Pritzker lays out $49.6 billion spending plan
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[February 16, 2023]
By PETER HANCOCK
Capitol News Illinois
phancock@capitolnewsillinois.com
SPRINGFIELD – Gov. JB Pritzker on Wednesday laid out a $49.6 billion
spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year that calls for significant
new spending for early childhood education and efforts to combat
homelessness among other areas.
He also claimed credit for putting the state back on more secure
financial footing.
Speaking to a joint session of the General Assembly, Pritzker delivered
a combined State of the State speech and budget address in the House
chamber since his pre-pandemic address in February 2020.
Pritzker’s proposed budget appeared to signal a transition to a post-COVID
kind of normalcy, with a focus on typical state issues like education,
health care and social services as opposed to grappling with a public
health disaster and the economic calamity that came with it.
“The last time I stood here seems like a lifetime ago,” Pritzker said.
“So many fiscal challenges laid ahead. And so much progress has been
made.”
Pritzker came into office in 2019, succeeding Republican Gov. Bruce
Rauner, whose single term was marked by a two-year budget impasse that
resulted in a nearly $17 billion backlog of past-due bills and multiple
credit downgrades. But with those old bills paid and credit rating
agencies now giving the state upgrades, Pritzker appeared to revel in
pointing out the contrast.
“In the age-old fight between happy warriors and misery’s carnival
barkers, we’ve shown that if we resolve to do it, happy warriors win
every time. And we are winning,” he said. “Which is why, here in
Illinois in 2023, I’m confident in saying the state of our state is
stronger than it has been in decades, and we’re getting stronger every
day.”
Early childhood ‘Smart Start’
The signature new program in Pritzker’s proposed budget is a multi-year
plan called “Smart Start” that aims to expand child care services and
make preschool available to every 3- and 4-year old in Illinois whose
parents or guardians seek it over the next four years.
Beginning with a $250 million appropriation in the upcoming fiscal year,
Pritzker said his proposal would add 5,000 preschool spots in the
upcoming year – the first in a four-year plan to increase those seats by
20,000. That quarter-million-dollar proposal would also stabilize
funding for child care services to enable providers to boost workers’
salaries, and increase funding for early intervention services and home
visits to reach families in need.
“Thanks to our stronger fiscal standing, we can afford to do this,”
Pritzker said. “And as every provider, teacher, and parent in this state
knows, we can’t afford to wait.”
The plan also calls for spending $100 million from the Rebuild Illinois
capital improvements program to build and upgrade child care buildings
and facilities, including in areas he called “early childhood deserts,”
essentially doubling the amount of money originally allocated for that
purpose.
“Smart Start Illinois will save taxpayers $7 for every one dollar
invested and will vault Illinois to national leadership in early
childhood development,” he said. “Enhancing quality early care and
education is a win-win solution for re-mobilizing parents in the
workforce, enhancing brain development and kindergarten readiness,
saving taxpayers money, and increasing economic activity now and in the
decades ahead.”
K-12 education
Pritzker is also proposing a $350 million increase in Evidence Based
Funding for K-12 education, which is the minimum year-over-year increase
required under the 2017 law that overhauled school finance in Illinois.
Of that money, the first $50 million is used to fund property tax relief
grants to districts that apply for them. The other $300 million is
distributed primarily to school districts that are furthest away from
their funding adequacy target.
That amount is consistent with what the Illinois State Board of
Education had requested, but other school advocates, including Advance
Illinois and the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, have urged
the state to put in even more money.
During a House committee hearing Tuesday, Advance Illinois president
Robin Steans said that if the state only adds $350 million a year to the
EBF formula, it would take until the year 2038 to reach the law’s goal
of bringing all districts up to 90 percent of their adequacy target.
“And that is another 15 years, and that is a generation of students who
will be in schools who will be in schools that are underfunded, in some
cases by significant amounts,” she said. “So from our point of view, and
we hope and trust from yours, that's too long.”
Steans urged lawmakers to raise the minimum annual increase to $550
million – including the $50 million in property tax relief grants –
which she said would put the state on track to reach the 90-percent
adequacy goal within eight years.
Rep. Will Davis, D-Homewood, who chairs the budget committee that deals
with K-12 education, said in an interview after Tuesday’s hearing that
the final amount that goes into EBF funding will be a subject of
negotiation.
“I personally would like to see it more than $550 (million),” he said.
“I mean I'd rather us get to full funding quicker rather than later. But
it's not a decision that I make in a vacuum by myself. It requires
others participating and communicating. So we'll see where we land.”
