knowles, the comptroller’s spokeswoman. Because of Section 25, there’s no limit to how long agencies can hold their medical bills (other types of bills have to be paid by August 31 each year).

The comptroller wants to eliminate that. “For years I have urged the elimination of the Section 25 loophole, arguing that its existence allows state leaders to deny the true costs of state-provided health care and to sidestep requirements that the state maintain a balanced budget,” Hynes says in his letter.

He drafted legislation last spring that would have tightened the Section 25 rule and required the state to pay medical bills within four months of the new fiscal year. The October 31 deadline would give a little leeway in case of a cash flow problem or a complicated billing process at the end of the previous fiscal year.

Democratic Rep. Will Davis of Homewood sponsored the measure and says the objective was to try to avoid constantly carrying a deficit. Despite gaining bipartisan support, it went nowhere. Davis says the measure was still a legitimate effort and important issue for his community, where some providers care for mostly Medicaid patients. “Some people have tried to make it be a political issue between [the comptroller] and the governor. I really don’t think it’s political. It has a definite impact on my community and how people are being served in my community.”

Sen. Christine Radogno, a Lemont Republican and Deputy Minority Leader, says there’s consensus that Section 25 gives too much flexibility to the administration and that it should be tightened. Senate Republicans also sponsored a package of measures dealing with fiscal responsibility even before the governor’s recent actions to advance his health care plan without legislative approval. Radogno says she’ll try again but realizes it could share the same fate as a lot of good government and ethics measures. “None of that kind of stuff is moving.”

It also would be super hard to eliminate Section 25 for two reasons: One, the first year could actually cost a lot of money and time for state agencies that have to process their medical bills by a certain date if they don’t have enough cash. The Department of Healthcare and Family Services, for instance, said in a fiscal note to the General Assembly that an unintended consequence could be that cash-flow problems in the agency could require medical providers to file a claim with the state’s Court of Claims. And two, lawmakers would have to have the political will to end the practice of deferring bills. As it stands, if they push off $2 billion of bills into the future, that frees up $2 billion they can spend now on initiatives in their districts.

“It helps them avoid the tough decisions,” Knowles says. “The first year of undertaking a change like this would be very painful and difficult for the state, but the consequences of not doing are much greater.”

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"There's always next year"

The state is starting to look a lot like the Chicago Cubs in dropping the ball and saying it’ll get the job done next year. The Illinois General Assembly finished its annual fall session Friday without addressing two of the big-ticket items that have divided the legislative leaders and the governor all session: capital construction projects and mass transit subsidies. House Speaker Michael Madigan said he’d give his members seven days’ notice before calling them back to Springfield to act on some leftover business from the regular spring session, which, by the way, still hasn’t ended. It was supposed to end in May. Here’s what they did do during the six days of so-called veto session:

Budget overrides The Senate restored $7.9 million of the $470 million cut out of the state budget by Gov. Rod Blagojevich in August. Senate President Emil Jones Jr. said Thursday that the move was to restore dollars that were “inadvertently cut out of the budget.” The move restored the original funding levels for the offices of the attorney general, the auditor general and such other legislative bodies as the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules and the legislative research and information bureaus, as well as the Illinois courts. Budget negotiator and Chicago Democratic Sen. Donne Trotter said the Senate can come back and approve more overrides or a supplemental budget bill when the state’s revenue forecasts improve. (See the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability’s monthly report that says sales tax revenue has declined and the latest comparative study that says Illinois has lagged behind most other states in economic growth.)

Property taxes The Senate president was the lone “no” vote when the his chamber overwhelmingly agreed with the House to override the governor’s changes to the so-called 7 percent solution. The program, which started in 2004, caps the taxable amount of residential properties’ assessed values, which started skyrocketing in 2000. As approved by both chambers, this session’s legislation extended the assessment caps another three years and raised the homeowner's exemption, on a sliding scale, to as much as $33,000 from an earlier high of $20,000. The governor used an amendatory veto to change the legislation by extending the homeowners’ exemption limit up to $40,000 and by making the 7 percent rule permanent. Because both chambers overrode the governor’s action, the original legislation immediately became law. Taxpayers can expect to receive their tax bills by November 1. The county can expect to receive payments by December 1. However, such lawmakers as Sen. Terry Link, the Waukegan Democrat who sponsored the legislation, favor making the program permanent. But he and others agreed to override the governor’s changes because a) if they didn’t agree with the House, then the measure would have died, and b) some questioned the constitutionality of the governor’s use of an amendatory veto to make such sweeping changes. Link says he’ll pursue legislation that would make the 7 percent solution permanent.

Moment of silence Rep. Bill Black, a Danville Republican, passionately spoke against the House and Senate approving a mandatory moment of silence to start each school day. “At least in that moment of silence, they can pray that the General Assembly finally sends them the money that they need,” Black said, referring to schools waiting for their belated state aid payments caught up in a political battle between Madigan and Jones, who is aligned with the governor. The moment of silence may be required, but there aren't any penalties for disobeying the rule. It’s immediately effective.

What’s next? There is no schedule for lawmakers to come back to the Capitol, but the House does have a public hearing scheduled for October 17 in Chicago to discuss the gaming-for-capital bill approved by the Senate. It would create three new casinos to pay for road and school construction projects and some mass transit subsidies, but it has been labeled as too aggressive by some House Republicans and by the speaker. It may well be next year before the legislative leaders set aside their differences and agree on capital and mass transit plans.

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Relationships 101

Rep. Tom Cross, the Republican leader in his chamber, had the quote of the day from the House floor before lawmakers finished their first week of the annual fall session.

“Perhaps, at least at the higher level, we’ve had an inability to communicate to get the budget done, to take care of capital, to take care of RTA, to take care of gaming. And I have a suggestion,” he said.

He cited psychologist and author Kate Wachs, who’s been interviewed by such media entities as the Chicago Tribune and Oprah Winfrey.

“She’s a nationally acclaimed relationship expert, and she’s written a book, Relationships for Dummies,” Cross said. “And she has a very good chapter on good communication, the bolts. One of the things she talks about is finding compromises that work for you and your partners. And I thought maybe she could come to a leaders’ meeting.”

