Governor's
budget includes universal preschool, funds critical stem cell
research and creates the Prairie State DNA Institute
Governor's
plan streamlines taxes and regulations to save professionals time
and money and streamlines state government to improve efficiency
[FEB. 16, 2006]
SPRINGFIELD -- On Wednesday, Gov. Rod R.
Blagojevich presented an approximately $45.4 billion fiscal 2007
operating budget plan whose centerpiece is making Illinois the only
state in the nation to provide access to preschool for every
3-year-old and 4-year-old child. Highlights of the governor's budget
plan include:
Investing $100
million in stem cell research over five years.
Creating the
Prairie State DNA Institute.
A plan to eliminate
the nursing shortage.
A new program to
reduce K-3 class sizes.
Veterans Care: a
health care program to cover uninsured veterans.
New police
officers.
New tax credits to
promote development in Illinois cities bordering major rivers
and to expand the film industry in Illinois.
Reducing the time
it takes to process applications for state licenses from the
current four-to-19-week period to one to four weeks.
Increased funding
for higher education.
$400 million in new
funding for K-12 education;
Creating a one-stop
service center for senior citizens.
Combining state
agency administrative functions to improve efficiency and save
money.
Strengthening
payments into the pension systems by dedicating the proceeds
from the sale of the 10th casino license to pensions.
Creating new prison
facilities to deal specifically with the problem of addiction to
methamphetamine.
Providing a $1,000
tax credit to freshman and sophomore students with a B average
who are attending college in Illinois.
"Just a few years ago, we inherited a budget with a $5 billion
deficit -- the worst our state had ever seen," Blagojevich said.
"The state's payroll was bloated, we were spending too much money on
the wrong things, we treated special interest funds as sacrosanct,
and we left corporate loopholes that discriminate against small
businesses on the books. And at the same time, the budget we
inherited was underfunding education and shortchanging health care.
Our job was to find ways to do more with less -- to shake up the
system to make it work more for the people out there and less for
the special interests in here. Since then, we've eliminated the
deficit, made Illinois the only state to guarantee health care to
every single child, done more for our schools than 43 other states
and any administration in Illinois history, reduced the size of
government, and created budgets that spend money on things that
really help people. Budgets are more than a series of numbers.
They're moral documents that reflect your priorities."
Before detailing his budget initiatives for fiscal 2007,
Blagojevich first explained the fiscal mess he inherited three years
ago:
When the governor
took office in 2003, Illinois budget had grown by 5.4 percent
from fiscal 1993 to fiscal 2003 -- even though inflation was
only 2.5 percent during that period.
Despite significant
spending increases during this time period, education spending
grew slowly. In fact, between fiscal 1993 and fiscal 2003, there
were only two years when general student aid went up by more
than $150 million. It actually went down in fiscal 2003.
From fiscal 1998 to
fiscal 2003, no additional children became eligible for health
care coverage. And, after years of decline, the number of
working parents eligible for health care coverage went up only
slightly in fiscal 2003.
In January 2003,
the month Blagojevich took office, Illinois' unemployment had
reached 6.7 percent.
From fiscal 1993 to
fiscal 2003, pension payments were underfunded annually by at
least $810 million.
From fiscal 1993 to
fiscal 2003, state employee head count ranged from 65,000 to
71,000, averaging more than 69,000 during Gov. George Ryan's
term.
To turn the state budget around, Blagojevich:
Gained control of
General Revenue Fund spending. After making key investments in
education and health care, Blagojevich has reduced the rate of
General Revenue Fund spending by 40 percent. In previous
administrations, money was used to support a bloated payroll,
corporate loopholes and new debt. But today, more state
resources go into schools, health care and programs that help
people.
Consolidated state
agencies. To cut the cost to operate state government,
Blagojevich led the consolidation and elimination of a total of
19 agencies, going from 66 state agencies to 47.
Reduced state
employee head count. There are 13,000 fewer state employees
today than in fiscal 2001, saving taxpayers more than $800
million this year. From 1996 to 2002, there were 56 state
employees for every 10,000 residents. Today, there are 44 state
employees for every 10,000 residents.
