More pain in Quinn’s budget
BY DAVE MCKINNEYand Stephen Di Benedetto Staff Reporters February 16, 2011 12:50PM
Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM
SPRINGFIELD — Despite January’s income-tax hike, the $52.7 billion budget Gov. Quinn proposed Wednesday relies on near-historic amounts of borrowing and cuts programs that pay for prescriptions for the elderly, health care for the poor and bus service for Illinois schoolchildren.
Quinn billed his 2012 spending plan as a pathway to “financial stability” and “economic prosperity,” but critics from both parties described the governor’s budget package as financially out-of-whack, and human-service providers predicted the state’s most vulnerable citizens would face a “devastating” blow.
“While we have taken strong action to stabilize our budget, we are still in a tough fiscal situation. As a result, the spending reductions I am presenting today are tough, as well,” the governor said during a sober, 27-minute budget address to the General Assembly.
“The difficult choices we make today will ensure that we are able to provide essential services to families and businesses across the state,” he said.
The governor did not call for any new tax or fee increases and wants to impose spending cuts of about $1 billion. More than half would come from the state’s Medicaid program that provides health care to the needy.
The linchpin of Quinn’s plan, which raised spending by $1.7 billion, is an $8.75 billion borrowing proposal that the administration says would be directed toward billions of dollars in unpaid state bills and be repaid over 14 years.
“This is not ‘new’ borrowing,” the governor said. “Billions of dollars of existing bills will not go away by magic. With debt restructuring legislation, we have the opportunity to jumpstart our economy by paying our vendors today — an immediate injection of billions into our economy.”
But that component, which failed to pass during the previous legislative session that ended in mid-January, appears already to be on budgetary life support because Republicans in the House and Senate, whose votes are now necessary on borrowing, are against it.
“We basically think the governor’s financial plan is fundamentally flawed, and we need to get back to the drawing board,” said Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont).
“The bottom line is when you strip away the rhetoric and look at the numbers, this proposal increases spending by $1.7 billion and relies upon a portion of this borrowing not to pay back bills but to support spending we simply cannot afford,” she said.
House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago), who praised Quinn’s speech as good “by the governor’s standards,” said he believes Quinn’s plan exceeds caps on state spending that were imposed as part of the January income-tax hike.
“We feel that this budget is in violation of those spending controls by about $720 million so that will be the first point of difference between the governor and the Legislature,” Madigan said on the “Illinois Lawmakers” public-television program.
“I’m confident we’ll work our ways through those differences, but my commitment in Illinois budget-making this year is to live within those spending controls,” Madigan said.
The cuts Quinn laid out include the elimination of Illinois Cares Rx, a Medicare prescription-drug supplement that impeached ex-Gov. Blagojevich launched in 2006. The move will save more than $100 million.
The governor also proposed scrapping the state Circuit Breaker program, which provides property-tax and pharmaceutical assistance to 488,000 low-income senior citizens. Quinn said that cut would save $24 million, but the move — coupled with other cuts targeting seniors — drew wrath from AARP Illinois.
His plan “will result in seniors losing their homes, wondering where their next meal will come from and losing access to life-sustaining medications,” said Nancy Nelson, AARP’s senior advocacy manager.
Quinn also proposed a $552 million cut from health-care providers who service the state’s Medicaid population, which also drew criticism.
“We are deeply concerned that the proposed cuts to the Medicaid program will have a devastating impact on the wellbeing of hundreds of thousands of Illinoisans and the financial stability of many hospitals across the state,” said Maryjane A. Wurth, president of the Illinois Hospital Association.
The governor’s plan cuts funding to the state Division of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse by $53 million, which drug-prevention advocates said could leave nearly 19,000 residents — more than half in Cook County — without drug-treatment services by July.
“Crime rates, domestic violence incidents and traffic accidents will explode across Illinois. Gov. Quinn will have to answer for the consequences,” said Sara Moscato Howe, CEO of the Illinois Alcoholism and Drug Dependence Association.
And education spending, normally a budgetary sacred cow in Springfield, was not spared, either.
While Quinn proposed a $261.9 million increase in general state aid for schools, he also wants to take $95 million in reimbursements away from public school districts for transportation costs, a cutback aides said the districts could absorb without property-tax increases.
Additionally, Quinn proposed naming a commission to study consolidating some of the state’s 868 school districts, a move he said ultimately could lead to $100 million in savings to the state.
Quinn, who gave only a fleeting reference to some of these unpopular cuts in his speech, did not directly address the state’s crippling pension problems in his address. Nor did he draw any lines in the sand about whether he would support cutting back future pension benefits for existing state workers, as Madigan seems willing to entertain.
And in his speech, the governor drew applause for proposing funding increases for the state Monetary Assistance Program that gives college scholarships to low-income students but a smattering of boos from legislators for seeking an abolition of the scandal-tainted legislative scholarship program.
Quinn closed out his budget address, talking about his vision for the state.
“In my Illinois, our children go to safe, top-notch schools that prepare them for the rigors of the global economy. The parents of Illinois earn a decent wage, and their employers give them the opportunity to have a good, middle-class standard of living,” the governor said.
“Our homes are energy-efficient, technology-connected and are easy to maintain thanks to Illinois innovations. Everybody in, nobody left out when it comes to building a better Illinois,” Quinn said.
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