 Budget plans in the Illinois House for higher education, public
safety and general services are headed for full debate this week,
while agreements on elementary and high school education and human
services are close to a resolution."The House will have the
budget done by next week," said state Rep. Luis Arroyo, D-Chicago.
Unlike previous years, the Illinois House has delegated a larger
role for its budget committees in determining next fiscal year's
budget. The chamber set last Friday as the informal deadline to
finalize detailed numbers for its estimated $33.2 billion total
budget for next fiscal year.
State Rep. Kenneth Dunkin, D-Chicago, who heads the budget
committee on higher education, said his group made it under the
House's higher education budget goal of $2.1 billion by targeting
for-profit schools through the state's Monetary Award Program, or
MAP.
"We had to make cuts, and the committee decided that cuts towards
for-profit schools were far easier than cuts to the opposite
(not-for-profit schools)," said Dunkin, who hoped the funds might be
brought back on the Senate side, which is dealing with a larger
$34.3 billion total budget plan.
MAP funds were reduced by $17 million, which represents the
largest cut for the higher education budget, Dunkin said. The
program's grants offer financial aid to Illinois residents who
attend approved state colleges and demonstrate financial need.
General services also stayed in the black, making the largest
cuts to those agencies that had a record of mismanagement based on
audit reports, said state Rep. Fred Crespo, D-Streamwood, who
chaired the appropriations committee for general services. The
agencies with records of mismanagement were Department of Revenue,
Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, and the Department
of Central Management Services.
About 15 percent was cut across the board from fiscal 2011 from
the three agencies, said Crespo, who pointed to smaller cuts for all
agencies in telecommunications and contractual services.
After spending hours debating individual line items, "we realized
we (couldn't) keep nickel-diming this thing," Crespo said. "We need
to look at fundamentally how to make big cuts to really bring down
that number."
General services was allotted $1.2 billion in the House budget
proposal.
Arroyo, charged with divvying up $1.6 billion for the public
safety budget, didn't want to release details yet, but he said about
13 agencies that use general revenue funds have been decided and
will be put to a vote this week.
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For elementary and high school education, state Rep. William
Davis, D-East Hazel Crest, expects to keep most spending flat, with
most of the cuts coming from general state aid. As a result, school
districts should expect 96 percent of a fully funded budget.
School transportation was the only line item that saw increased
funding, Davis said.
"We left the table with something to give the Republicans to look
at. I do not know if they will or will not agree with this idea.
That wasn't decided when we parted company," said Davis, who
emphasized that the budgeting process for $6.8 billion was still
ongoing.
State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago, head of the budget
committee for human services, could not be reached for comment.
Because human services makes up 50 percent of the state budget, it
is expected to see the most cuts in order to come in less than its
allotted $12 billion.
Despite the largest portions of the state budget still up in the
air, Jim Nowlan, senior political science fellow at the University
of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, called the process on target for
this time of the year.
"I don't think it's a cause for worry. The budget will be adopted
at some point," Nowlan said. "I don't think it's going to develop
into a problem for the operation of the state."
Even after House numbers are finalized, the Senate and House
still have to agree on a budget before sending it to the governor's
desk by May 31. Any budget measure passed after that date will
require a three-fifths vote, which will require Democrats to rally
Republican votes.
Democratic leadership may, however, want to push past that
deadline in order to get Republicans on record, Nowlan said.
"It may be valuable to the leadership of the Democratic Party,
who may be able to point to bipartisanship ... in the process, but
it would be a disadvantage to the liberals in the Democratic
caucuses," Nowlan said.
Although Christopher Mooney, a political science professor at the
University of Illinois in Springfield, agreed with Nowlan, he also
issued a caveat, calling the strategy speculation without
confirmation.
"Unless you are involved and have personal impact on (the
political process), the best thing you can do is ignore (reports on
the budget) for now," Mooney said. "In the long run, when the thing
is done, we'll know what's happening."
[Illinois
Statehouse News; By MELISSA LEU]
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