Managing state
debt. Illinois has issued less in bonds under Blagojevich than
under Ryan. In fiscal 2004, 64 percent of the new debt issued by
the Blagojevich administration was used to pay off outstanding
costs from Illinois FIRST, a program created by Ryan.
Started using
special-purpose funds to help people. Blagojevich has
transferred $1.1 billion from special-purpose funds over three
years -- using the money to increase investments in things that
help real people. Even accounting for these transfers, the
special-purpose funds have largely maintained their collective
balance between $2.2 billion and $2.3 billion.
By taking these steps, Blagojevich balanced an inherited $5
billion deficit in fiscal 2004, a $2.3 billion structural deficit in
fiscal 2005 and a structural $1.1 billion deficit in fiscal 2006.
All the while, more money was pumped into education, health care,
public safety and initiatives to create jobs -- without raising the
income or sales tax and forcing working people to bail out state
government.
For fiscal 2007, the governor proposes new investments in
education, health care and public safety, as well as new initiatives
to streamline state regulations for businesses, new opportunities
for businesses to expand and create more jobs, and ways to continue
to strengthen the state's pension system.
Education
For fiscal 2007, for the fourth consecutive year, Blagojevich
proposed a major increase in education funding as well as new
initiatives, including universal preschool, a plan to reduce class
sizes in kindergarten through third grade and a $1,000 college
tuition tax credit. This year's proposed increase is $400 million
for K-12 education. During his first three years, Blagojevich
dedicated $2.3 billion of new funding into Illinois schools, an
average of $200 per student each year. This represents more new
money invested in education than any other state in the Midwest,
more than 43 other states in the nation and more than any
administration in one term in Illinois history.
Preschool for All
Capping three years of unprecedented expansion, Blagojevich
proposed Preschool for All -- allowing every 3- and 4-year-old in
Illinois to attend preschool. Illinois would become the first and
only state in the country to offer preschool to every 3-year-old.
Countless studies demonstrate the benefits of early learning in
preschool. Students who begin reading at age 3 or 4 do better
throughout their academic careers. Students who attend preschool are
20 percent more likely to graduate from high school, 41 percent less
likely to need special education and 42 percent less likely to be
arrested for committing a violent crime. Studies also show that for
every dollar spent on early childhood education, society saves at
least $7 through decreased reliance on social services.
Funding for preschool programs will increase by $45 million per
year in each of the next three years. Participation in the program
is voluntary for parents.
K-12 funding increases
For fiscal 2007, Blagojevich proposed a $400 million increase for
K-12 education spending. If the General Assembly approves the budget
with this increase, it will mean that over the past four years, the
state has spent $3.8 billion in new funding for schools. This
represents the largest increase by an administration in Illinois
history. The $400 million increase would come from a combination of
revenue growth, transfers from excess balances in special-interest
funds and closing several corporate loopholes, including the retail
rate loophole, which currently means double payment by the state to
landfills that sell electricity produced by methane gas; the net
operating loss loophole, a change which would allow the Department
of Revenue to verify that losses claimed by businesses from more
than three years ago actually occurred; and the canned software
loophole, which gives a tax break to big businesses that buy
software licenses but not small businesses that purchase software
over the counter (Illinois is the only state with the canned
software loophole and the retail rate loophole).
Classroom size reduction
To reduce the size of Illinois kindergarten through third-grade
classrooms, the governor proposed earmarking $10 million to award to
schools to pay for teacher salaries and benefits. In 2005, the
average class size in Illinois was 21 in kindergarten, 21.5 in first
grade and 22 in third grade. A sampling of high-growth districts
found that class sizes are much larger than average in some areas,
including 26 kids per kindergarten class in West Harvey-Dixmoor in
the south suburbs, 28 kids per first-grade class in Plainfield
District 202 and 24 kids per third-grade class in Chicago Public
Schools.
The $50,000 grants would be distributed equally among suburban,
downstate and Chicago Public Schools. The grants would be awarded to
elementary schools with K-3 class sizes that average more than 20
students. Schools would be required to use the funds to hire
additional classroom teachers in order to decrease the number of
pupils per class. The State Board of Education would then track
measures of student success, including assessment scores and
attendance rate, in comparison with schools that have larger classes
and are not in the pilot program.
