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The governor's proposal, announced at a Chicago press conference
Tuesday, includes selling the state's annual revenue stream from the
Illinois State Lottery to a private investor in return for a large
upfront windfall of cash, which he estimates would total $10
billion. [Related
article] However, several newspaper editorial boards have
already pointed out that the governor's plan would leave a $2
billion-per-year hole in the budget after only four years, calling
the plan a "quick infusion of money" that "spends tomorrow's
revenues on today's needs."
Senate Republicans maintain that while education funding is an
issue that needs to be tackled, any proposal needs to reflect
careful thought and consideration as to the feasibility of
implementing such a plan and the long-term consequences that may
accompany it.
Furthermore, lawmakers question why the governor, if he is truly
committed to reforming education, did not present the plan during
the spring legislative session and work on a bipartisan, responsible
and effective solution.
The senator noted that lawmakers also have cause for concern
based on the administration's dismal track record for introducing
radical money-raising ideas that ultimately fail or completely
backfire. In the past three years, he has advocated doubling the
number of gaming positions to generate money for schools; legalizing
keno to pay for school construction; selling the Toll Highway
Authority headquarters, the state's main office building in Chicago
and Illinois' 10th riverboat license; and eliminating the State
Board of Education. Those proposals have not met with success.
Also worth noting, the Blagojevich administration has an affinity
for underfunding its current commitments and redirecting money for
new projects when the money has already been designated for specific
purposes. Just last week, Blagojevich signed
Senate Bill 1520, which authorizes him to raid another $1.1
billion from the pensions of downstate and suburban teachers, after
having pilfered $1.2 billion from the same retirement systems in
2005.
Other legislation signed into law this week:
AIDS/HIV (Senate Bill 1001) -- Creates a new special fund to be
used for grants to programs to prevent HIV transmission and for
other activities that are consistent with the African-American
HIV/AIDS Response Act.
Banks (House Bill 4736) -- Provides that any bank that operates
in Illinois must operate under the jurisdiction of the Check Printer
and Check Number Act.
CPA review (House Bill 4726) -- Requires firms and individuals
licensed under the Illinois Public Accounting Act to undergo peer
review in order to renew their license.
County board of health (Senate Bill 2798) -- Provides that when a
eight-member county board of health assumes the responsibilities of
a municipal department of public health, and both the county board
and the city council adopt resolutions or ordinances to that effect,
the county board may, by resolution or ordinance, increase the
membership of the county board of health to 10 members.
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 Credit reporting (Senate Bill 2310) -- Allows any consumer to
place a security freeze upon their credit report. Allows a consumer
reporting agency to charge a fee of up to $10 to place, remove or
temporarily lift the freeze, with exemptions from the placement and
removal fee if the consumers are older than 65 or are victims of ID
theft.
Diabetes Commission (Senate Bill 2483) -- Creates the Illinois
State Diabetes Commission within the Department of Human Services.
The commission will consist of members who are Illinois residents
and shall include an executive committee appointed by the secretary
of the department.
DXM (House Bill 4300) -- Provides that a drug product containing
dextromethorphan may not be sold, delivered, distributed or
possessed except in accordance with the prescription requirements of
the Illinois Controlled Substances Act.
Homestead exemption (House Bill 4789) -- Re-enacts the assessment
freeze homestead exemption for senior citizens and increases the
income limit from $45,000 to $50,000, increases the homestead
exemption from $3,000 to $3,500, and amends the Senior Citizens Real
Estate Tax Deferral Act to increase the maximum income limit from
$40,000 to $50,000.
Medicine administration (Senate Bill 2898) -- Requires schools to
allow students to use an epinephrine auto-injector.
Red light enforcement (House Bill 4835) -- Allows Cook, DuPage,
Kane, Lake, Madison, McHenry, St. Clair and Will counties to
establish red light enforcement camera systems at intersections.
Revenue stamps (Senate Bill 2241) -- Requires the Department of
Revenue to establish a system to allow a recorder or registrar of
titles of a county to purchase the revenue stamps electronically
from the department and deliver the electronically purchased stamps
to the recorder or registrar of titles.
Safe to Learn (House Bill 2706) -- Reinstates the Safe to Learn
program, a grant program operated by the Illinois Violence
Prevention Authority to support and fund school-based safety and
violence prevention programs.
Skills Match program (Senate Bill 2449) -- Requires all executive
branch entities, public universities and constitutional officers to
use the Illinois Department of Employment Security's Skills Match
program or provide the department with links to their human resource
pages, with the links to be used on the Skills Match website.
Illinois Vehicle Code (Senate Bill 2233) -- Requires Secretary of
State Police inspectors to ensure that automotive repairers are in
compliance with the Collision Repair Act when the inspectors conduct
their annual audits as part of the license renewal process. Also,
the bill requires that notice must be provided in private parking
lots where vehicles abandoned or left unattended without permission
are subject to removal by a towing service.
[News release from
Illinois
Senate Republicans]
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