* My syndicated newspaper column this week is about the end of session…

The Illinois General Assembly usually tries to adjourn by the end of May. That hasn’t worked out too well the past few years as partisan bickering, the state’s huge budget problems and the bloody war between former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and House Speaker Michael Madigan forced months-long overtime sessions.

The last time the Legislature truly got out early was in 1999, when then-Senate President Pate Philip demanded they adjourn by April 15th. After legislators left town, I didn’t know what to do with myself. There were no statewide elections at all the following year, which meant that absolutely nothing was going on in the political world. So, I went to Kosovo to cover the war and then took my daughter on a tour of Europe and went with my dad to Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. It was quite an adventure. Later that year, I went to Cuba during then-Gov. George Ryan’s official visit. I have fond memories of that year. I actually had a life back then.

This year, though, the calendar says the General Assembly plans to adjourn by May 7th. I haven’t really experienced a May without grueling work hours since those halcyon days of 1999, so that pleases me. But I’m not holding my breath because of all the carnage I’ve seen the past few years. I just can’t bring myself to believe.

The early adjournment idea isn’t going down well with everyone, however. The plan at the moment is to pass a budget that’s billions of dollars out of balance and inform Gov. Pat Quinn that he is now in charge of figuring out how to pay the bills. Newspaper editorial boards are already warning legislators not to sneak out of town before truly “solving” the problems or they will pay heavy consequences.

One of the demands issued last week by some of the thousands of protesters who descended on Springfield to press for higher state taxes and lower budget cuts was that lawmakers stay in town, finish the job and abandon their early adjournment dreams.

“(I)f you try to leave town without doing your job, we are going to chase you. And when you come back home, we will be there,” warned Henry Bayer, the Illinois director of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees.

So far, though, legislative leaders are still hoping to at least partially meet that May 7th adjournment target. The idea at the moment is to try to finish work on all “substantive” legislation by the 7th, and then return for the last week or so in May to put the final touches on the budget and deal with anything else that comes up in the interim.

But several high-level Democratic legislators are quite nervous about this plan. The perception of a “vacationing” General Assembly while the state sinks ever deeper into a financial and economic morass frightens them to no end. They’ll be sitting ducks, the members worry. Better to finish the whole thing by the 7th or, even better, just work through the whole month, even if there is little or nothing to do.

A big factor playing into the timing of the General Assembly’s summer adjournment will be whether the Republicans, particularly the House Republicans, support more borrowing. The governor wants to borrow billions of dollars to meet the state’s pension payments. But that borrowing has to be approved by a three-fifths vote in the General Assembly, and they can’t do that in the House without the Republican minority. If the House Republicans don’t get on board, the budget will take far longer to craft and will be very “ugly,” one top Democrat said last week. If they do get on board, it’s possible that the Legislature could wrap up everything by May 7th.

That doesn’t appear to be in the cards, however. The Republicans have no incentive to allow Democrats to conclude business early. The longer they’re in town, the longer the Republicans will have easy access to the media to make their case that the Democrats are incapable of governing.

I learned long ago that when it comes to the Illinois Statehouse, don’t ever get your hopes up about adjournment schedules and always bet on nothing ever getting done. That way, you’re never disappointed. Well, you’re still disappointed, but it’s a little easier to digest.

* Meanwhile, Jim Nowlan takes a look at a perhaps unspurprising aspect of education funding…

More recently, school districts that operate under property tax caps (metro-Chicago counties and some downstate counties) were given grants to make up for growth in local property wealth that could not be taxed fully because of the caps.

Guess which school district participates in the general state aid formula, has a very high percentage of poverty students and has had rapid appreciation of property values.

Chicago.

As a result of these relatively new elements in the formula, almost all of the $1.3 billion in new funding for state aid in the past five years has gone to poverty grants and state-funded property tax grants, largely for Chicago schools.

Yikes.