More teachers mean smaller classes. And, smaller classes mean
more attention for each student from the teacher. Rather than
spending time trying to manage 25 kids at once, if a teacher can
focus on a smaller group, he or she can spend more time on the
materials and less on discipline.
To receive the grant, schools must agree to reduce K-3 class
sizes to 15 students. The $10 million allocation would be included
in the governor's $400 million increase.
College tuition tax credit
As first announced during his State of the State address last
month, Blagojevich proposed a $1,000 tax credit for every student
who attends a college in Illinois -- private or public. The
governor's proposal requires students to maintain a B average to
receive and keep the tax credit. It would also apply to the first
two years of college, because when students make it through the
first two years, odds are high that they'll graduate. The tax credit
would begin on July 1 so families could claim it on their April 2007
tax forms.
To pay for the tax credit, which is expected to cost $90 million
annually, the governor proposed selling the Illinois Designated
Account Purchase Program -- the state's originator, purchaser and
servicer of student loans in Illinois. In many other states, student
loan assets have recently been sold and provided substantial
benefits. As a condition of the sale of the Illinois program, the
buyer would have to guarantee that all current employees performing
transaction services related to loans would be offered jobs, no
student services would be affected and no loan terms would be
changed.
The college tax credit builds on the governor's ongoing efforts
to make college more affordable for students and families. Three
years ago, he signed the "Truth in Tuition" law, which locks in the
cost of tuition when students are freshmen so they pay the same
tuition cost as seniors. The governor also expanded the Monetary
Award Program to help more than 13,000 more students and their
parents afford college. Blagojevich proposed to increase funding for
the Monetary Award Program in fiscal 2007 by nearly $8 million.
Overall, Blagojevich is proposing a $40 million increase for
higher education. Universities would receive more than $18 million
to attract and retain the best faculty. Community college grants
would increase by almost $7 million.
The Illinois Student Assistance Commission and public university
presidents support the governor's proposed higher education budget
for fiscal 2007, the college tuition tax credit proposal and the
sale of loan assets, with specific conditions.
"If we pass this budget, it means our state can begin to enroll
every child in preschool at 4 years old," Blagojevich said. "It
means they'll go to school with smaller class sizes. It means they
will have seen an increase of $3.8 billion in state funding over the
last four years. It means graduating from high school with tougher
standards -- more science, reading, writing and math. And, it means
a $1,000 tax credit for college. We can achieve this. We can afford
this. We owe it to our kids."
Health care
Blagojevich believes that health care is a fundamental right. His
budget proposal includes four major health care initiatives for
fiscal 2007: enrolling children in his new All Kids health care
plan, launching a new health care program called Veterans Care,
reducing the nursing shortage and funding stem cell research.
Since taking office three years ago, Blagojevich has made health
care available to 400,000 working people and their children. He also
created the Illinois Cares program so that no senior would lose
coverage after the federal government implemented the Medicare Part
D prescription drug benefit program, which actually provides
Illinois seniors with less coverage than before. While other states
cut health care coverage back to balance their budgets in the face
of deficits, Blagojevich not only kept coverage intact, but also
expanded it. In the last three years, Illinois has provided free
breast and cervical cancer screenings to 98,000 uninsured women;
launched the Healthy Women program, offering free health care to
167,000 women; and awarded 77 women's health initiatives grants to
fund local education programs. As a result of these and more health
care investments, the Kaiser Foundation now ranks Illinois No. 1 in
insuring parents who need health care coverage.
All Kids
In November, Blagojevich signed his All Kids program into law --
making Illinois the only state in America to provide access to
affordable, comprehensive health insurance for every uninsured child
in the state. Of the roughly 250,000 children in Illinois without
health insurance, about half come from working, middle-class
families who earn too much to qualify for current
government-sponsored health care programs like KidCare but not
enough to afford private health insurance. The All Kids program will
make comprehensive health insurance available to uninsured children,
including doctors' visits, hospital stays, prescription drugs,
vision care, dental care and medical devices like eyeglasses and
asthma inhalers. Depending on their income, parents will pay monthly
premiums and co-payments for doctors' visits and prescription drugs
at affordable rates.