The added spending brings ISBE’s total budget to $10.3 billion, or
roughly 20.5 percent of all General Revenue Fund spending.
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Gov. JB Pritzker lays out his spending
plan for the upcoming fiscal year during his annual State of the
State and budget address. (Pool photo by Brian Cassella, Chicago
Tribune)
Higher Education
While campaigning for reelection last year, Pritzker talked about
wanting to make college education free for people who met certain
income guidelines, and on Wednesday he claimed the budget he is
proposing would go a long way toward accomplishing that.
Pritzker called for a $100 million increase in funding for Illinois’
Monetary Award Program, or MAP grants, the state’s needs-based
scholarship program.
That would bring the total amount of MAP funding to $701 million, a
75 percent increase compared to the year Pritzker came into office.
According to the governor’s budget office, when combined with the
federally-funded Pell Grant program, the increase in MAP funding
would allow nearly every community college student and 40 percent of
public university students whose household incomes are at or below
median income levels to attend college free of tuition and fees.
The plan also calls for a 7 percent increase, or $100 million, in
basic operating funds for community colleges and public
universities, which he said would be the largest increase in more
than two decades.
“This is yet another way for us to make college more affordable,”
Pritzker said. “After years of decline, we're seeing growth across
higher education in Illinois that's well above the national average.
This is our moment to take it all to the next level.”
The governor’s proposed higher education budget also calls for a
number of investments geared toward workforce development: $8.3
million for dual credit and noncredit workforce grant programs; $11
million to develop advanced manufacturing, EV technology and data
center workforce training programs; $25 million for the Pipeline for
the Advancement of Healthcare, or PATH Workforce Program; an
additional $2.8 million for the Minority Teacher Scholarship
program; and $750,000 to expand English language services.
Homeless services
Pritzker also proposed a $50 million increase in services for people
experiencing homelessness, bringing total funding in that area to
$350 million, through a program he called “Home Illinois.”
Pritzker said it’s estimated that over 120,000 people in Illinois
experience homelessness annually, including 76,000 children, and
that Black people are eight times more likely to experience
homelessness than white people.
“But the faces of Illinoisans with no home to go to are not
homogenous,” he said. “They include single parents with infants and
toddlers. Sixth graders trying to complete their homework using
toilets as a desk in temporary shared housing and LGBTQ-plus high
schoolers who were kicked out of their homes by their parents.
Homelessness is not an identity. It's a set of circumstances.”
That money would go toward a variety of programs, including
prevention services, emergency shelter, short-term rental
assistance, development of new permanent supportive housing units,
street outreach and employment assistance.
Pritzker’s budget proposal also calls for additional spending to
combat poverty, including a $50 million increase in Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, and $20 million for a new
Illinois Grocery initiative to eliminate food deserts by opening and
expanding grocery stores in underserved areas.
State of the State
In addition to laying out a budget plan, Pritzker also spoke about
social and political issues facing the state and nation, including
the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the enactment of anti-abortion
legislation in other states, including those that border Illinois.
Restrictions on abortion access in other states have resulted in a
sharp increase in demand for abortion services in Illinois, where
the procedure remains legal. That prompted Democratic lawmakers to
take action during last month’s lame duck session, passing an
omnibus reproductive health care law aimed at increasing the number
of abortion providers in Illinois.But Pritzker said he intends to
continue speaking out for abortion rights.
“There are women in this country right now who are facing untold
mental and physical anguish because of the fall of Roe v. Wade,” he
said. “Here in Illinois women know their rights are protected. But
that doesn't take away our obligation as Americans to speak up for
the rest of the nation and we will keep doing it.”
He also commented on other social and political trends in the United
States, including a rise in antisemitism, censorship and
discrimination against the LGBTQ community.
“There is a virulent strain of nationalism plaguing our nation, led
by demagogues who are pushing censorship, with a particular attack
right now on school board members and library trustees,” he said.
“It's an ideological battle by the right wing hiding behind a claim
that they would protect our children, but whose real intention is to
marginalize people and ideas they don't like.”
He said addressing such matters “doesn't stop with just snuffing out
ideas.”
“This afternoon, I've laid out a budget agenda that does everything
possible to invest in the education of our children,” he said. “Yet
it's all meaningless if we become a nation that bans books from
school libraries about racism suffered by Roberto Clemente and Hank
Aaron, and tells kids that they can't talk about being gay.”
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