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* House Republican Leader Tom Cross teamed up yesterday with former GOP gubernatorial candidate Adam Andrzejewski to call for a “forensic audit” of the state budget…
[Andrzejewski] said during the Blagojevich and Quinn administrations, even other elected officials and government agencies couldn’t get a handle on how large state government has become and how much state government is spending.
“The comptroller said we have 252 state programs. Auditor [Bill] Holland said we have 1,750, and he said we had more but he couldn’t quantify the number. Auditor Holland said we have 100 state agencies. The comptroller said we have 69. We don’t even know the basics of Illinois financial data,” said Andrzejewski.
Andrzejewski said if an audit could straighten-out those inconsistencies, Illinois could find $1.25 billion in savings.
House Leader Cross wouldn’t go that far. But said there could be some money found which could be better spent.
Some of those differences are about semantics, but he has a good point.
Andrzejewski told the SJ-R in January that the cost of the audit would be at least $60 million. The auditor general would be in charge of this project, but the current fiscal year’s appropriation for the auditor general’s office is $24.3 million all funds, including $6.8 million GRF. So, a $60 million project would be unprecedented for that office.
The House Speaker’s office was not impressed…
The price tag is one reason House Democrats are dismissing the idea.
“I question what the motivation is and why you’d want to spend tens of millions of dollars when the state is broke,” said Steve Brown, spokesman for Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan. “It’s a huge waste of money.”
Brown also said the study would essentially duplicate the auditor general’s responsibilities.
Cross’ resolution was introduced yesterday and is now in Rules Committee. You can safely bet that the HGOPs will make a stir on the floor to get that thing released.
* In other budget-related news, Mayor Daley will try not to let Gov. Quinn cut state trooper patrols in Chicago…
The Daley administration will strongly oppose Gov. Quinn’s plan to impose State Police cutbacks so draconian, they would require Chicago Police to assume primary responsibility for patrolling 53 miles of Chicago area expressways, City Hall sources said today.
State Police have had exclusive control over Chicago area expressways since 1985. That’s when 12 months of negotiations between then-Mayor Harold Washington and then-Gov. Jim Thompson culminated in a deal that transferred responsibility to the state in exchange for the right to sell lottery tickets at O’Hare Airport.
Sources said Mayor Daley will attempt to hold the state to that agreement on grounds that Chicago cannot afford what amounts to an unfunded mandate from the state.
If they didn’t put it into statute, I’m not sure he can hold Quinn to it. We’ll see.
* Mayor Daley has also turned thumbs down on the idea of switching to a four-day school week to save money…
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley says a four day school week isn’t the answer to school funding issues.
That’s after the Illinois House of Representatives passed a measure giving local school districts the option of closing schools one day a week, while offering longer school days. The move would save schools money on transportation and utilities.
But Daley says it would place an unfair burden on parents.
DALEY: Again, when you think four day school week, what do parents then do on a Friday or a Monday or a Wednesday? Many parents are working. A single parent has to work. And so how do they afford then… what do they do with their child? There’s so many problems with this issue.
And so does the Daily Herald…
We always encourage schools and lawmakers to work together to save money and improve learning. For a rural district with long bus routes, the reduced transportation costs - along with salary savings on other nonunion personnel such as food service workers - might save enough to make this worth considering.
However, we doubt this kind of change would be a good fit for suburban districts, which generally have a smaller percentage of students taking buses and travel a shorter distance. Lifestyle issues such as child care and activities also would make a four-day school week more of a hardship.
Some extremely rural Downstaters like it, though…
“We would save $100,000 or more a school year … (if we) run the buses one less day a week. I turn the heat off an extra day a week. Your cafeteria is open one day less a week,” said Mark Janesky, superintendent of Jamaica School District in Vermilion County.
His district, with less than 500 students, covers 110 square miles. The cost savings in busing alone would be substantial, he said.
“We’re out in the middle of a cornfield,” he said. “Under the circumstances, busing is a huge issue for us.”
* There was a microscopic bit of good news on the budget front…
Illinois’ prison population declined by 313 inmates in 2009, says the Pew Center on the States, adding to an annual decrease in the number of inmates in state prisons nationwide for the first time in nearly four decades.
In a report titled, “Prison Count 2010,” Pew says the number of inmates in state prisons nationwide dropped .4 percent in 2009 – the first decline since 1972. That equates to about 5,700 fewer prisoners, out of about 1.4 million in state prisons across the United States.
“After nearly four decades of uninterrupted growth, an annual drop in the state prison population is worthy of note, no matter the scale of decline,” Pew says. “However, it is too soon to say whether the 2009 decline will be a temporary blip or the beginning of a sustained downward trend.”
The decrease in Illinois comes after nearly 2,000 Illinois inmates were released early from state prisons in 2009, and many were subsequently re-incarcerated when public outcry forced a halt to the early release program. Illinois currently holds about 45,000 inmates in facilities designed for about 31,000.
* Related…
* Cash crunch hits more schools
* Illinois school budgets at the breaking point
* Profile shows schools’ finances slipping; things only to get worse
* Universities in Illinois Are Closer to Borrowing Money
* Quinn’s business tax credit advancing
* AFSCME Opposes Merge of Youth Prisons And Children Services
* Cost of state homes may go up for vets
* $$ down the drain
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 10:52 am
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Don’t even try to find waste. Thanks for thinking of us, Steve.
Comment by Joe from Joliet Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 10:59 am
I’m not against a “forensic audit,” per se, but it’s been my experience that there’s a goldmine of material for those who care to do the reading in the current Auditor General’s work product.
Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 11:00 am
And that reading will provide the raw material to start, there’s no need to rework tools we already have. In addition, there is reporting requirements to the OEIG on abuses so some of the responsible parties can, you know, actually face some discipline for misconduct.
Comment by John Bambenek Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 11:08 am
And for clarification, under the Illinois Auditing Act, a resolution is sufficient to begin such an audit even if its done in only one chamber.
Comment by John Bambenek Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 11:08 am
Save the $60 million. I just took the initiative and did my own audit of the state budget, and found HUGE, glaring misappropriations:
- Illinois is spending $2.25 billion this year on something called “Debt Service”. Who is Debt and why are we spending over 2 billion to service him? That’s an awful waste of money.
- The state is spending $24 million this year on circuit breakers? Sounds like a corporate handout to Home Depot.
- And the State is giving $1.8 million to a program for Sexually Violent Persons? So, what, you get rewarded for that now?
If I found just these three, by the “Law of the Chicago Tribune(TM)”, that must mean there is 100 times the waste. That means I just saved the state $225 BILLION.
Your welcome.
Comment by George Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 11:20 am
The union may be right about the merger.
A major problem with Juvenile Justice appears to be the failure to obtain necessary resources for children including taking advantage of federal funds for hiring. It’s not clear how joining up
with DCFS will fix that problem. Better to
replace the Blagojevich appointee who has run JJ
for the past five years and his upper level management staff and find somebody who knows how to access and use resources. Instead, Quinn proposes tacking the agency on to DCFS, which has its own management problems, along with, no doubt, a slew of highly paid new political positions to “coordinate” the merger.
More importantly, DCFS has a poor history of direct management of child care facilities, and as I understand it, Juvenile Justice does direct care. Some of us up here in the Chicago area remember the headlines when DCFS ran its own network of emergency shelters in Cook County in the 80’s and 90’s. Things got so bad that babies were actually dying in the state shelters, which were totally unequipped to handle the high risk infants they were receiving. After the local press made a fuss, the whole shelter program was outsourced to Maryville, at huge expense.
The kids in the JJ shelters are not infants but they have a host of other problems including mental illness, drug addiction and various chronic illnesses exacerbated by growing up in poverty. Let’s not make things worse.
As Ben Franklin (I think) said-experience is a dear school but fools learn in no other. We’d be the fools if we let DCFS run these shelters.
Comment by cassandra Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 11:25 am
Circuit breaker is a program for low income seniors and disabled - many are living on something like $8000 a year.
You are welcome too!
Comment by talking points Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 11:47 am
Umm… I was being facetious.
Comment by George Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 11:53 am
LOL, Talking Points, since George was channeling the great Emily Latella, I think you owe him a “Never mind — (#@%&)!”
Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 12:07 pm
Joliet Joe:
Gotta love when it is non-readers day on the blog!
I think all can agree that StateWideTom failed to make the case for a $100 million forensic audit.
No one,except Blagoof and his hacks. ever disputed Bill Holland’s work. Perhaps during the AG’s next spin around the dome he can drop off a few auditors near room 316 to see what floats to the top.
Comment by CircularFiringSquad Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 12:49 pm
Daley is not opposed to taking control of the expressways. He wants a deal that all the money collected from DUIs, traffic tickets, etc. on the interstates go 100% to the city coffers. And he’ll get it.
Comment by Corey Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 12:55 pm
Corey,
That must be resisted at all cost. Giving Daley more power and incentive to squeeze citizens for money would be a disaster.
Law enforcement should be free of any financial incentives to any policing bodies. To do otherwise is begging for corrupt practices.
Comment by jaded voter Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 1:22 pm
What is the problem with allowing, but not requiring school districts to run a 4 day school week? Local Boards and Councils would have another tool to help control costs and they, not someone in Springfield would determine whether that is right for their kids and families.
That brings up another point which is the regulatory authority of the Illinois Board of Education. When will someone go through the rules that are joisted on the schools by this group on the schools and throw out the unnecessary ones? It seems that running a school district with less bureaucracy would be more efficient. Cheaper too
Comment by Plutocrat03 Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 1:24 pm
Forensic Audit—YES, YES.
We should have elected this guy. Don’t let anyone hide. Go Adam A, Go!
Comment by jaded voter Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 1:25 pm
Jaded Voter,
I agree, completely. Not of fan of Richie at all.
Comment by Corey Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 1:43 pm
@wordslinger who said..I’m not against a “forensic audit,” per se, but it’s been my experience that there’s a goldmine of material for those who care to do the reading in the current Auditor General’s work product. This is too true. If there can’t be one on the budget, the AG should do an audit on the Healthcare and Family Services’ Inspector General’s office which is charged with FRaud and Abuse and collectin funds, but instead does covert surveillance after work on state employees.
Comment by really? Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 3:55 pm
let’s see….state broke…too much money. Isn’t that the same reason Roland Burris continued to be our senator?
Comment by Park Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 4:25 pm
JJ is a failure, DCFS is just as bad. Return it to DOC.
Comment by Tobor Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 4:29 pm
A forensic audit in Kansas saved $1 billion. One in Texas saved $8 billion. Illinois should save somewhere in the neighborhood of $5 billion based on those numbers br ferreting out the waste, fraud and abuse in state government. Investing 60 to 100 million in a forensic audit becomes a no brainer.
Comment by Jon Zahm Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 7:27 pm
Wait!! hold the phone… Jon Zahm and Tom Cross seem to be on the same team??
Comment by Still Gettin Twisted Thursday, Mar 25, 10 @ 11:33 pm