The Illinois General Assembly is trying to finish its work and adjourn for the summer, but major issues remain unresolved despite passing a state budget earlier this week.
Pension payment?
The Illinois House this week voted to borrow nearly $4 billion needed for the state to make its scheduled payment to the pension systems.
Borrowing was the best option since the most likely alternative would be for the state to take a “pension holiday” and forgo the payment until next year, weakening the pension systems and incurring billions of dollars in additional debt.
To ensure the pensions are paid as promised, the Illinois Senate needs to approve the House plan to borrow. That is no slam-dunk. Doug Finke at Gatehouse reports
“I have been told there are no votes in the Republican caucus for borrowing,” said Sen. John Sullivan, D-Rushville, one of the Democrats’ budget negotiators.
The Senate did not return to Springfield until late Wednesday afternoon and did not take up any budget issues. Both parties planned to hold private meetings with members Wednesday to talk over positions on the remaining budget issues.
Sen. Larry Bomke, R-Springfield, said Republicans have not yet taken a position on the pension borrowing bill.
“The governor called me (Tuesday). I said I will consider it. Right now, I haven’t ruled it out or decided to support it,” Bomke said.
It’s worth noting that Bomke represents Springfield and thousands of state workers who want their pensions funded.
What can IEA members do?
Keep in touch by checking the IEA Website and the IEA Twitter feed and the IEA facebook page. It might become necessary to urge IEA members to call their senators about pension borrowing, but we’ll have a greater sense of that later.
Vouchers
The plan to divert nearly $100 million in public dollars to private and religious schools in the city of Chicago has been on life support for two weeks, but could be brought back to life on the Illinois House floor today.
The Chicago voucher bill, which was 12 votes short of passage on May 5, has been amended in an effort to make it more palatable, but the changes are merely cosmetic.
One change is that there is now a sunset provision; the voucher program supposedly would end in 2020. However, that is misleading because the amendment also states that students who have received a voucher by 2020 can continue to receive vouchers as long as they remain in school, so the voucher program could actually last beyond 2030.
Also added to the bill is a provision that says any private school whose student body is comprised of at least 20 percent voucher students must test all of their students “…in the same manner as Illinois’ public schools.”
It appears likely that the cost of such testing, if it ever occurs, would be paid by the state. Of course, there is no money budgeted for that.
What can IEA members do?
The buzz at the Statehouse is that vouchers could be reintroduced Thursday morning. Please call the Illinois Statehouse at 217/782-2000, ask for your state representative and urge that representative to oppose SB2494, the Chicago voucher bill.
What about the budget?
Since the Illinois House refuses to consider revenue in an election year, key state programs, including education, will be taking big hits.
According to this report from AP , K-12 education will be cut $585 million or nearly 8 percent, with higher education being cut 4.5 percent. Meanwhile, medical care for the poor would be cut ten percent and the Department of Children and Family Services would be cut 28.7 percent.
It’s not a coincidence that issues of great importance to education employees are being resolved at the time of year when it is hardest to mobilize IEA members. We will try to inform you in a timely fashion, but things are likely to happen quickly and perhaps without notice.
Stay in touch.