* Related…

* Quinn’s bad Monday: As Monday dawns, Quinn is an increasingly lonely proponent of a tax hike. The Civic Federation comes out Monday with a 95-page rejection of the governor’s proposed budget for the fiscal year that starts in 10 weeks. The support for a tax hike? Gone. Laurence Msall, the federation’s president, sounds exasperated with Quinn and Democratic legislative leaders. “They haven’t lived up to our expectations,” he says. “They haven’t cut spending. We see no evidence that they’ve tried.”

* Civic Federation zaps Quinn’s state budget: “Borrowing five to six billion dollars for operating expenses neither balances the budget nor helps ensure next year’s budget crisis will be any better,” federation President Laurence Msall said. What Illinois needs is a budget “that does not make the situation worse,” he added.

* Daley suggests people should decide fate of video gambling in Chicago: “It’s not me, it will be the people who decide this,” Daley told reporters. “If you put it on the ballot, you’ll find out what the people want.” “You do your surveys and find out,” Daley added when asked if he thinks Chicagoans would support the measure. “One thing they don’t want, they don’t want their taxes increased, you know that.”

* Lawmakers, chamber receptive to slots at track: When told of the possible deal that would put video slot and poker machines at Arlington Park and other tracks, state Rep. Suzie Bassi said she supported the idea because the slots would be put in areas already under the microscope of gambling regulators. Bassi, a Palatine Republican, said that made it much easier to support than video gambling at bars.

* VIDEO: Henry Bayer’s speech to last week’s protest

* Higgins on the budget

* Quinn’s Language on Tax Increase Getting Stronger: “This is a heroic battle, an epic battle for education in Illinois… I’m going to fight until the last dog dies, until we get proper funding for education in the Land of Lincoln… Your oath is to the people, not to politics as usual, not to an election year. You’ve got to do hard things.”

* Illinois Gov. Quinn urges veterans to take advantage of state, federal services

* VIDEO: Andy McKenna talks Illinois school voucher legislation

* Lawrence: Mental health services in a bad state

* It’s easy to miss when there isn’t a target: Of course, if Quinn has been vague about where he will cut, the Republicans have been equally vague about how big the cuts should be. Although Sen. Chris Lauzen, R-Aurora, put out a figure of $2 billion to $3 billion the other day, Republicans mostly don’t talk specific numbers. As long as there is no target, you can always charge that Quinn failed to hit it.

* Pension crisis took decades to create, one day to ‘fix’: Quinn’s budget director said there’s no interest in skipping payments or extending the 50-year plan to lower this year’s payment. Quinn has sought an income-tax increase to help cover education funding, which could free up state funds for use elsewhere. But its prospects for approval this session are dim.

* Show guts on state cuts

* Pensions for 131 school retirees top $150,000 each annually

* Local Galesburg sales tax for schools sparks debate

* CPS, Teachers Union Team Up To Oppose School Cuts

* U46 could get millions from state: Elgin School District U46 is nearer to receiving tens of millions more in state financial aid, as state lawmakers take a step to closing a loophole in the district’s funding process.

* Belvidere School District 100 Plans for Future School Years: The state may cut $1.3 billion from Illinois schools and many Stateline districts are trying to prepare now for that blow. In Belvidere, school leaders have a lot of options on the table and it could include closing a school.

* Over coffee, Halloran talks finances: Thursday, during the first of two Coffee With the Superintendent informal public events, Halloran explained the district’s current financial picture to the five visitors who attended.

* Municipalities 
vs. Gov. Quinn

* Morris joins opposition to cut

* Crunching Costs Continues: Elk Grove Township Supervisor Nanci Vanderweel is crunching numbers this week trying to close a $37,000 budget gap in next year’s township budget.

* Illinois Main Street program, started to save downtowns, now needs saving itself

* State budget: Momence, Dwight not worried by Main Street cuts

* The State Of Higher Ed: More Demand, Less Funding

* Manzullo Calls For Amtrak Stop In McHenry