The fiscal 2007 budget does not
raise sales or income taxes and ensures:
-
Illinois will become
the only state to start giving all 3- and 4-year-olds in the
state access to preschool.
-
All children will
have access to affordable and comprehensive health insurance.
-
220,000 students will
receive help with the high cost of college tuition.
-
Overcrowded
elementary schools will have smaller class sizes.
-
Uninsured, low-income
veterans will have access to health care.
-
Senior citizens will
be able to get help for a wide range of needs in one place.
-
Illinois' nursing
profession will grow.
-
DNA tests will be
processed faster and in state labs, and more police officers
will be on the streets.
-
More women will
receive breast and cervical cancer screenings and treatment.
-
Businesses licenses
will be processed in to one to four weeks, down from 19 weeks.
-
Illinois will
guarantee access to affordable, comprehensive health insurance
to all children.
The Illinois General Assembly passed the $45.8 billion operating
budget on May 4.
"This budget is the culmination of four years of changing the
priorities of state government and doing things that no one thought
was possible," said Blagojevich. "We've dramatically changed where
we invest our dollars, and in doing so, we've shown Illinois is a
state that prioritizes wisely. I am proud to sign this budget today
because we're guaranteeing health care and preschool to every child,
making historic investments in our schools, helping seniors and
veterans access quality health care at a cost they can afford, and
have been able to do so without raising taxes on our hardworking
citizens. No one thought we could do all this, but we did, while
making government more efficient and effective by reducing the
bloated bureaucracy by 13,000 employees, consolidating state
agencies, closing unfair corporate tax loopholes and using unspent
special-interest dollars to help pay for our priorities. This is a
budget that reflects our priorities and one we should all be proud
of."
The budget for fiscal 2007, which starts July 1, includes
significant new investments in education, health care and public
safety, as well as new initiatives to streamline state government
and keep our environment healthy.
Investing in children
For the fourth consecutive year, Blagojevich has provided a major
increase in education funding -- $415 million more for K-12
education in the upcoming year. The budget also funds new
initiatives proposed by the governor, including preschool for all 3-
and 4-year-olds and a pilot program to reduce class sizes in
kindergarten through third grade.
This budget represents more new money invested in education than
by any other state in the Midwest, more than 43 other states in the
nation and more than any other administration in Illinois history.
Over the past four years, Blagojevich's record investment totals
$3.8 billion in new funding into Illinois schools.
Preschool for All
The Preschool for All program makes Illinois the only state in
the nation to begin providing access to high-quality preschool for
every 3-year-old and 4-year-old child in Illinois. The program,
which guarantees that in the end approximately 190,000 Illinois
children will have the chance to attend preschool, will reach
working families who are not able to afford the high cost of private
preschool. Funding for preschool programs is increasing by $45
million this year, allowing 10,000 new children to get an early
start on their education. Participation in the program is voluntary
for parents.
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.
The Preschool for All legislation,
Senate Bill 1497, was sponsored by Sen. Kimberly Lightford,
D-Westchester, and Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago.
Helping middle-class families pay for college
Continuing his commitment to make college more affordable for
working students and families, Blagojevich provided the MAP program
with its largest increase in 10 years, a boost of 10 percent over
fiscal 2006, and created a new program to help middle-income
families as well. With a new investment of $34.4 million, he created
MAP Plus to help middle-class families that didn't receive the
traditional MAP program and struggle to afford rising college
tuition costs. MAP Plus will provide a grant of $500 per student for
sophomores, juniors and seniors who attend college in Illinois and
come from families with incomes less than $200,000.
An additional increase of $34.4 million was added to the
original MAP grants to increase the grant awards to their statutory
maximum of up to $4,968. In total, 225,000 students will benefit
from the creation of MAP Plus and the additional funding for MAP.
Senate Bill 2225 was sponsored by Sen. Edward Maloney,
D-Chicago, and Rep. Kevin McCarthy, D-Orland Park.
Classroom size reduction
Because smaller classes mean more attention for each student from
the teacher and a better learning environment, Blagojevich included
$10 million in the new budget to help schools pay for additional
teacher salaries and benefits.