Lawmakers return to the Capitol Wednesday, October 10 for three more scheduled days of the fall session. What do we have to look forward to? Lots or little, depending on whether the legislative leaders decide to hold off on major actions until the House holds committees on gaming and mass transit later in October. Until then, we wonder:
- Will Senate President Emil Jones decide to do the same as the House and let his members vote to override some of Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s $460 million in budget cuts?
- Will Jones decide to act on the House version of a property tax assessment cap that phases out in three years or continue to side with the governor and advance language to make the cap permanent?
- Will House Speaker Michael Madigan allow budget implementation bills to be processed so schools can get their delayed state aid payments by November?
- And will the governor make a public appearance in the Capitol before the scheduled last day of the fall session, October 12?

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A few surprises

The first day of the Illinois General Assembly’s annual fall session played out as expected Tuesday. The only surprise came with the news that Senate Majority Leader Debbie Halvorson, a Crete Democrat, announced she’s running for Congress to replace Rep. Jerry Weller, a Morris Republican. He announced his retirement in September shortly after the Chicago Tribune and other news reports said he failed to fully disclose land holdings in Nicaragua, potentially violating federal ethics rules. Weller said that didn’t play into his decision. It was simply to spend more time with his family.

Halvorson’s announcement is key because she was previously mentioned as a potential contender for the Senate president’s position whenever the current president, Emil Jones Jr., retires. Jones seems to be supportive of Halvorson’s Congressional bid. “It’d be a tremendous loss, but she’d be a great congresswoman,” he said Tuesday.

During a break from the veto session, Halvorson said she opted not to pursue the Senate leadership position because, “It’s not about me. And it’s not about titles. And I found over the weekend it’s about people and about where you can make the biggest impact. And that’s why I’ve chosen to move on to where I believe the issues are much bigger and my help is needed.”

She attended a women’s leadership conference in Washington D.C. over the weekend and said that helped her realize that she could make the biggest difference in such issues as health care and troop levels in Iraq. While in D.C., she also met with current speaker of the U.S. House, Nancy Pelosi, and members of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Halvorson said the committee assured her that the 11th District race was an important one and that they would be working with her to snag the seat from Republicans. The district covers 11 counties of the southern suburbs of Chicago and parts of north central Illinois and has leaned Republican, but it could be vulnerable to political change as the demographics shift.

“It’s a very large district, but anybody who knows me knows what a fighter I am and what a campaigner,” Halvorson said. “I love a good fight, a good challenge, and I can’t wait to get out there.”

(Former intern Deanese Williams-Harris featured Halvorson in a March article about the senator’s push for young women to receive a vaccine for HPV, a common sexually transmitted disease that can lead to ovarian cancer.)

One potential contender for Weller’s seat mentioned was state Sen. Christine Radogno, a GOP budget negotiator who failed to win the state treasurer’s race last year. But the Lemont Republican said Tuesday that she decided not to run. “One, I like what I’m doing here. Two, I don’t live in that district, and while that’s not a legal requirement, I think that voters deserve to be represented by someone who does live in the district. It’s a different type of district than I have right now. It’s a rural district, 11 counties, as opposed to a more suburban district than I have right now.”

Here’s the not-so-surprising news:
• An overwhelming majority of House members voted to override most of the governor’s budget cuts. But the overrides are unlikely to have a favorable future in the Senate.
• Latino legislators representing the southwest side of Chicago still want the Senate to override the budget cuts, too, to help relieve severely overcrowded schools. Sen. Martin Sandoval, a Chicago Democrat and Latino Caucus member, says there would be enough votes in his chamber if the Senate president would allow a vote to override the governor’s budget cuts.
• However, Jones said this afternoon his stance has not changed and that he does not intend to call the overrides for a vote in his chamber.
• Mass transit advocates still want a long-term funding source to aid the Chicago area’s public transportation systems, but that’s still intertwined in the ongoing debate about whether to add new casinos. A House Gaming Committee hearing isn't scheduled until October 17 in Chicago.
• And the Senate advanced another version of a measure to limit increases to Cook County property tax assessments to 7 percent, the so-called 7 percent rule. This one is supposed to be identical to the governor’s announcement that he wanted to increase the homestead exemption from $20,000 to $40,000 and make the so-called 7 percent rule permanent. That version is unlikely to win over House Speaker Michael Madigan, who has supported phasing out the 7 percent cap over three years.
• Also, the Senate voted to override a governor’s veto and support the original measure that would establish a uniform speed limit of 65 miles per hour for all vehicles traveling on four-lane highways separated by a median. Essentially, it would allow trucks to drive the same speed as cars. The House would also have to override the veto in order for the uniform speed limit to become law.

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Can he do that?

The House gathered more anecdotal evidence Monday to argue that Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s $470 million in budget cuts hurt the very people he says he wants to help through health care, education and social services. The six-hour hearing didn’t result in a vote. It simply laid the groundwork for the chamber’s expected override the budget cuts Tuesday, but the Senate is not expected to follow suit.

Monday’s House’s committee of the entire chamber is just one more example of a tit-for-tat battle with the governor’s office to see who can make the other entity seem more heartless during this record budget stalemate.

Bigger picture: The core question remains. The governor says he cut nearly $500 million of so-called pork and unnecessary spending to pay for the expansion of health care programs, and the administration’s press releases suggest a simple shift in state dollars. During the hearing, the governor’s office e-mailed a statement by Deputy Gov. Sheila Nix. “Some projects in the budget are worthwhile, and we are interested in seeing some funded — but not at the expense of health care for families and mammograms for women.”

But funding of the programs is not that clear cut. The state’s general revenue fund is a different pot of money than Medicaid dollars for subsidized health care programs. It’s unclear whether the governor would or could transfer money from one pot to the other.

Abby Ottenhoff, the governor’s spokeswoman, responded in an e-mail with this: “The governor has increased the pool of available revenue to cover any additional cost by cutting other less critical spending from the budget." She didn’t respond to a follow-up question requesting clarification about how the governor was increasing the “pool of available revenue” if he’s simply spending down Medicaid dollars.

The House committee, by the way, had just 79 of 118 members present. And much of the testimony repeated what had been said during the past month of public hearings across the state. The larger issue during the next two weeks of the annual fall session will remain a capital budget to fund road and school construction projects and, potentially, mass transit subsidies. Then again, all of those issues could intertwine if a promise to restore the governor’s budget cuts is held out as an incentive for House members to side with the capital program crafted by the governor’s office and Senate President Emil Jones Jr. That plan as approved by the Senate is so far unacceptable to the House.

