Legislative Budget Oversight Commission not ‘pure oversight,’ member says

[January 26, 2022]  By Greg Bishop

(The Center Square) – Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is scheduled to deliver his budget address next week. State lawmakers on a budget oversight commission have been getting monthly reports on how tax money, including federal COVID-19 relief, is spent in Illinois.

A law creating the Legislative Budget Oversight Commission in 2020 is set to expire in July. State statute creating the commission requires a monthly report from the Pritzker administration on state spending and how federal COVID-19 relief is being expended.

“The Legislative Budget Oversight Commission is statutorily prescribed to have quarterly meetings and public forums to review budget reports released by the Governor’s office,” state Sen. Bill Cunningham, D-Chicago, said in a statement to The Center Square. “The Commission has had numerous public meetings and continues to fulfill all prescribed requirements.”

Those monthly reports are posted at the website for the Governor's Office of Management and Budget.

The report for December shows the month's revenue up more than 7% over budget. For the year, revenues are up 1.5%.

Expenditures for the month are 8.6% lower than budgeted. Year-to-date, spending is 6.8% higher.
 

The December report shows for COVID-19 funds, Illinois state government received nearly $6.4 billion combined from the two federal COVID relief programs and has spent about $3.6 billion of that.

Commission member, state Sen. Don DeWitte, R-St. Charles, said the commission does not provide as much oversight as the group’s title suggests.

“It’s really more of a monthly status of the state’s financial condition rather than what people would consider to be a pure oversight commission where we get input to where is the revenue going, where’s the expenditures going,” DeWitte told The Center Square.
 

At the most recent meetings, DeWitte said some sought more information on the unemployment trust fund debt.

“What are the governor’s intentions with regards to the billions of dollars in federal aid still coming to the state,” DeWitte said, “and will that money be used to take care of debt service that has been generated because of COVID and particularly the unemployment trust fund.”

It’s unclear how the state’s $4.5 billion unemployment trust fund debt will be addressed. It’s also unclear how much fraud there’s been in the system from throughout the pandemic.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s annual budget address is scheduled the same day as his State of the State Address, Feb. 2.

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