Illinois Senate week in review

[July 10, 2010]  SPRINGFIELD -- On the heels of Gov. Pat Quinn's budget outline for fiscal 2011, state Sen. Larry Bomke, R-Springfield, says that Comptroller Dan Hynes released a final fiscal 2010 report that verified "Illinois ended the year in the worst fiscal position in its history."

At the end of the fiscal year, which concluded on June 30, the state's General Revenue Fund balance was negative $4.692 billion -- the lowest budgetary balance in Illinois history.

The backlog of Illinois' unpaid bills was a historically high $4.712 billion. Last year, the backlog was $2.785 billion.

Lacking revenue to pay the state's bills, in June it took a record 153 working days for the comptroller's office to reimburse vouchers. At the same time in 2009, the delay was 99 days.

Unfortunately, the report doesn't predict any relief on the horizon.

In fact, Hynes anticipates that even with an economic boost or with additional revenue that may come from budget cuts, borrowing measures or tax increases advanced by Quinn, "the state will likely end fiscal year 2011 with a GRF bill backlog significantly higher than that at the end of fiscal year 2010."

The report also notes that the traditional Aug. 31 deadline, known as the "lapse period," for the state to pay all its fiscal 2010 bills has been pushed back until Dec. 31. According to Hynes, Illinois would not be able pay its obligations by the end of August. But getting all those bills paid by December will also be a challenge.

The report notes that "even with the extension of the state's lapse period … it will be extremely challenging to close out fiscal year 2010 and maintain key functions of state government."

And because a large portion of the fiscal 2011 revenue must be used to pay the previous year's bills, Hynes warns that payment delays next year are likely to be even longer than what Illinois saw in 2010.

Also this week, a measure (Senate Bill 3658) intended to provide some financial relief to Illinois' working families was signed into law (Public Act 96-1012) on July 7, though critics say that now isn't a good time for the new law to create an annual sales tax holiday on back-to-school gear.

Although the fiscal impact is unknown, the cost of the sales tax holiday has been estimated from $20 million to $50 million. Since Illinois is billions of dollars in the red, some say this isn't the right time to initiate any program that's going to cost the state money.

Opponents point out that many other working families are being hurt by the state's budget crunch, not excluding Illinois schools, which are struggling to make ends meet as state reimbursements lag further and further behind. They contend that Illinois shouldn't be creating any programs until its budget woes are addressed.

This year, the tax holiday begins on Aug. 6 and extends through Aug. 15. Though 5 percent of the state sales tax will be eliminated for back-to-school goods, local sales taxes will still apply.

Qualifying items include clothing that costs less than $100 per item, outerwear, uniforms, shoes and school supplies, like book bags, notebooks, lunchboxes, etc. Notable non-qualifying items include certain sports equipment and recreational footwear, computers and computer supplies, certain specialized art supplies, and electronics, such as cameras, video cameras and cell phones.

Finally, the governor took action on legislation (Senate Bill 3269, Public Act 96-1011) that requires all DNA evidence that is gathered from a reported sex crime to be submitted to the Illinois State Police for forensic testing in a timely manner.

The legislation was pursued after a media investigation revealed that often rape kits were not tested. As a result, many sexual assault crimes went largely uninvestigated and unsolved. The new law is also expected to absolve some people who may have been wrongly convicted of a crime, and to help some victims find closure.

For sexual assault evidence collected from 30 days before the Sept. 1 effective date of the bill, the evidence must be submitted to a state police forensic testing lab within 10 business days of its collection. The lab has six months to analyze the evidence, if the lab has "sufficient resources" to do so.

For evidence collected more than 30 days before the effective date of the bill, police departments must make arrangements within 180 days of the Sept. 1 effective date to have the evidence submitted to a state police forensic lab.

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