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All in one: gaming, capital and mass transit

The Senate could consider a new gaming bill that would pay for a capital plan and, potentially, Chicago mass transit all in one. (The governor temporarily saved mass transit last week.) Some Senate Republicans favor the all-in-one strategy, but its fate is uncertain in the House. But House Speaker Michael Madigan wasn’t invited to the Springfield meeting between Senate leadership and Gov. Rod Blagojevich this afternoon. After the meeting, Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson said, “How do you leave out the speaker of the House in this discussion? But that’s what’s happened.”

One gaming proposal outlined by Sen. James DeLeo, a Chicago Democrat and assistant majority leader, would create a new casino in Chicago and two others somewhere in the state. The revenue, an undetermined amount, would help pay for road and school construction projects as well as mass transit. It also would serve as an alternative to the House’s version of a mass transit bill that would increase the sales tax in the Chicago region and allow a real estate transfer tax in the city of Chicago.

But opinions differ about the all-in-one approach. DeLeo says Senate Democrats think the chamber should focus on gaming and capital first. “If we have a capital and gaming bill, we can certainly give the [Regional Transportation Authority] a lot more funding than anticipated. So it’s a better way to go. And we wouldn’t have to do a sales tax.” It also would satisfy the governor’s repeated no-tax pledge for state income or sales taxes.

Sen. Christine Radogno, a Lemont Republican, said she actually agreed with the governor and credited him for opposing the sales tax increase, which she says is regressive and would unfairly apply to food and drugs. Instead, she favors the consideration of more transportation-related fees, such as those for drivers’ licenses and vehicle stickers.

The governor, on the other hand, still favors closing “corporate loopholes,” or ending various tax breaks for businesses. Eric Zorn now with the Chicago Tribune has more here.

The Senate Democrats and Republicans are meeting behind closed doors in their respective caucuses tonight. The chamber is scheduled to convene around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday and break for committees around 11 a.m. or noon. Meanwhile, House Democrats continue to hold a series of budget hearings around the state to build support for overrides of Blagojevich’s budget cuts. One interesting thing I missed before: According to the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, the governor’s budget cuts total $470 million, not the $463 million announced by the governor’s office.

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You scratch my back ...

“You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” might not work in Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s budget game. If his budget vetoes announced Thursday are a political ploy to try to buy support from friends and to punish enemies, then he might lose in the long run.

“He seems to operate on the kind of strategy that it’s all about bringing pressure on the legislature from the outside,” said Kent Redfield, a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield. And by the next election cycle, he said the governor’s key Democratic base, especially the African American population around the Chicago area, might grow wary if projects in their neighborhoods don’t get funded as promised. “I think that over time, he’s wearing out his act. I think that with people reacting to individual projects and the questions being raised about whether he’s actually producing in terms of health care, over time that really hurts his popular support.”

Blagojevich is determined to get his health care plan, which his office says would open the doors for all uninsured women to receive breast and cervical cancer screenings and expand other state-sponsored health insurance to low- and middle-income adults. As noted in Thursday’s press release, the governor’s plan has to go in front of the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules to change state regulations so he can implement and expand the programs even after the legislature denied him his original health plan. It still has a long way to go.

Another question being raised by state government insiders is why he cut a little more than $4 million in total from the budget of Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office. An AG spokeswoman, Cara Smith, said some of the cuts are significant. Most disappointing to the office is the reduction in money for her inspector general, who is an independent lawyer responsible for investigating complaints of ethical violations. Each constitutional officer has one. Lisa Madigan’s was docked $50,000. But Smith said Lisa Madigan doesn’t have anything to do with her inspector general’s budget. “That budget is [not] controlled by the attorney general. It’s completely controlled by the inspector general. And it’s very disappointing that it would be touched at all. That work is the furthest thing from ‘pork.’”

Spokesman Justin DeJong of the governor’s budget office said all constitutional offices were funded at last year’s levels, but he has to get back to me about the inspector general line item in the attorney general's office.

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I'm back in time for budget cuts

I'm nice and refreshed from our honeymoon in Germany and expect to blog as regularly as possible again. Thanks for understanding while I took a break from state budget reporting. Now, back to work.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Thursday signed a state budget, allowing $340 million in school aid payments to immediately be issued. At the same time, the governor cut $463 million out of the state budget that was approved by both chambers earlier this month. The amount wasn’t surprising — he chopped about 1.7 percent of the $59 billion plan sent to him — but some of the cuts seem to contradict the governor’s numerous press releases about his priorities: health care and services for low- and middle-income families. For instance, he eliminated or reduced some cost-of-living raises for social service providers, cut money for community-based mental health services and decreased the amount allotted to expand broadband Internet services to rural areas. All cuts will become law if Senate President Emil Jones Jr., who’s been a Blagojevich ally most of the session, follows through on his promise not to let his chamber override the governor’s vetoes.

Along with the cuts is the governor’s never-ending push for health care. “While I’m pleased that we’re making a record investment in education, families across the state are still being priced out of health coverage and don’t have a way to see a doctor when they need to,” he wrote in a press release. “That’s why I’m removing almost $500 million in special pet projects and other spending that we simply can’t afford. And at the same time, we’re preparing new rules and administrative changes that will give half-a-million Illinoisans access to health care.” The details are still unknown, but his plan so far is designed to expand eligibility of existing state-sponsored health programs such as All Kids and Family Care.

The first-year cost of the health initiative is the exact amount Blagojevich cut from the budget: $463 million. That gives the impression he’s not spending money that he doesn’t have authority to spend, but it’s not that easy. The money doesn’t simply transfer from the line item cuts to his expanded health care programs. More on that another day.

As for the budget cuts, many are for state agency payroll and contracting services. “These are places where we thought we could achieve efficiencies while not impacting services,” wrote Justin DeJong, spokesman for the governor’s budget office, in an e-mail. Another common reduction in agency budgets was the state contributions to the employees’ retirement systems.

While he cut $75,000 here, $100,000 there, he made a lot of other reductions or total vetoes that might make some waves:
• Chunks of $3 million, $5 million or $7 million at a time for such education-related programs as reimbursements for transportation services, school safety block grants and supplemental payments to fast-growing school districts
• $6.62 million eliminated for cost-of-living adjustments for community-based substance abuse providers; and a $10 million reduction (from $29.3 million to $18.3 million) in cost-of-living adjustments for developmentally disabled providers that the governor’s office says was over-estimated in last year’s budget
• $6.25 million eliminated for a satellite campus of Lincoln’s Challenge, a military academy focusing on early intervention of high-school dropouts
• A $2.5 million reduction (from $3 million to $500,000) for the Illinois Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, which will join other states in planning a celebration of Lincoln’s 200th birthday in 2009
• About $26 million reduced from the Department of Human Services’ programs for home health care, autism diagnosis and other mental health services
• Nearly $5 million cut from the Illinois Arts Council, chaired by House Speaker Michael Madigan’s wife, Shirley Madigan
• $6.25 million eliminated for the statewide program Operation CeaseFire, a violence prevention program in 15 communities around Chicago, Rockford, Decatur and St. Louis.