The $45 million cost of the program is fully paid for by savings
generated by implementing a primary care case management model for
participants in the state's FamilyCare, Medicaid and All Kids health
care programs and a disease management program for those suffering
chronic illnesses such as asthma, diabetes, or heart disease. The
primary care case management plan is based on the American Academy
of Pediatrics' vision of promoting a medical home. Under the case
management program, participants will choose a single primary care
provider who will manage their care by ensuring they get
immunizations and other preventive health care services and avoid
unnecessary emergency room visits and hospitalizations. Primary care
physicians will make referrals to specialists for additional care or
tests as needed. Patients with chronic conditions like asthma or
diabetes will have a single care manager to make sure they are
getting the treatments and ongoing care they need to avoid acute
care.
Veterans Care
Because veterans serve their country in the military, fight our
wars, put their lives on the line -- and then come home too often
without access to affordable health care, Blagojevich proposed a new
program, to begin in fiscal 2007, providing veterans access to
affordable and comprehensive health care. The first phase of the
program will cover veterans who have the least access to reliable
health care: those below the federal poverty level who live 50 miles
or more from a VA hospital. It is expected to cost $10 million. The
ultimate goal of this program is making sure every veteran has
health care, like KidCare expanded into All Kids.
Senior services
In an effort to better serve Illinois senior citizens,
Blagojevich is proposing to launch a comprehensive case management
system. The Illinois Department on Aging will implement the first
phase of this major initiative, and when fully operational, the
system will provide a single point of entry for services,
comprehensive assessment and coordination of client needs, and a
broad array of other services. In fiscal, $7.8 million has been
budgeted to begin developing this new case management model and to
begin training case managers. Additionally, through an innovative
partnership with the Illinois Housing Development Authority, the
Department on Aging will have $2 million in new funding to use for
one-time home modifications that will help seniors stay in their
homes longer before entering nursing homes and for emergency rental
payments, first month's deposits and utility bills for seniors
transitioning back from nursing homes into communities. This program
will join with the existing Community Care program. The state will
continue exploring ways to expand Community Care in fiscal 2008,
including a focus on adjusting asset limits in order to increase
enrollment in the program.
Illinois faces a shortage of nurses -- expected to grow to 21,000
by 2020. The shortage is spurred by an aging work force and
increased demand for nurses as baby boomers grow older. To address
the shortage, Blagojevich proposes to:
Develop the Center
for Nursing. A Center for Nursing would be established by the
Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, charged
with goals such as developing a strategic plan for nursing
manpower in Illinois, maintaining a database on nursing supply
and demand, and creating nursing retention and recruitment
initiatives.
Offer nursing
educator scholarships. Since every additional faculty member in
nursing can add 10 more nurses to the work force, the center
would also be charged with the creation of a nursing education
scholarship that will make pursuing a career in nursing
education more attractive and more affordable in the state of
Illinois. This year's budget includes $1.3 million for these
scholarships.
Offer grants to
nursing schools. Capacity in nursing colleges around the country
is reaching the breaking point. In fact, over 26,000 qualified
applicants were turned away from baccalaureate granting nursing
programs in the United States because of faculty shortages,
crowded clinical facilities and funding shortfalls. In Illinois,
over 1,100 qualified applicants were not admitted. In order to
increase the number of faculty, and the number of graduating
nurses as a result, Illinois would make competitive grants
available to nursing schools. These could be used to hire more
faculty members or create evening or weekend training programs,
among other options. In fiscal 2007, a $1.5 million grant would
be available to nursing schools to increase the number of
graduating nurses, as well as $150,000 for 15 nurse educator
fellowships that would supplement faculty salaries.
Make changes to
existing nursing scholarship program. The legislation would
amend the existing nursing education scholarship law to allow
merit, in addition to financial need, to be taken into
consideration when determining recipients of the nursing
scholarship. Merit is to be shown through measures such as
grade-point average, class rank, academic and extracurricular
activities. Taking in account merit in awarding these
scholarships will improve the successful completion rate of
nursing education programs as well as helping Illinois produce
high-quality nurses.
Create student loan
repayment program for nurse educators. The legislation contains
provisions for a future loan forgiveness program for those who
choose to become nursing faculty. The Illinois Nurse Educator
Loan Repayment Program, through the Illinois Student Assistance
Commission, would be an incentive for nurses to become
educators. The program will allow current nurse educators, or
those in a master's level or Ph.D. program to become a nurse
educator, to receive $5,000 in student loan forgiveness a year,
for up to four years. For every year of student loan
forgiveness, recipients must work for one year as a nurse
educator in Illinois. The program will be up and running by
fiscal 2008.
