Senate Week in Review

Feb. 18-22

[February 23, 2008]  SPRINGFIELD -- Gov. Rod Blagojevich outlined his $49.7 billion budget proposal for the coming fiscal year to mixed reactions, and Senate members continued their consideration of legislation in committees during the week of Feb. 18-22, according to state Sen. Larry Bomke, R-Springfield.

Bomke said Blagojevich’s sixth budget once again relies on increased spending, higher debt and more hits on businesses that employ Illinois citizens. The governor did offer some tax breaks to citizens and expressed an interest in passing a capital improvement program. Senate Republicans have been trying for several years to pass an equitable capital improvement program with a stable, responsible funding source.

In passing a budget this year, lawmakers will have to contend with the state’s lackluster job growth. Illinois is 45th in the nation in job growth since Blagojevich took office. According to federal jobs numbers from December, Illinois has a 2.5 percent job growth rate, while Iowa has a 5.9 percent rate, followed by Wisconsin at 4.3 percent, Kentucky at 4 percent, Missouri at 3.9 percent and Indiana at 2.8 percent.

Bomke says strong job growth -- not huge tax increases -- is a better way to address budget woes. If Illinois had kept pace with the national average in job growth, it would have more than 213,000 additional jobs today, which would mean more than a half-billion dollars in additional tax revenues.

Legislation approved by Senate committees during the week of Feb. 18-22 includes the following:

Retirement interest (Senate Bill 1958) -- Allows the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund article to pay interest to employees who quit and forfeit their pension credits by taking a contribution refund.

Farmland preservation (Senate Bill 1992) -- Allows counties to levy a 0.05 percent property tax for farmland preservation with the approval of voters in a front-door referendum.

College payments (Senate Bill 2044) -- Allows divorced parents who pay for college for their adult children to be told via court order where their child is going to school.

Sexual abuse (Senate Bill 2049) -- Increases penalties for a second or subsequent conviction of aggravated criminal sexual abuse from a Class 2 felony (three to seven years) to a Class 1 felony (four to 15 years).

[Text from file sent on behalf of Sen. Larry Bomke by Illinois Senate Republican staff]