Rep. Bob Flider, a Mount Zion Democrat, said he was particularly disappointed in the Operation CeaseFire cut because he says it sends a message to the former prison inmates who are now helping others get jobs that their mission isn’t important. Last year, the governor announced $3.9 million for the project. You can read more about it in our upcoming September issue.

DeJong had this to say: "While CeaseFire and other initiatives may serve a purpose for a particular community or organization, we can't afford to spend taxpayer dollars on them right now. With the changes the governor made, the budget better reflects the needs of the state."

Flider also said projects in his district, including money for a food pantry and a homeless shelter, are among the $141 million cut of so-called pork projects, or legislative initiatives slipped into the budget so members can “bring home the bacon” to their constituents. Most of the pork projects cut by Blagojevich are in Democratic districts. Flider said those services are hit in political crossfire. “The governor has declared war on House Democrats, but it’s the people in my district who suffer,” he said. Why would the governor target projects in his district? Flider said that's because he's responding to what the majority of his constituents want: a priority of making timely payments to current Medicaid providers before expanding or creating new health care programs. “The governor wants his health care plan, and he’ll do anything to get it,” Flider said.

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Will this be worth it?

Gov. Rod Blagojevich called a special session for Saturday morning to discuss another one-month budget, which would prevent the state from shutting down in the politically important month of August. But Senate President Emil Jones Jr. told reporters he’s not interested in a one-month. House Speaker Michael Madigan said the same Thursday. If any action happened this weekend, it most likely would be behind closed doors.

It’s ideal if leaders focus on drafting a state budget that would get us through the entire fiscal year, but a cloud still hangs over the Statehouse budget negotiations. Individual budget items are moving; yet, core disagreements continue. The amount of new money, the method of raising that money and the beneficiaries of that money isn’t worked out yet. Can they hash it out before the existing temporary budget expires July 31?

If not, bad things would start to happen. And it would be worse than if the state had shut down in July, says Kent Redfield, political studies professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield. “If we’d have shut down in July, people wouldn’t have been able to get into state parks and stuff. But an August shutdown is much, much more serious because of school formulas, the starting of universities and the state fair.”

Public schools expect their first state aid payments in the first half of August, and the Illinois State Fair kicks off August 10. Without state aid payments, schools would be in a bind. And the nine-day State Fair kicks off campaign season for the next elections. The shutdown of public schools and the absence of a state fair would be noticed by the general public, a politically and economically damaging scenario.

But let’s stick with Redfield’s ray of sunshine in another analysis: As frustrating as this session has been since January, it could be a strategy to tame the expectations now rather than let them build each of the governor’s next three years. We can only hope.

Note: Our Public Affairs Reporting intern, Deanese Williams-Harris, finished her internship this week. We wish her the best of luck and thank her for her hard work and dedication.

On another note, I’m taking the weekend off but will be ready for action Monday.

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Revenue, health care and electricity rates

The House and Senate advanced different pieces of legislation — a cigarette tax and a health care plan in the Senate and an electricity rate relief plan in the House — but there’s no clear indication that these individual pieces could actually converge into the much-delayed state budget. House Democrats spent about three hours in what felt like an end-of-session gathering behind closed doors Wednesday afternoon. And each of the pieces is expected to be heard on the floor in their respective chambers Thursday, but their futures in the opposite chambers are murky. The same goes for their future in Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s office. As House Speaker Michael Madigan said of the cigarette tax advance in the Senate, “We’ll see.” Here’s a recap of the different measures:

Cigarette tax
BY DEANESE WILLIAMS-HARRIS
Seven days before a possible government shutdown, lawmakers moved a bill out of committee that would generate additional revenue for the state by taxing smokers.

The measure would increase the tax on cigarettes by 75 cents a pack. If approved by both chambers and signed by the governor, the proposed tax on cigarettes would generate about $328 million a year.

It’s unclear how the money would actually be spent, but its sponsor, Chicago Democratic Sen. John Cullerton, said that so far, the money would go into the state’s general revenue fund and be intended to fund a road and school construction plan. Cullerton also said legislators have their own wish lists for the money, such as education funding, capital and health care. However, he assured the final decision would be made collectively by the General Assembly.

Sen. Chris Lauzen, an Aurora Republican, wasn’t so quick to jump on the cigarette tax band wagon. He said Democrats would control where the money goes. “What’s happened to the rest of us who serve a quarter of a million people back home is truly disgraceful,” he said, mentioning unfunded projects for school and road construction in Republican districts.

“Somebody’s [going to] have to take a chance,” Cullerton said. “I know one thing. We can’t fund it at all if there’s no new revenue. This is new revenue, and it’s the easiest way I can think of to get support of three-fifths.”

Opponents voiced concern about small businesses losing revenue from people crossing the borders to buy cigarettes. Coincidentally, Indiana increased its cigarette tax by $1.01. In Washington, the U.S. Senate also approved a $1 tax on cigarettes.

The Illinois Department of Revenue said it supports the proposed cigarette tax, straying away from the governor’s campaign pledge not to sign any legislation that would increase sales tax. “This is different than the sales tax,” said Larry Doll, spokesman for the department. “It’s an excise item. It’s different than a general sales tax. A sales tax is applied to all items including necessities. People need food, clothing, what have you, whereas I don’t think you can make the same argument for cigarettes.” Doll also said it’s his understanding that the governor would sign the legislation if it wins approval.

The governor’s office hasn’t confirmed that yet. If approved, the legislation would immediately go into effect.

Revamped health care proposal
BY DEANESE WILLIAMS-HARRIS
Despite a weird afternoon of goofs and misunderstandings, the governor’s scaled-back Illinois Covered health care proposal moved out of a Senate committee with a 7-4 vote along party lines.

The governor wants to pay for the $1.2 billion initiative with a 3 percent payroll tax on businesses that employ at least 10 but that don’t provide comprehensive health benefits to them. The biggest question of the day was how many businesses would actually be subject to the tax. The committee will have to wait for that answer because no one had those numbers on hand.

The $1.2 billion would go into a trust fund, and the General Assembly would be limited to spending 90 percent of the cash per year to curtail overspending.