Stem cell research
On Wednesday, Blagojevich outlined a new proposal to fund
potentially lifesaving medical research. Last summer, the governor
and Comptroller Dan Hynes made Illinois the first state in the
Midwest, and only the fourth state in the nation, to commit public
funds to the lifesaving work of stem cell research. By executive
order, the governor directed the Illinois Department of Public
Health to create a program, the Illinois Regenerative Medicine
Institute, to award $10 million in grants to medical research
facilities for the development of treatments and cures. Studying
stem cells allows scientists and doctors to better understand what
causes serious medical illnesses and conditions in hopes of
discovering new ways to treat or even cure them. During his budget
presentation, Blagojevich proposed dedicating 10 times that amount,
$100 million, over five years to the groundbreaking research.
Funding for the grants would be paid for out of Illinois' share of
the tobacco settlement.
Public safety
To better protect people from the destructive cycle of drugs and
violent crime, Blagojevich outlined several new public safety
initiatives and funding commitments in his fiscal 2007 budget
proposal. These initiatives follow three years of strong public
safety commitments, including investing $7.3 million to reduce the
DNA backlog so samples are processed quicker and opening a $19
million state-of-the-art State Emergency Operations Center. Overall,
violent crimes committed in Illinois are down 9 percent since 2002
and property crimes are down 6 percent. Additionally, Illinois also
is one of only seven states that have achieved the highest level of
bioterrorism preparedness according to the Centers for Disease
Control.
New police officers
Blagojevich earmarked $3 million in fiscal 2007 to begin training
100 new Illinois State Police cadets. The governor proposed to train
two new cadet classes of 50 officers each in fiscal 2007. The first
class would begin this summer, the second in June of 2007. The first
class of cadets would allow the Illinois State Police to provide
more gaming board investigators and tollway police.
Prairie State DNA Institute
After significant funding investments by Blagojevich, the time it
takes to analyze DNA samples was reduced from 10 months to three
months. Last summer, in fact, the turnaround time for a forensic
sample to be processed was reduced to 30 days. Not long after,
however, delays at outside laboratories increased turnaround time to
75 days. And, as long as the state is forced to outsource cases, the
backlog is not fully in state control. For this reason, the governor
proposed creating the Prairie State DNA Institute to improve
training and retention of forensic scientists and bring testing
forensic samples into a state facility. This initiative expands
state DNA laboratories and offers scholarships at different Illinois
universities to ensure a steady supply of employees for the
institute.
Currently, it takes 18 months to train a forensic scientist.
After the Illinois State Police spends a year and a half training
scientists, they often leave shortly thereafter for private-sector
jobs. A college program would mean students are training for a
period of time while they're still in college, and in return for
scholarships, they would be obligated to work for the state for four
years.
The capital costs for expanding state police labs would be up to
$18 million, with $1.8 million being spent in fiscal 2007 for
planning and design of this expansion. The scholarship program would
cost between $1 million and $2 million annually, with $500,000
allocated in fiscal 2007.
Meth prison units
Blagojevich proposed creating a specialized prison and treatment
facility for meth addicts at the 667-bed Southwestern Illinois
Correctional Center. More than 12 million Americans have tried meth
and 1.4 million are regular users. In Illinois, the number of meth
labs dismantled grew from 24 in 1997 to 961 in 2004. In the last
three years, Illinois has provided law enforcement with more tools
to fight meth and made it easier for prosecutors to go after meth
makers. Illinois laws regarding meth are among the toughest in the
nation. The new meth facility would be modeled after the Sheridan
National Model Drug Prison and Reentry Program. Additionally, the
governor proposed to expand the Sheridan Correctional Center the
following year, in fiscal 2008, from 950 offenders to its full
capacity of 1,300, with 200 spaces specifically for another meth
unit. It is estimated the meth unit at Southwestern will cost $1.9
million in Illinois' state budget, plus $4.78 million from the
federal government in fiscal 2007.