Senate Bill 2882, sponsored by Sen. Terry Link, D-Lake Bluff,
and Rep. Michael Smith, D-Canton, creates a pilot program that will
distribute $50,000 grants equally among suburban, downstate and
Chicago Public Schools.
Increase for higher education
The new budget boosts funding for higher education by $48
million. Universities will receive more than $26 million to help
attract and retain the best faculty and increase other school
programs, and community college grants will increase by almost $7
million.
After-school programs
After-school programs will have $12 million more to provide
educational and extracurricular activities for children after the
school bell rings. These programs keep children engaged in
productive activities at times when their parents may still be at
work. After-school programs provide a safe, nurturing environment
for kids, keeping them safe while helping with schoolwork, providing
mentorship and offering stimulating extracurricular activities.
Foster care
The fiscal 2007 budget includes a $20 million increase to pay for
a 3 percent cost-of-living adjustment for foster parents with the
Department of Children and Family Services and a similar adjustment
for certain community providers for the department. The increase
will improve compensation for those who care for children who have
been taken into the state's custody and for other vulnerable
populations.
Expanding access to health care
Since taking office three years ago, Blagojevich has made health
care available to more than 400,000 working people and their
children. On July 1, his landmark All Kids health insurance program
will go into effect, giving every uninsured child in Illinois access
to affordable, comprehensive health coverage. The governor also
created the Illinois Cares Rx 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. The budget furthers
the governor's belief that health care is a fundamental right by
launching a new comprehensive health care program for veterans, in
addition to new programs to streamline services for seniors, educate
more nurses in Illinois and an increase in funding for lifesaving
breast and cervical cancer screenings and treatment.
The Kaiser Foundation ranks Illinois No. 1 in the nation in
providing insurance for working adults who don't have access to
affordable health care. Over the past three years, Illinois has
provided free breast and cervical cancer screenings to 98,000
uninsured women, launched the Healthy Women program, offered free
health care to 167,000 women, and awarded 77 women's health
initiatives grants for local education programs.
Veterans Care
After serving their country in the military and putting their
lives on the line to defend our freedom, veterans should expect to
be treated with dignity when they return home. Too often they are
forced to get by without access to affordable health care. In
response, Blagojevich worked with state legislators to launch
Veterans Care, a new program that will provide affordable and
comprehensive health care to an estimated 9,000 veterans who are
most likely to fall through the cracks. The new program will help
uninsured Illinois veterans ages 19-64 who earn too much to qualify
for federal Department of Veterans Affairs assistance or other state
health programs. Just as the governor turned KidCare into All Kids,
the ultimate goal of Veterans Care is to ensure every Illinois
veteran can afford health care.
Senate Bill 627 was sponsored by Sen. Debbie DeFrancesco
Halvorson, D-Chicago Heights, and Rep. Frank Mautino, D-Spring
Valley.
Senior services
In an effort to better serve senior citizens, the budget includes
$7.8 million 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 clients' needs and a broad array of
other services. Additionally, through a 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 to help seniors stay in their homes longer 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 new budget also increases the asset limit for state
assistance to $17,500 from $12,500, with an additional $10 million
investment to provide additional emergency home response and respite
services for seniors living at home.
Nursing shortage
To address the critical nursing shortage facing Illinois, $1.3
million is dedicated for nursing education scholarships, to make
pursuing a career in nursing education more attractive and more
affordable in the state of Illinois. In addition, the governor
allocated another $1.5 million for grants 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.
The fiscal 2007 budget also contains funding to create a Center for
Nursing that would develop a strategic plan for nursing manpower in
Illinois, maintain a database on nursing supply and demand, and
create nursing retention and recruitment initiatives. The governor
also worked with Sen. Carol Ronen, D-Chicago, and Rep. Lou Lang,
D-Skokie, to pass legislation that creates a student loan repayment
program for nurse educators.
Residential nursing care
The fiscal 2007 budget provides an additional $30 million in
state and federal funding to nursing homes to ensure that they are
held harmless as the state transitions to a new method for
determining nursing home Medicaid reimbursements.
Breast and cervical cancer screenings
Blagojevich has consistently made women's health a priority, and
this year 7,000 more women will have access to breast and cervical
cancer screening and treatment because of an additional $3.6 million
in funding, combined with $2 million more in federal funding. The
new funding will increase eligibility for lifesaving breast and
cervical cancer screenings to women with incomes up to 250 percent
of the federal poverty level, which is approximately $25,000 for an
individual or $50,000 for a family of four. The governor has
provided $26.6 million in funding for women's breast and cervical
health programs over the last four years.