Some Senators voiced concern that almost 500,000 of the 1.4 million uninsured and underinsured Illinoisans wouldn’t qualify for either of the two health care packages the governor proposed. Eligibility would be modified as the program moves forward, depending on the revenue generated. Sen. Carol Ronen, the measure's sponsor and Blagojevich ally, estimates that 300,000 people will qualify for one of the programs, and 600,000 would qualify for a second option.

Todd Maisch of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce said the payroll assessment tax would “target the most vulnerable employers.” He also called the tax erroneous and excessive. “The major change is funding,” he said. “This is not a scaled back proposal.”

The proposal will most likely be called for a vote in the Senate this week.

Electricity rate relief
BY BETHANY CARSON
The $1 billion in electricity rate relief for Ameren Illinois and Commonwealth Edison customers is one step closer to becoming law. It’s not without controversy, however, as House Republicans aren’t happy that they weren’t part of closed-door negotiations for most of the past month. If Wednesday night’s House committee hearing was any indication, House Republicans could protest by voting “no” or “present” when the legislation reaches the House floor. But it would still have enough votes among Democrats to return to the Senate.

House Speaker Michael Madigan seemed to smile as he welcomed the chance of Republican rejection. “If there’s some member of the legislature who wishes to vote ‘no’ against $1 billion of rate relief, be my guest.” In other words, a Republican “no” vote for rate relief would make prime campaign literature for the Democrats during election season — it’s the equivalent of saying their opponent voted against health care for children or meals for the elderly.

One controversial portion of the deal that’s unsettling to some is that the state would dismiss six lawsuits brought against the utilities and power companies as a result of the September power auction. That includes the case filed by Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office that alleged the power companies colluded to set electricity prices that robbed customers of an extra $4.3 million.

Rep. Jim Durkin, a Western Springs Republican, was one of the skeptics. “How’s the public protected by not following through and getting to the bottom of each one of these lawsuits instead of just dismissing them with the signing of this letter of understanding and the passage of this legislation? How in good faith can the state of Illinois settle those two cases when you have made serious allegations of manipulation and fraud upon the public?” He was the lone Republican to vote “present” in committee because he said he supported offering rate relief but didn’t like the process of coming to this deal.

Susan Hedman, senior assistant attorney general, justified the dismissal of the lawsuits by saying her office believed rate relief was needed now and that the procurement of power needed to be reformed for the future. “There’s a tradeoff between getting relief up front and waiting. If we do not get reforms in the procurement process now, it would mean that every year that we’re litigating that case, there could be another reverse auction with the danger of the same problems that we observed last time.” She later cut someone off and said, rather bluntly, that without dismissal of the lawsuits, “the deal falls apart.”

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One of those weeks

Monday’s events could set the tone for an action-packed but odd week at the Capitol. Strange bedfellows flew around the state to announce an electricity rate relief package that took months to unfold, and the governor spent the day in Chicago while busloads of Chicago ministers drove down to Springfield to rally and pray outside of his Statehouse office, as well as the House and the Senate.

First, the strange bedfellows of Senate President Emil Jones Jr., House Speaker Michael Madigan and state Attorney General Lisa Madigan flew around the state Monday announcing a long-awaited deal to relieve electricity rates for Ameren Illinois and Commonwealth Edison customers. Details of the agreement are provided from the House Democrats’ Web site in this press release and this fact sheet. Highlights: In addition to one-time credits, customers’ bills would reflect between 40 percent and 70 percent off of the 2007 rates. The rates going forward would be set by the new Illinois Power Authority, which would scrap the type of auction that set this year’s rates and that was supposed to transition Illinois into a deregulated system. Legislation is expected to move soon.

Second, four busloads of ministers and education advocates tried to storm the Capitol to urge state lawmakers and the governor to increase education funding. When guards calmly told them they couldn’t get onto the floor of each chamber, the group knelt in prayer and then sang spiritual hymns as they walked to the next door. When they approached the governor’s office, they were again greeted by guards and then by the governor’s chief of staff, John Harris. Their momentum deflated when Harris told them the governor wasn’t even in the Capitol, that he was in Chicago signing the statewide smoking ban. The ministers were invited to a meeting with all legislative leaders and the governor in the Capitol Tuesday, but most of them returned to their busses.

Earlier, the ministers held a Statehouse press conference and said lawmakers have a “moral obligation” to increase education funding. They stressed they weren’t in town for anyone’s agenda other than the children’s and that they were in Springfield to urge the governor to stand by his promise to put more money into education. (Blagojevich and Jones proposed $1.5 billion for education.)

“We’ve had the governor to our churches on several occasions, singing, what’s his favorite song, ‘Precious Lord, take my hand,’” Rev. Roosevelt Watkins of Bethlehem Star Church in Chicago said. “I think that if there’s no budget, absolutely, he’ll get a different reception. Not only him, but we’ll have Emil Jones, who we have a lot of lines with. All of them, they all will get a different reception.”

But Rep. Arthur Turner, a Chicago Democrat, said the group is the first of many to stressing the need for more education funding, but they’re just starting to realize the complexity of weighing all the budgetary needs. “If you’ve got funding in the schools and the CTA busses aren’t running on a school day, you’re still no better off than you were before,” he said after speaking with the ministers.

Third, AFSCME Council 31, which represents about 40,000 state employees, sent a letter Friday urging the leaders and the governor to avoid a government shutdown, preferably with a 12-month budget or at least with another one-month budget.

Fourth, the governor signed the statewide smoking ban in Chicago Monday. It bans smoking in restaurants, bars, bowling alleys, hospitals, nursing homes, sports arenas, casinos and other places January 1, 2008.

More action gets under way Tuesday.
Deanese Williams-Harris contributed to this report.

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Tax talk

It’s almost like we’ve come full circle. The spring session started with momentum behind talk of state tax increases to address funding for education, public employee pensions and health care. But the Statehouse chatter fizzled by the time the General Assembly missed its May 31 deadline to approve a state budget. Now, 48 days later, a couple tax ideas have popped back into summer budget negotiations.

It’s like déjà vu. House Speaker Michael Madigan announced on Chicago talk radio and to the Statehouse press Wednesday that the best way for Gov. Rod Blagojevich to get new revenue is to consider that the majority of House Democrats support some kind of an income tax increase. But Blagojevich has repeatedly and passionately promised to reject an increase in the state income or sales tax. The only possible change is by Senate President Emil Jones Jr., who has sided with the governor since he first proposed the now defunct gross receipts tax on businesses to fund health care. Jones said Wednesday, however, he would consider an income tax increase.

