[il-talk] an Associated Press story that mentions the schools

[Bill Reif]

This appeared in today's Springfield State Journal-Register.  I imagine 
other papers have carried it as well.  Note the mandated procedures that 
must occur before the schools, and probably most state institutions, are 
closed or scaled back.  It is a different matter for contract providers.

Bill

Threats of severe budget cuts nothing new in Illinois
Photos
Illinois Budget_Pisc.jpg
File/The Associated Press Gov. Pat Quinn is making his case for higher 
income taxes
by reiterating what will happen without it - 10,000 state workers losing 
their jobs.
By
DOUG FINKE (doug.finke at sj-r.com)
THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER
Posted Jun 20, 2009 @ 11:24 PM
The situation was dire, the governor said.
The state needed more money, he said, and taxes needed to be increased. If 
not, thousands
of state employees would lose their jobs and state facilities would have to 
close.
Sounds like 2009, but it was Gov. James Thompson in 1987 during another of 
the state's
financial crises.
Such problems for Illinois are nothing new. Neither is the practice of 
governors
threatening drastic consequences if state revenues aren't increased.
Thompson did it. Rod Blagojevich did it. And now Gov. Pat Quinn is making 
his case
for higher income taxes by reiterating what will happen without it - 10,000 
state
workers losing their jobs.  Developmental centers will close. Payments to 
foster
parents will be cut in half.
The problem in getting lawmakers, and the public, to take such consequences 
seriously
is that previous threats did not come to fruition.
"We've kind of gone down this 'sky-is-falling' doomsday scenario before," 
said Kent
Redfield, political scientist at the University of Illinois at Springfield. 
"It's
been done with enough regularity through the years for people to not take it 
seriously."
Redfield, though, noted that the budget problems are much worse this year 
than ever
before, and it would be dangerous to simply dismiss the possibility of 
drastic cuts
as idle threats.
The district represented by Rep. Jim Watson, R-Jacksonville, could take a 
big hit
if Quinn follows through. The administration says the Illinois School for 
the Deaf
and School for the Visually Impaired, both in Jacksonville, will close 
unless the
state comes up with more money.
"I have to look at it like this is legitimate," Watson said. "I can't play a 
game
of 'chicken' with the education of these kids and the several hundred jobs 
there."
At the same time, there are procedures the state must follow, both when 
planning
to close facilities or laying off workers. The American Federation of State, 
County
and Municipal Employees, which represents thousands of state workers, has 
said it
will insist that procedures for closures and layoffs be followed to the 
letter.
The Quinn administration hasn't started the process for either. Layoff 
notices must
be issued 30 days before employees lose their jobs. As of late last week, 
none had
been issued.
Dan Long, executive director of the Commission on Government Forecasting and 
Accountability,
also said no paperwork has been filed to initiate the facility-closure 
process.
"I don't know that it's that dire. That may have been fabricated a little," 
said
Sen. Larry Bomke, R-Springfield, of the claim that 10,000 state employees 
will have
to be cut from a
workforce of roughly 55,000.
At the same time, Bomke said that if taxes aren't raised, he thinks Quinn 
will have
no choice but to begin making spending cuts and eliminating some jobs.
"I just don't know that I believe it will be that many," Bomke said.
"These are the despicable kinds of threats that do come out of governors, 
put on
the backs of the most vulnerable people in society," said Rep. David Leitch, 
R-Peoria.
"We've heard this before."
"Even if I voted for the tax hike, where is the assurance their (human 
service) programs
would be covered," he added.
Rep. Frank Mautino, D-Spring Valley, has worked extensively on budget 
issues. He
said he doesn't need convincing that the situation is real.
"I've known it was real for months, and I tried to let (fellow Democrats) 
know with
the budget exercises," Mautino said. "The cuts can be handled differently, 
but how
ever they try to massage them, they will have an impact. Without new 
revenues, these
things will happen."
Sen. Dale Risinger, R-Peoria, said his calls are running about 50-50 on the 
tax hike
issue.
"They think we are not doing all we can to avoid raising taxes," Risinger 
said of
the opponents.  He said many callers find it galling that human services are 
about
to be cut while unionized state workers are still scheduled to get a pay 
raise July 1.
"That doesn't make any sense to my constituents," Risinger said.
Republican leaders Rep. Tom Cross of Oswego and Christine Radogno of Lemont 
continue
to hold out for money-saving changes to Medicaid, pensions and other areas 
as a condition
for getting Republican votes on a tax hike. Radogno has gone so far as to 
refer to
the situation as a "manufactured crisis."
"I believe it is a manufactured crisis to the degree we do not need those 
draconian
cuts July 1," Radogno said. July 1 is the start of the new fiscal year.
History has shown, though, that even the skeptical change their minds. In 
1989, House
Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, delivered a speech to the House in which 
he picked
apart Thompson's earlier dire warnings.
"We were told that if we did not pass the $1 billion tax increase that 
thousands
of state employees would be laid off," Madigan said then. "Well, what really 
happened
was that nobody was laid off and in that year the administration hired 3,000 
new
workers.
"We were told that if we did not pass the tax increase, that one of our 
largest prisons,
the Menard penitentiary would be closed," Madigan continued. "Well, as you 
know,
Menard is still operating."
After talking about how frugal the state had been, Madigan added, "This is a 
state
which does not automatically see the solution of every problem expressed in 
a call
for higher taxes."
Four months later, Madigan unveiled an income tax hike and pushed it through 
the
House in a matter of hours.
Doug Finke can be reached at 788-1527.