[to top of second column] |
 Children's mental health services
The new budget includes a $5 million increase for children's
mental health services. The increased funding will expand mental
health services to children and is based on recommendations made by
the Children's Mental Health Partnership.
Minority AIDS outreach
To expand state efforts to slow the disproportionately high rate
of HIV/AIDS among minorities, the new budget increases funding by $3
million for programs to combat the disease in the African-American
community.
Strengthening public safety
Blagojevich included several new public safety initiatives and
funding commitments in the new budget, to better protect people from
the destructive cycle of drugs and violent crime. These initiatives
follow three years of strong public safety commitments, including
increasing the state's investment in DNA testing by $7.3 million
from 2004 to 2006 and opening a $12 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 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 the new budget to begin
training 100 new Illinois State Police cadets. Two new cadet classes
of 50 officers each will be trained in fiscal 2007, with the first
class beginning this summer and the second beginning in June of
2007. In addition, the budget includes $8.4 million to purchase
approximately 300 police cars.
Prairie State DNA Institute
In order to improve training and retention of forensic scientists
and enable the state to bring all DNA testing in-house, where it's
less expensive and more efficient, the budget for the upcoming year
includes $500,000 to create a program to offer scholarships at
various Illinois universities and $1.8 million to begin planning
construction on the Prairie State DNA Institute. While the
turnaround time for testing forensic samples was significantly
reduced to about 30 days from more than 10 months at the beginning
of 2003, delays last year at outside laboratories increased the
turnaround time for a forensic sample to 75 days. With the new
Prairie State DNA Institute, the state will no longer be forced to
outsource cases, making the turnaround time to process samples
faster and reducing the error rate. The scholarship program will
ensure the lab a steady stream of well-trained forensic scientists
who would train for a period of time while they're still in college
and in return would be obligated to work in state labs for four
years.
Combating meth
Blagojevich provided full funding in the fiscal 2007 budget for
the creation of a specialized 200-bed treatment unit for inmates
with meth addictions at the 667-bed Southwestern Illinois
Correctional Center. The new unit, which will receive $1.9 million
from the state and $4.78 million from the federal government, is
modeled after the Sheridan National Model Drug Prison and Reentry
program, which has shown tremendous success, with a reincarceration
rate that is nearly 50 percent lower than other groups.
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 meth laws are among
the toughest in the nation.
A new investment of $1.6 million will implement pilot programs in
19 counties to improve security at anhydrous ammonia tanks and
ultimately reduce meth production.
Preparing prisoners for re-entry
Additional funding of $5.7 million for the Department of
Corrections will increase programming in support of parolee
re-entry, including interview skills and transitional employment.
These efforts to prepare inmates to return to their communities will
build on Blagojevich's emphasis on reducing recidivism.
The new budget also includes $6.7 million to open a portion of
Thomson Correctional Center to house minimum-security inmates. The
facility will open Sept. 1.
Promoting renewable energy and preserving the environment
Home-grown fuels
In order to help reduce reliance on foreign oil and promote
cleaner, locally made fuels, in the coming year the state will
provide $20 million for investments in alternative fuel and
renewable fuel facilities -- biodiesel and ethanol -- and $5 million
for renewable fuels research at Southern Illinois University and
Western Illinois University.
Preserving natural habitat
In the next year, the state will invest $29 million to preserve
open space. The budget includes $15 million for the purchase of
hunting lands, $12 million for increased grants from the popular
Open Space Lands Acquisition and Development Program, and $2 million
to begin to conduct a Natural Areas Inventory. The new funding for
the Natural Areas Inventory is part of a $4.5 million commitment
over three years.
Economic development and business growth
Riverfront redevelopment
The budget includes funding for the governor's River Edge
Redevelopment Initiative, which was passed by the General Assembly,
to encourage developers to clean up and develop environmentally
contaminated riverfronts. The Illinois EPA is receiving an
additional $5 million in a capital appropriation to implement the
initiative. The initiative will be launched in Aurora, Rockford and
East St. Louis -- newly designated "River Edge Redevelopment Zones."