“[HB] 750 had the regressive sales tax, which I strongly oppose,” Jones said after a budget meeting in the governor’s Statehouse office. “But I’m open to the income tax, as well.” (The 750 legislation has long called for an increase in income and sales taxes to reduce property taxes and reform the way the state funds education.) When asked whether he could change the governor’s mind on an income tax increase, Jones said, “The governor was opposed to gaming, and I persuaded him to back off his opposition to gaming. And so if the House passes the income tax as the speaker indicated on WVON, he should go ahead and pass the legislation, and we would give it a strong consideration in the Senate.”

Madigan even made a point to tell the press that he had dinner with Jones Tuesday night in Springfield. “The most significant thing for me coming out of the meeting was that Sen. Jones strongly indicated that he was willing to work with me to finalize the budget for the next fiscal year,” Madigan said. He also said gaming was not in the budget that he was preparing.

But Jones said he wouldn’t accept a budget without gaming expansion unless Madigan came up with an alternative revenue source to fund Jones’ desired $1.5 billion increase in education funding. Jones said other revenue ideas still on the table include the closure of some corporate tax breaks and an alternative minimum tax, which would apply to businesses that make a lot of money but that don’t pay a lot of state taxes. The way to come up with a compromise on alternative revenue ideas, Jones said, was up to the speaker. “Now it’s up to [Madigan] to provide the quality leadership to get additional dollars we need for education — quality leadership.”

Senate Republicans oppose the idea of an income tax increase, according to Sen. Minority Leader Frank Watson. But his caucus’ votes wouldn’t be needed if the Senate Democrats utilized their veto-proof majority of 37 to 22. Over in the House, Republicans would be needed to override to a governor’s veto on an income tax increase.

House Minority Leader Tom Cross wasn’t feeling today’s leaders' meeting as he made an early exit. “We’re having the same discussion that we had in January, February, March, April, May, June, and now July,” he said, raising his voice a little more than normal and seeming more perturbed. “We’ve had a budget process, we’ve had a committee process, we have caucuses, and we hear political rhetoric and political speeches everyday, and it doesn’t bring us any closer to conclusion.”

Poll results favor Illinois Covered
BY DEANESE WILLIAMS-HARRIS
Will the results of a poll released today by Lake Research Partners make some lawmakers change their tune about the governor’s Illinois Covered proposal? One survey question in particular foreshadows campaign season. When asked whether they would be more likely to re-elect their legislator if he or she supported the governor's health insurance plan, out of the 600 likely Illinois voters surveyed, 55 percent said they would. That number breaks down to 67 percent Democrats, 40 percent Republicans and 52 percent Independents.

Participants also were asked whether they would support a plan if it were paid for by an increase in gaming taxes, a tax on employers who don’t offer comprehensive health insurance and an insurance premium based on the ability to pay. Seventy-eight percent were in favor of those three funding sources; 15 percent opposed and 8 percent were undecided.

People also identified that they thought the focus for this summer's special sessions should be health care costs and health care reform (88 percent), education investments and reform (80 percent), improving roads and transportation (65 percent), as well as unfunded state pensions (53 percent).

“The people of Illinois are telling us that health care is their top priority and we cannot let them down,” said Gov. Rod Blagojevich in a press release today. “This year in Illinois, we have a unique opportunity to pass the most comprehensive health care plan in the country that would give every family and small business in our state access to affordable health coverage.”

The poll was sponsored by America’s Agenda Health Care Education Fund, the AARP, the AFL-CIO and the Campaign for Better Health Care. All of those organizations supported Blagojevich’s Illinois Covered plan from the beginning.

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Electricity deal could come soon

The Capitol is buzzing about a potential deal on electricity rate relief for Ameren Illinois and Commonwealth Edison customers, who have been paying between an average of 25 percent to 55 percent higher electricity rates since a state law expired January 2.

The general framework of the relief package footed by the power utilities and potentially their parent companies is expected to total about $1 billion — doubling the former proposal — and offer relief for customers over three years, according to Sen. James Clayborne, a Belleville Democrat who’s been following the negotiations. Customers could receive checks for credits as early as two weeks after the agreement were approved by the state legislature and processed through the Illinois Commerce Commission. Another major change could be the creation of an Illinois Power Authority, which I wrote about in our June issue and could procure and generate power for Illinoisans.

We’ve been following the electricity rate debate and private negotiations for months, but Clayborne says, “We’re very, very close,” and, “I think we pretty much have an agreement. Logistically, we have to work out some issues.”

Rep. John Bradley, a Marion Democrat also close to the negotiations, said those details that still have to be ironed out are enough to stop him from screaming from the rooftops that a deal is coming. “The deal isn’t completely done. It’s being finalized. It’s in the final stages, but it’s not completely done.” But he did say he didn’t deny anything Clayborne said or deny that the deal is very close to being turned into legislation for the General Assembly to consider.

Ameren Illinois spokesman Leigh Morris had this to say: “I’m very optimistic that we are going to see a positive resolution to all of this in the very near future.” He added, “We certainly will be making the appropriate announcements to the news media. I think you will hear the thunder of feet running to the Blue Room.” (The Blue Room is in the Statehouse Press Room where people hold press conferences in front of a blue curtain.)

Gov. Rod Blagojevich is expected to approve an electricity rate relief package that comes his way. “For several months, the governor has urged the legislature to pass a bill that provides consumers significant relief from skyrocketing electric rates,” wrote Blagojevich spokeswoman, Rebecca Rausch, in an e-mail. “We understand negotiators are close to an agreement, and we look forward to reviewing the final product.”

Small group meetings or small progress?
The governor has been in town since Monday, but no official leaders’ meetings have convened. The legislature has broken up into small group meetings so far to discuss gaming, a capital plan, education, revenue, agency spending and the Illinois Department of Corrections. They’re closed to the public.

The governor also sent a letter to House Speaker Michael Madigan, House Minority Leader Tom Cross and Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson criticizing them for halting progress on a proposal to expand gaming, which would pay for the debt service on a capital plan and for education. “Negotiations broke down over your refusal to dedicate some portion of new gaming revenue to education,” the governor wrote. He also said, “A budget that invests in infrastructure without providing resources for education and health care is not an option. We must find a way to meet all of our obligations.”

A leaders’ meeting will convene in the governor’s Capitol office Wednesday afternoon. The Senate Education Committee also is holding multiple-hour hearings every day this week, and many witnesses testify about the impact of the state budget problems on education and its relationship to student achievement. The hearings are a well-organized love fest between educators and some of the lawmakers and won’t result in a vote on legislation.

