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Governor vetoes $22 million
from FY04 budget
Funding cut for
Corrections' captains; pay raises cut for judges, constitutional
officers, agency directors, legislators
[JUNE 5, 2003]
CHICAGO
-- Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich announced Thursday the first vetoes of
the fiscal 2004 budget -- totaling just under $22 million --
including a reduction of $17.3 million from the Department of
Corrections, $3.7 million that would have been used for pay raises
for judges and $791,000 that would have been used for pay raises for
government officials, including constitutional officers, agency
directors and legislators.
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Blagojevich
trimmed $17.3 million from the Illinois Department of Corrections
appropriation that would have funded the continued employment of 219
captains, who were recently notified they would be laid off June 30
as part of a plan to streamline the agency's top-heavy management
structure. Their average salary was $75,200 a year.
"The public
expects us to do more with less. I cannot ask them to cover the cost
of middle management we just don't need," Blagojevich said.
The governor
reaffirmed his proposal for cuts to the Department of Corrections
bureaucracy so that the agency's emphasis can be on staffing
front-line security positions that are critical to the safety of its
employees and the inmates incarcerated in the state's prison system.
Blagojevich has
said captains, who primarily are shift supervisors in the prisons,
will be allowed to bid on the 122 current open lieutenant jobs and
for about 1,300 unfilled bargaining unit jobs in the department. The
captains' current duties will be shifted to other higher managerial
positions, such as assistant wardens or majors.
White heartened
by the fact the legislature approved nearly all of his budget
recommendations, Blagojevich said lawmakers did send him higher
spending in some areas, and he will use the next couple weeks to
review the $52 billion budget plan to took for other savings
opportunities.
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"The race to
balance the budget is not a sprint. It's a marathon. Even when the
economy rebounds, the goal shouldn't be to just make sure the
numbers all add up. Our goal should be to make government as
efficient and cost effective as possible." Blagojevich said.
Blagojevich also
said that, in a time of fiscal restraint and shared sacrifice, he
could not approve pay raises for judges or government officials',
including constitutional officers, agency directors and legislators.
The General
Assembly's fiscal 2004 budget included a $3.7 million cost-of-living
increase for Supreme Court, Appellate Court and Circuit Court
judges. The budget also included $791,000 for pay raises for the
governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state,
comptroller, treasurer, auditor general, agency directors, assistant
agency directors and members of the Illinois Legislature.
"In these
difficult times, when state agencies are being consolidated, when
the number of state personnel is being reduced -- in short, when
others are being asked to sacrifice -- this is not the time to give
pay raises to the governor, the lieutenant governor, to the
constitutional officers, to the men and women of the General
Assembly, or to the Supreme Court, the Appellate Court or the
Circuit Court judges," Blagojevich said.
The revenue
saved by the vetoes will be placed in the state's rainy day fund.
[News
release] |
