 Because of provisions
in the Emergency Budget Act of fiscal 2011,
committees in both the state House of Representatives and state
Senate will have to decide how to spend the finite amount of money
the state is expected to collect during the next fiscal year.
The law, passed in the previous General Assembly, is the result of
what's been a perpetually messy budgeting process and calls to rein
in spending for a state mired in a multibillion-dollar deficit.
The change is a stark departure from the past two years, when the
legislature approved how much the state could spend and then let the
governor decide how to divide it among state agencies, a practice
referred to as lump-sum budgeting.
State Sen. John Sullivan, D-Rushville, said that a smaller pool of
money to draw on necessitated the lump-sum budgeting.
"That was basically to try to give the governor and the Office of
Management and Budget the ability to make decisions within different
agencies’ budgets as how best to spend the money they have
available," Sullivan said.
State Rep. Mark Beaubien Jr., R-Barrington Hills, doesn't see the
past two years in quite the same light. He said the legislature
failed to live up to its duties by giving Gov. Pat Quinn a check but
no direction on how to spend it.
"We abdicated our responsibility and said to the governor, 'Here's
the budget; you deal with (it),' and that's not what the legislature
should be doing," said Beaubien, the GOP budgeteer in the House.
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Now the legislature will have its responsibility back, which could
be a double-edged sword because before the legislature can decide
how to spend, or cut, it must first know how much it can spend.
Appropriations committees in both chambers will be given a revenue
figure for the next fiscal year, out of which a portion for each
state agency must be carved, according to the new law.
"This year they're going to be forced to make some very tough
decisions, because you get education, human services -- all the
sudden they recognize, 'Hey, wait a minute, we have responsibility
now in making this work,'" Beaubien said.
Both Beaubien and Sullivan have been in the legislature for several
election cycles and dealt with many budgets. Both also serve on
appropriations committees alongside freshmen lawmakers. However,
seniority won't protect either from the new law's learning curve,
Sullivan said.
"This is going to have to be an ongoing dialogue between OMB, the
(state) agencies and the appropriation committees as we kind of work
through this process. So it's going to be an education for all of
us," Sullivan said.
[Illinois
Statehouse News; By ANDREW THOMASON]
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