Blagojevich announced the Sheridan project during his first State
of the State address as governor and launched the project in January
2004 with the goal of becoming a national model for reducing
recidivism among drug-involved offenders and becoming the largest
fully dedicated state drug prison and re-entry program in the
nation, with a population of 1,300. The program offers intensive
drug treatment to all inmates at the facility and an extensive case
management and job preparedness program. Since opening, the
reincarceration rate among Sheridan inmates is nearly 50 percent
lower than other groups.
Job creation
In his fiscal 2007 budget proposal, Blagojevich announced more
ways to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs -- including
creating and expanding tax credits and a capital construction plan.
Last year, Illinois created more than 64,000 new jobs. Illinois has
gained jobs in 11 consecutive months, for the first time in 13
years. And, Illinois corporate profits rose to $21 billion in 2004,
their highest level since 1997. The state unemployment rate has also
fallen to pre-Sept. 11, 2001, levels. Meanwhile, Illinois has
invested $50 million to train 190,000 workers from 3,600 companies
across the state; negotiated more than 350 investment deals,
generating $5.3 billion in private investment; and expanded grant
programs to create new jobs in manufacturing and coal.
Riverfront redevelopment
In an effort to clean up environmentally contaminated riverfronts
across Illinois in cities like Aurora, Elgin, Joliet, Peoria and
Alton, Blagojevich proposed a new tax credit to encourage developers
to clean up and develop brownfield areas. Riverfronts in downtown
areas are ideal for commercial, retail and residential use. But,
because these areas are often environmentally contaminated as a
result of former industrial use, developing these sites can cost 20
percent to 40 percent more than uncontaminated site. The river edge
tax credit would be provided to developers who agree to redevelop
brownfield parcels. Additionally, $20 million in targeted grants
will be offered to spur development and reduce upfront costs for
developers. These tax credit and grant opportunities could create
thousands of new jobs.
Film tax credit
Blagojevich explained during his fiscal 2007 budget presentation
that the state needs to build on the recent success of the Illinois
film industry. After years of deep decline in the film industry in
Illinois, the governor signed legislation two years ago making the
state more competitive with other filming locations across the
nation and around the world by providing a tax credit equal to 25
percent of the wages paid to Illinois residents working on
television and film projects shot in the state. Last session, the
General Assembly passed and the governor signed legislation
extending the film tax credit legislation for another year, with
provisions making the credit easier to use and encouraging the
hiring of Illinois workers from high unemployment areas. These tax
credits turned Illinois into a new mecca for movie-making --
bringing a cross section of Hollywood studios and prominent actors
to our state, including Sandra Bullock, Keanu Reeves, Dustin
Hoffman, Will Ferrell, Jennifer Aniston, and Illinois' own acting
and directing stars Vince Vaughn and John Malkovich. Projects filmed
in Illinois created 15,000 new jobs and injected $78 million into
the state economy in 2005 alone.
But since Illinois passed its tax credit in 2003, other states
have passed their own tax credits that are far more generous --
threatening Illinois' ability to secure projects. To maintain our
edge, Blagojevich proposed to make the tax credit a flat 20 percent
on the first 100,000 paid to Illinois residents; allow a flat 20
percent on total qualified Illinois production spending, including
rental equipment and hotel rooms; and make the credit effective for
multiple years, instead of the annual renewal requirement. These
changes not only broaden the scope of the incentive, they make it
easier to use.
Jobs plan
On Wednesday, the governor renewed his call to the Illinois
General Assembly to approve a new capital construction plan that
will create 230,000 good-paying jobs around the state and build
critical roads, schools and improve mass transit. The governor's
capital plan, unveiled last month, will:
Build roads. The
governor is proposing a $2.3 billion program to build or rebuild
100 miles of streets and highways statewide and create 140,000
jobs. It will match the projects in the federal road bill.
Improve mass
transit. The mass transit component of the capital construction
plan will create 85,000 jobs. It will allow Chicago to connect
between CTA and Metra lines, the Chicago suburbs to upgrade
their train stations, and communities to purchase new buses.
Build schools. This
component of the construction plan will create 7,000 more jobs.
Many Illinois schools are old, overcrowded and in disrepair.
