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The $59 billion budget for
fiscal 2007, which Democrats drafted ignoring Republican input, was
passed by a strictly partisan vote on Thursday. Brady says
citizens will pay a heavy price for a budget funded by pension
raids, record-high state debt and a record-high backlog of unpaid
bills. The Senate Republican Caucus prefers a return to fiscal
discipline and prioritized spending rather than the governor's
financial schemes that delay repayment and saddle future generations
with staggering debt.
"Governor Blagojevich is trying to be all things to all people,
and in the process he is bankrupting the state," Brady said. "He
robs the pensions of teachers, prison guards and road crews to pay
for pork projects. He proposes new and bigger entitlement programs
while Medicaid providers wait months to be paid, and his very own
All Kids program, which was supposed to pay for itself, faces a
fiscal shortfall. His slippery budgeting endangers the stability of
longtime programs like CHIP, which provides coverage for people who
might not otherwise be able to find insurance."
The state's current budget, for fiscal 2006, began by raiding
$1.2 billion from pension funding, and the fiscal 2007 budget will
siphon off an additional $1.1 billion. Brady noted that the Chicago
teachers' pension system will not be shorted, however. It will
receive $75.2 million and be funded at 80 percent, while the
suburban and downstate teachers' system will be funded at 60
percent.
In the last three years, Blagojevich has borrowed more money than
any other governor in the past 20 years. He has increased spending
by $3 billion over the last three years, and this year's budget will
increase by an additional $1.4 billion.
Fiscal year 2006 will end with more than $1.8 billion in unpaid
bills, but Medicaid eligibility has been expanded every year of the
Blagojevich administration, so that one of every seven Illinoisans
is now enrolled in Medicaid.
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 Funding for elementary and secondary education will increase by
just $170 per student, and categorical programs, such as
transportation and special education, will get only an additional
$56.7 million -- hurting suburban schools that typically get more of
their state funding through categorical grants than through the
state school-aid formula.
Brady also noted a stark contrast in the funding increases for
state-supported universities. Chicago State and Governor's State,
both in the Chicago region, get 6.5 percent each, while other
schools get increases of 2.5 percent or less, as follows: Illinois
State, 1.3 percent; Eastern, 1.4 percent; Northeastern, 2.0 percent;
Northern Illinois, 1.2 percent; Southern, 2.5 percent; U of I, 1.8
percent; and Western, 1.5 percent.
Many lawmakers are also concerned that the budget does not
provide adequate funding to address understaffing at Illinois
prisons, which poses a serious safety threat to correctional
employees and to the communities in which the prisons are located.
Brady said his biggest disappointment was that the budget does
not do more to promote economic development and jobs. "In his first
year, Governor Blagojevich raised 300 taxes and fees, sending jobs
across the state line," Brady said. "Illinois is currently 45th in
the nation in job growth, and median household income has fallen
$6,000 in recent years," he said. "This governor does not seem to
understand that Illinois' economic future depends solely on creation
of jobs."
The budget also includes about $256 million in spending add-ons
to sweeten the budget deal as a means of ensuring its passage. To
pay for this added spending, the governor and his allies are taking
more than $200 million from dedicated state funds, which will affect
such areas as state income tax refunds, in the amount of $44
million; railroad crossing safety, at $4 million; trauma centers, $5
million; health insurance reserves, $21 million; and tourism, $7
million.
Fiscal 2007 runs from July 1, 2006, through June 30, 2007.
[News
release from
Sen. Bill Brady] |