Each designated municipality would be eligible to receive up to $2
million to investigate and remediate brownfield sites within the
zone.
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 sites. The River Edge Redevelopment Zones are in
areas adjacent to rivers that have economic development potential,
but the cost of redevelopment has made attracting investment
extremely difficult. The redevelopment zones will be eligible to
receive tax credits, exemptions and potentially new grant funding to
support cleanup, remediation and redevelopment efforts that will
lead to economic revitalization in these areas.
EPA also has an existing Municipal Brownfields Grant Program that
is not limited to the designated zones. Municipalities must also
apply for the existing program.
Senate Bill 17, the bill creating the River's Edge Revelopment
Initiative, was sponsored by Sen. James Clayborne, D-East St. Louis,
and Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia, D-Aurora. State Sen. Ira Silverstein,
D-Chicago, and state Rep. Chuck Jefferson, D-Rockford, sponsored
Senate Bill 1892, which includes Rockford in this pilot program.
Expanded air and passenger rail service
The next year will see more passenger rail service and the
attraction of more regional air carriers. The state boosted its
investment in Amtrak by more than $12 million, allowing passenger
rail service to start new lines serving Springfield, Milwaukee, St.
Louis, Carbondale and Quincy. The budget includes $1.6 million in
grants to promote regional commuter air service at Quincy, Decatur
and Williamson County airports.
Licensing reform
To further improve the state's ability to create and retain jobs,
Blagojevich included $1.6 million to simplify and streamline the
licensing process for 200 professions, including doctors, nurses,
accountants, realtors, roofers, appraisers, real estate brokers,
barbers and beauticians. With the new licensing reform in place, the
time it takes to complete the process will be reduced to only 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. More than 1
million people rely on the state to grant or renew their
professional license.
Minority job training
A $6.4 million investment in fiscal 2007 will be used to improve
minority participation in pre-apprentice and apprenticeship
programs. In addition, funding for local and regional work force
training and community development is increased by $10 million.
Film tax credit
Over the last two years, the film industry in Illinois has taken
off. To keep it going, Blagojevich will sign legislation enhancing
Illinois' film and television production tax credit.
Senate Bill 2030, proposed by the governor and sponsored by
state Sen. Rickey Hendon, D-Chicago, and state Rep. Ken Dunkin,
D-Chicago, increases the film tax credit, making productions in
Illinois even more attractive to producers. In 2005, production
revenue increased to an estimated $94 million, which led to
approximately 15,000 people being hired by various film and
television projects.
Making government smaller
To continue streamlining state government and improving services
for citizens, Blagojevich is launching the shared services
initiative, which will combine state agency "back-office" functions
and eliminate duplicate services. 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. This initiative will
combine administrative functions of human services, payroll and
benefits, accounting, and procurement across state agencies to
reduce operating costs and head count. Also, with as many as 23,000
employees of the baby boomer generation 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. Under shared services, agencies will be
grouped into clusters based on similar function -- for example:
public safety, social services and infrastructure. When fully
implemented, the shared services initiative could save taxpayers
more than $115 million a year.
= = =
In summary, Blagojevich signed a budget for fiscal 2007 that
makes significant investments in:
$415 million
increase for K-12
Preschool for All
Creation of MAP
Plus to help middle-class families pay for college
$34 million
expansion of funding for the current MAP program
New grants for
classroom size reduction
$48 million
increase for higher education
Health care
Provides health
care to every uninsured child
Launches Veterans
Care to cover uninsured veterans
Reduces the nursing
shortage
Makes breast and
cervical cancer screenings available to more women
Job creation
Expands tax credits
that help businesses create jobs
Streamlines taxes
and regulations to save businesses time and money
Reduces red tape
and simplifies the licensing process for hundreds of professions
Public safety
Provides funding
for new police officers and new police cars
Creates a new
facility designed to help incarcerated meth addicts recover
Launches the
Prairie State DNA Institute
Streamlines
government and cuts costs through a shared services initiative,
combining state agency back-office functions.
And for the fourth
consecutive budget, does all of this without asking the
hardworking people of Illinois for more of their money in income
taxes or sales taxes.
[News release from the governor's
office] |