Passing a capital bill will create more classroom space, reduce
class sizes and give students more modernized facilities to
learn in.
Licensing reform
To further improve the state's ability to create and retain jobs,
Blagojevich proposed ways to simplify the licensing process for
doctors, nurses, accountants, realtors, roofers, appraisers, real
estate brokers, barbers, beauticians and almost 200 other
professions. More than 1 million people rely on the state to grant
or renew their professional license. Currently it takes the state
anywhere from four to 19 weeks to complete this process. The
governor's goal is to reduce this time to one to four weeks. To do
this, the Illinois Department of Finance and Professional Regulation
is installing a new system to capture applicant data for all
licenses quickly and accurately. The department will also streamline
the applications, reducing the time it takes a professional to fill
it out and review it. This initiative is expected to cost $1.6
million annually.
Shared services
To continue to streamline state government and improve efficiency
to save taxpayers' money, Blagojevich on Wednesday proposed a shared
services initiative to combine state agency "back office" functions.
The state currently has as many as nine payroll systems, 38 human
resource systems, 104 fiscal systems, 95 call centers and 100
"1-800" numbers. Shared services will eliminate many of these
duplicate and redundant services. Also, with as many as 23,000
employees of the baby boomer age set to retire from state government
within the next 10 years, shared services will allow for a better
knowledge transfer so that younger workers can learn from more
experienced workers. This initiative will combine administrative
functions across state agencies to reduce operating costs and head
count. These functions include human resources, payroll and
benefits, accounting, procurement, and benefits. Agencies will be
grouped into clusters based on similar purposes, such as public
safety, social services and infrastructure. The shared services
initiative only applies to administrative functions, not the actual
substantive responsibility of each agency. When fully implemented,
this initiative could save taxpayers more than $115 million a year.
Guaranteeing pensions
Building on last year's efforts to reform and strengthen the
state's pension systems, Blagojevich proposed to:
Use the proceeds of
the sale of the 10th casino license to strengthen pensions.
Create incentives
to work longer.
Contribute the sale
of surplus property to pensions.
Identify new
sources of revenue for pensions.
Despite the 1970 Illinois Constitution that guarantees pension
benefits for existing employees, the state never met its full annual
commitment to the pensions in any given year through 2003 -- with
the exception of 2004, after issuance of the governor's $10 billion
pension obligation bond. In 1995, the legislature tried to solve the
funding problem by passing a 50-year funding plan to get the
pensions up to a 90 percent funded level by 2045. However, instead
of catching up on its pension liability, the state fell even further
behind. In fact, in the time between when the 1995 law was signed
and when Blagojevich took office in 2003, the state's pension
liability increased by another $23 billion -- thus raising the
pension liability to $43 billion. In 2005, the governor initiated
and passed a pension reform package to reduce the state's liability
by 2045 by $45 billion, including capping state funding of
end-of-career salary increases for teachers, independently
determining the State Universities Retirement System interest rate
and removing non-high-risk positions from the alternative formula.
Additionally, the state employee head count was reduced by 13,000
since 2003, saving $5 billion in long-term obligations.
* * *
In summary, without raising taxes on Illinois families,
Blagojevich's fiscal 2007 budget makes significant investments in:
Health care
Provides health care
to every child
Launches health care
for veterans
Funds stem cell
research
Reduces the nursing
shortage
Job creation
Expands tax credits
that help businesses create jobs
Streamlines taxes and
regulations to save businesses time and money
Proposes a jobs bill
that would create 230,000 new jobs
Public safety
Provides funding for
new police officers
Creates meth prisons
Launches the Prairie
State DNA Institute
Strengthening the
state's pension systems
Streamlining
government and cutting costs
"State budgets are supposed to help people," said Blagojevich.
"And, I'm proud of the work we've done over the last three years.
We've helped them get access to health care, afford their medicine,
go to preschool and help them go to college. But we can do more if
we pass this budget. We can fund lifesaving medical research. We can
create hundreds of thousands of jobs. We can put more front-line
police officers on our streets. We can make life a little easier for
1 million Illinois professionals who depend on us to be able to
work. We can make state government more efficient, and we can
strengthen our pensions. But, we can't do it alone. This is a budget
that reflects our priorities, and I hope to work with all of you to
pass it."
