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House Bill 2626, which narrowly passed along partisan lines on
March 5, allows the governor to swap Illinois' current low-interest,
fixed-rate bonds for variable-rate bonds. Although the legislation
would raise substantial cash for the governor in the short term, it
could also leave state government at risk for higher variable rates
in the future. The plan also allows the state to spend taxpayer
money at a rate it cannot afford.
An analogy given by Sen. Peter Roskam,
R-Wheaton, on the Senate floor sums up the Democratic approach to
the issue. Roskam compared the bonding scheme with the common,
everyday experience of ordering food at a McDonald's drive-up window
without having enough money to pay for it. Most people have
experienced that sinking feeling that comes with the realization
that the order just placed costs more than the dollars they have in
their wallets. What happens next is a frantic search for loose
change while the line of cars continues to grow. Eventually, after
every nook and cranny has been searched, the right amount of change
is found.
In a similar vein, Roskam said the
governor placed an order at the drive-up window, and in spite of
tremendous budget problems, he decided to "super size" that order.
Blagojevich decided to spend $1 billion more than the previous year
-- even in the midst of record deficits. Then the governor pulls up
to the window to pay and realizes he does not have enough money to
pay for his "super size" budget. So, he starts a frantic search for
revenue and comes up with all sorts of schemes to pay for all of the
extra spending he has put in the budget.
Senate Republican lawmakers also
expressed concern that the legislation is just the latest effort in
a long series of quick-cash fiscal gimmicks that leave huge debt for
future generations. During the past two years, Democrats have more
than doubled the state's pension bond debt to more than $19 billion.
Most of this debt is backloaded, meaning the majority won't have to
be paid off until years in the future and long after Gov.
Blagojevich is out of office. Senate Republicans have proposed
legislation this spring that would restore fiscal discipline to the
state's finances by limiting the governor's powers to extend and
refinance state bonds and require level principal payments on bonds
to avoid massive balloon payments in the future.
While the Democrats expanded Illinois'
debt by billions of dollars, they have also increased new state
spending by nearly $2 billion during the past two years. Republicans
said the new cash infusions generated by the debt-swapping
legislation will likely be used to bankroll the $700 million in new
spending contained in the governor's budget proposal for fiscal
2005.
Also this week, the Illinois Senate
convened as a single committee to study the governor's plan to take
over the Illinois education system. During a rare Committee of the
Whole meeting on Wednesday, senators heard from proponents and
opponents of Blagojevich's proposal, which would transfer control of
the state's schools from the politically independent Illinois State
Board of Education to a new Department of Education under the
governor's authority.
Among those testifying were the
governor, state Superintendent Robert Schiller and more than 20
other education officials from across the state. During his
testimony, the governor repeated criticisms leveled in his State of
the State address that the State Board of Education is an
out-of-touch bureaucracy that has imposed too many mandates on local
school districts. He said a Department of Education under his
control would work to reduce those mandates and bring accountability
to education policy.
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Senate Republicans welcomed the
governor's call for fewer local school mandates and stand ready to
work with him in accomplishing that goal. However, many senators
noted that the governor's proposal contains no specific mandate cuts
and actually increases regulations on school districts in terms of
greater social services and school nutrition requirements.
Senators on both sides of the aisle
also voiced concerns that state education policy could become
politicized under the governor's plan. Unlike the State Board of
Education, which is an independent agency, the Department of
Education would be under the total control of the governor's office.
Many senators said this could result in disreputable governors using
the new department in the future to put political pressure on
legislators.
Superintendent Schiller defended the
State Board of Education during his testimony and suggested the
governor's takeover of Illinois schools was unconstitutional. This
view was supported in a recent report issued by the nonpartisan
Legislative Research Unit, which said the creation of a new
Department of Education "is inconsistent with the expressed intent"
of the Illinois Constitution, which established the current system
led by the State Board of Education.
In the coming weeks, several public
meetings of the Senate Education Committee will be conducted
throughout the state to hear citizens' views on the governor's plan.
The dates and locations of these meetings are still being decided.
In other legislative news, the
following measures passed the Illinois Senate this week:
Gold Star plates (SB 2453)
-- Allows Circuit Breaker recipients to purchase Gold Star license
plates for only $24
Child abuse (SB 2448)
-- Requires training for all child
protection investigators concerning the rights of individuals who
are being investigated for child abuse and neglect.
Hunting heritage (SB 2156) --
Requires the state to incorporate land management decisions that
protect the amount of public lands designated for hunting.
Collection agencies (SB 2380)
-- Prohibits collection agencies from imposing fees for services
already being provided by a public agency; prohibits private
collection agencies from charging fees for collecting current child
support.
Insurance coverage (SB 2620)
-- Prohibits life insurance companies from refusing or limiting
coverage on an individual due to the person's lawful travel
experiences.
School boards (SB 2810)
-- Streamlines school board ballots; makes the listing of candidates
easier to follow.
County conventions (SB 3064)
-- Changes the date of partisan county conventions from the second
Monday after the primary election to the 29th day after the primary.
Speed limit (SB 2374)
-- Sets a uniform speed limit of 65 mph for all vehicles on rural
interstates and toll highways.
Child safety
(SB 2378) -- Requires the
state to provide a comprehensive list of unsafe children's products
to child care facilities that do not have access to the Internet.
[Illinois
Senate Republican Caucus
news release] |