Other legislative movement
Illinois is on an even playing field with Texas in the final stages of competition for a $1 billion coal gasification plant, which would bring national and international attention to the state, according to sponsors of legislation designed to attract the FutureGen project to Tuscola or Mattoon in central Illinois. The Illinois House approved the incentive package 99 to 0 with one voting present this afternoon. If Illinois were chosen by an international alliance, this state would house the world’s first zero-emissions coal-fired power plant that’s touted to be a cleaner source of energy. It also would be a groundbreaking public-private partnership between local, state, national and international entities, with the added perk of creating a lot of new jobs wherever it lands. The bill has to go back to the Senate for final approval.

The House also “approved” a resolution stating the current governor should stay in Springfield during overtime session. It’s written to identify and pressure Gov. Rod Blagojevich, not future governors. Despite loud “boos” primarily from Democrats, who said the resolution was unfair and presented only for political gain, the resolution was considered approved by a “voice vote.” The measure is nonbinding.

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Gov: No gaming without health care

On Tuesday we learned that Gov. Rod Blagojevich was willing to delay his plan to provide health insurance for adults. That would help lawmakers break the deadlock and approve a state budget, he said. On Thursday we learned state lawmakers were considering an expansion of gaming to pay for improvement of roads, bridges and schools. Friday’s developments taught us that the governor won’t sign an expansion of gaming without first having a health care bill approved.

Blagojevich’s point person in the House, Democratic Rep. Jay Hoffman of Chicago, spoke for him after a leaders’ meeting in the governor’s Statehouse office. Hoffman said the governor was willing to scale back his health care plan, but “scale back” doesn’t mean reducing the price. “We’re not talking about scaling back the goals,” Hoffman said. “We’re not talking about scaling back any of the means of providing affordable access to health care for everyone. We would look at taking the employer assessment as well as potentially some other revenue and implementing the health care plan beginning June 1, 2008, and over a four-year period.”

The “employer assessment” is a 3 percent tax on businesses that employ more than 10 people but that don’t offer health insurance for them. That’s still expected to generate about $1 billion, which Hoffman said would be available to help kick start the adult insurance plan in 2008, easing the burden on this year’s state budget. A pilot project isn’t an option, he said. Hoffman mentioned such other revenue sources as consolidating state funds and ending more corporate tax breaks.

But still, as the legislative leaders of both political parties look to fund construction projects through a gaming expansion — however they define expansion — they would have to swallow a health care plan in order to get the governor’s signature. “We would work on the health care piece, which is a prerequisite of signing any gaming bill, from other sources of revenue in the state of Illinois,” Hoffman said.

We also learned Friday that state legislators will have the day off Sunday, July 15, the first day since the governor has ordered them to be in Springfield every day since July 5 to negotiate an already delayed budget. But when lawmakers come back Monday, they’ll have 16 days before the current, one-month budget expires and threatens a state shutdown without another budget in place.

The threat of a state shutdown could be a good thing because it could force a compromise, according to Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson. “There’s just constantly more and more people saying, ‘Why should we vote for another one-month budget?’” he said after the budget meeting. “I’m not for shutting the state government down, but to bring some sort of conclusion to this, some people think that may be the only solution.”

House Speaker Michael Madigan agreed all caucuses want to avoid more 30-day budgets. “Those people probably have not contemplated what they would do if they were a leader and it’s the fifth day of August and paychecks aren’t going out,” he said. “I would hope that the end of the spending authority at the end of the month would move people toward a resolution.”

But he had this damper for people hoping to get that gaming bill: “It’s a very wide-ranging discussion. I wouldn’t put a lot of hope on it.”

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Gaming discussed without the governor

The Senate is expected to recast its gaming bill that it originally approved May 31, the last day of the regular session. Now both Democrats and Republicans in that chamber are willing to expand gaming with one new riverboat in Chicago and up to three others anywhere else in the state. Senate President Emil Jones Jr. previously wanted to limit the new boats within certain distances from state borders. Now Rockford, Danville and other areas around Illinois would be able to bid on one of the new gaming licenses.

But there’s a lot of negotiating to be done before lawmakers decide where the boats would go and what the revenue would go toward. Education and major capital projects were the two priorities discussed in a closed-door meeting in the governor’s Statehouse office Thursday, but Gov. Rod Blagojevich wasn’t there. And his beloved health care idea wasn’t talked about.

The governor was in Chicago announcing a new executive order to prohibit insurance companies from basing premium increases on a client’s health status. Blagojevich’s absence changed the tone of the meeting in his office, the lawmakers said. “In fact, I think the governor would be a distraction today based on the feeling about him in this building,” said Rep. Lou Lang, a Skokie Democrat who recently released his frustrations on the House floor about the governor’s leadership. Thursday’s meeting was more “business-like,” according to Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson.

But the gaming meeting didn’t advance any new legislation, and there's a long way to go. For years, a slew of hang-ups have stymied efforts to expand gaming for state revenue. The horseracing industry wants subsidies from the state so it can compete with expansion of other gaming. But there’s debate about the subsidy level and the mechanism — slots at racetracks or an “impact fee” charged on casinos. And there's a trust issue about whether the state will simply change the law after the first wave of cash flows in, said Rep. Bob Molaro, a Chicago Democrat in the meeting. Other sticking points include the number of new boats and their locations. Lang said in early June that his version of gaming legislation spelled out nine Chicago-area communities in need of economic development that would qualify for one of the new gaming licenses.

Two other complications were raised after the meeting. One was by House Minority Leader Tom Cross of Oswego: “I think for everyone, one of the central questions here is, when would this money become available, assuming you bought into any of these concepts? We’re into July, and to get any of these things up and running, if you bought into that, you’d have to be pretty aggressive [for it] to be in the ’08 fiscal year.”

The other was mentioned by Sen. James DeLeo, another Chicago Democrat in the meeting. The priority of using gaming revenue for road and school construction projects might be more complicated. “We were warned by the budget director that casino revenues, gaming revenues are very hard to sell bonds on,” DeLeo said. “There’s a lot of if, if, ifs in gaming.”

So one of the lingering “ifs” is whether gaming will even appear in the final budget. If you need a refresher, here's where the key players stand on the gaming issue:
- The governor and Jones have said they support four new casinos in the Chicago area, and Jones has said he wants the money to go to education.
- Cross and House Speaker Michael Madigan said their caucuses still support expansion of gaming only at existing casinos, with the money going toward road and school construction projects.
- And Watson said Thursday the Senate GOP Caucus is open and flexible but would prefer the revenue fund a capital program.

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Legislators: It's time to 'rock the system'

BY DEANESE WILLIAMS-HARRIS
Bethany Carson contributed to this report
Several legislators are asking Gov. Rod Blagojevich to convene a special session specifically for ethics reform. Today, Sen. Christine Radogno, a Lemont Republican, led the group in an attempt to persuade the governor to add ethics and campaign finance reform to the list of topics to be addressed during this summer’s ongoing special sessions.

Until Wednesday, the special sessions called by the governor have focused on the much-delayed state budget. But Blagojevich Tuesday proclaimed today’s special session to focus on gun control, leading Radogno and Chicago Democratic Rep. John Fritchey to urge the governor to take the same steps to end pay-to-play politics.

"It may not be time to take up contentious legislation, but I'll tell you what, Governor, if you're serious about taking care of unfinished business, I've got a suggestion for you," Fritchey said Tuesday on the House floor. "There's a piece of legislation that's not contentious. There's a piece of legislation that was supported by every member of this chamber, the 117 of us that were there. That was House Bill 1, the bill that will end pay to play."

House Bill 1 is just one of three ethics reform measures stuck in the Senate. It would set a $25,000 limit on how much contractors could give to state officials who received state contracts.

In yesterday's budget talks at the governor’s mansion, Radogno said lawmakers confronted Blagojevich about why the legislature hasn't acted on ethics legislation in any of the special sessions. According to Radogno, the governor said they were going to get to it, that nothing comprehensive was out there and that he called HB 1 "inadequate." Radogno said, "This, mind you, from the same man that told us two years ago that he was going to ‘rock the system,’ He has done absolutely, positively nothing with regards to ethics reform in this state."

Blagojevich did enact an ethics package during his first term that requires all state employees to take an annual ethics exam and that created ethics inspectors general for each executive office.

Radogno went on to say that there are two other measures being held in the Senate rules committee that are comprehensive ethics reform bills. The House also has approved both HB 3 and SB 1305, which have yet to be called for action on the Senate floor.

"We can stay in session for more than 10 minutes to work on this very important topic, and we need to do that," Radogno said.

During the special sessions, the governor has continued to advocate for his proposals to increase education funding and to provide health care for the estimated 1.4 million uninsured Illinoisans. He also wants gun control legislation. However, Fritchey says the most dominant issues in our state and in the headlines hasn't been education funding or gun legislation. "Its scandals and allegations and indictments," he said Tuesday on the floor. "Tell people that when you said you wanted to rock the system, you meant it."

The governor continues to keep his lips sealed about the subpoenas received by his office from federal investigators. As of this posting, the governor's office hasn't responded to our question whether he plans to call a special session for ethics reform.

UPDATE
The governor's call to spend an entire special session on gun control (the eighth special session) backfired Wednesday. One sponsor of the gun control legislation, Chicago Democratic Rep. Harry Osterman, repeated what he's been saying for the past few days: He will not call the legislation for a vote until it has enough votes for approval. That will take 71, to which Osterman said, "This bill will not get 71 votes ... It would be irresponsible of me the sponsor of this legislation to call this bill for a vote, knowing that it's going to fail."

In fact, if the bill is amended to need only 60 votes, as Osterman intends to do, the effective date will be June of 2008. "June of 2008," he repeated on the House floor. "So if passed with 60 votes, it won't take effect until June. So there is no need to rush a vote today or tomorrow."

Osterman will have to work to gain the votes on the controversial measure, but, he said, "Today is not that day. We need to be focused on the budget of our state. That is our collective priority."

House members clapped as he closed his comments.

The governor responded with a letter to House Speaker Michael Madigan that said, "I urge you to convene a Committee of the Whole to limit access to deadly large capacity ammunition clips. Giving the full House an opportunity to hear from law enforcement officials, anti-gun violence advocates and victims’ families will help us move closer to consensus on this important issue." He said he looked forward to working with the sponsor and the speaker's office to get the bill approved.

There was no leaders' meeting today.

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No need for Republicans, but what about Democrats?

Despite more lawmakers’ comments that budget talks aren’t getting anywhere, Gov. Rod Blagojevich announced an idea Tuesday night that he thinks could potentially break the nagging budget impasse. But his ideas still require major revenue enhancements, which continue to lack consensus among Democrats, let alone both parties.

Blagojevich isn’t giving up on his beloved universal health care idea or his desired education funding increase — two of many items that have contributed to the gap between his proposed budget and the much smaller version preferred by three of the four legislative leaders. At his Springfield mansion Tuesday night, Blagojevich simply suggested that the education and health care portions of his spending plan be separated from the fiscal year 2008 budget. They would then be packaged with a revenue plan, yet to be determined or agreed upon, and voted on so that the programs would become effective after June 1, 2008. That date is key because it means the legislation creating the programs would only need a simple majority, not the three-fifths majority that currently requires some Republican votes in the House.

Sen. Carol Ronen, a Chicago Democrat and Blagojevich point person in her chamber, stood with the governor after the meeting and said Republicans wouldn’t be needed because a simple majority of Democrats could enact new revenue ideas that would make money available just in time for the programs to start in 2008. But that assumes at least 30 Democrats in the Senate and 60 Democrats in the House would support anywhere from $1 billion to $3 billion in new revenue. That’s not guaranteed. What makes this more questionable is that neither Republicans nor Democrats who support a smaller budget have any incentive to vote for education and health care plans they previously rejected just because the effective date changed.

The only other new information came with the idea that the lawmakers would break away from the rather large budget gatherings in the ballroom of the governor’s mansion and convene in smaller groups, which some GOP members suggested Monday.

Other than that, members said the meeting lacked progress but was full of drama, including the ongoing disagreements about new casinos and horse track subsidies and whether the state should invest in roads and schools before expanding health care and education. And, once again, the governor bashed House Speaker Michael Madigan by saying he hides behind his conservative Republican allies and needs to start acting like a Democrat. Of course, Madigan repeated his criticism of the governor’s “lack of understanding of the severity of the problem, the severity of the gap in understanding between the participants.” He added, “The governor came very close to losing his temper, but I tried to act like a father again. And he made a real nice recovery.”

UPDATE
The House members were told this afternoon that the remainder of July weekend sessions would convene at 9 a.m. Saturdays and 5 p.m. Sundays.

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