The backpedaling begins
Thursday, May 19, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Keep in mind that Gov. Pat Quinn proposed reducing funding for local governments last year by $300 million, then floated an idea to the Tribune this year about “delaying” the rest of this year’s local government payments so the state could pay other bills instead. The Senate Republicans have proposed a $300 million cut, and House Speaker Michael Madigan has said he would stand with the governor.
However, absolutely nothing is in writing at the moment. Nobody, not Quinn, the Republicans or Madigan have actually proposed any cuts via legislation. Politically, though, you cannot blame the mayors for mobilizing as much as they have. Blood - their blood - was clearly in the water…
Palos Hills Mayor Gerald Bennett said local governments are generating revenue, but they are not getting their fair share back from the state.
“We provide the income tax through our residents working; they get 90 percent, (and) we get 10 percent,” Bennett said. “We provide the motor fuel tax that helps the state build the roads, and we only get a portion of that.”
Welvaert agreed.
“It’s time for Springfield to wake up and understand that the locally generated revenues are just that – local revenues,” he said. “They do not belong to the state and the state of Illinois representatives and senators to do with as they please.”
* But things are starting to look up…
Kelly Kraft, spokeswoman for Quinn’s budget office, said the governor hasn’t proposed taking away that local money. He has only raised the possibility of delaying some of the money. And neither the House nor the Senate budget plan would touch the local money at all.
More backpedaling…
“Our proposal was just to, possibly as an alternative to budget crisis, to delay (the payments) a little bit,” said Kraft.
Even more…
Kraft said the governor’s idea [reported by the Tribune] was a first draft.
“It was a delay, not an elimination,” Kraft said. “Right now, they’re (cities) paid through January. . . . How would this help get other people paid?
“It’s not something that’s on the forefront.” [Emphasis added.]
Mayors have very serious political influence in the Cook County suburbs, where lots of battles will be fought during next year’s remap election. Actually, nobody wants a hostile mayor when they’re running in districts with lots of new voters. So, it may turn out to be just too politically difficult to cut them more than a little, if at all. You gotta hand it to them. They’ve played their hand quite well.
* Related…
* VIDEO: Quincy mayor on local budgets
* Editorial: ‘We’re too deep in debt’
* Groups call for closing of Choate, other state facilities
* State rep urges shifting oversight of state prepaid tuition plan to Comptroller Topinka: Rep. Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, said Wednesday that he wants immediate changes in College Illinois following revelations this week in Crain’s that the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, which runs the program, is investing money from the plan’s $1.1 billion in assets to funds run by friends and past associates of ISAC Executive Director Andrew Davis. The report also disclosed that ISAC wasn’t vetting the suitability of those investments using outside firms — a customary practice of public pension funds.
* Dan Proft, Anders Lindall Debate Illinois State Worker Pension Reform
* Springfield school budget cuts likely, officials say
- wordslinger - Thursday, May 19, 11 @ 7:23 am:
–“It’s time for Springfield to wake up and understand that the locally generated revenues are just that – local revenues,” he said. “They do not belong to the state and the state of Illinois representatives and senators to do with as they please.”–
One of the silliest statements made in a very long time, from the new President of the People’s Republic of Moline.
- top of the state - Thursday, May 19, 11 @ 7:32 am:
I have already been burned by the college IL 529 plan previously, and now this with the prepaid plan. Topinka would be a good choice to watch this money. We should learn the lesson from the past on this.
- Palatine - Thursday, May 19, 11 @ 7:57 am:
Hopefully Our Governor will not put his friendship with Mr. Mcneil before the childern of our state. Even though I’m a Dem, Rep. Jim Durkin idea should be enacted. I can’t believe that this is allowed. It’s a crime.
- Sue - Thursday, May 19, 11 @ 8:49 am:
A host of states(not illinois of course) have begun announcing surprising revenue increases helping to solve their deficits- Here in Illinois it seems things keep getting worse- since Quinn took office the state has dropped in the CEO ranking of desireable places to expand all the way to 48th and home prices are dropping faster then almost everywhere else- the Chicago metro area is the 4th worst housing market in the country in terms of sales and price declines- Quinn cannot continue to blame all of this on Blago- eventually his supporters will have to recognize we have elected an incompetent head of state and absent Madigan totally taking over the budget process who will be left to turn out the lights
- One of the 35 - Thursday, May 19, 11 @ 9:27 am:
Word: I do not often disagree with your comments but in this case I side with the Mayor of Moline. If we go back in time to the point when the state income tax was originally adopted, the agreement was reached to levy one income tax for both state and local governments. It was viewed as administratively more efficient to combine both into one income tax administered by the state but shared according to the 90/10 formula. So, the state agreed to share rather than have locals levying separate local income taxes. Now the state is arguing that they have a right to 100% of the taxes which were suppopsed to support both levels. Local governments have made the tough budget choices to keep their budgets balanced. The state has not. And now they think they are entitled to the whole amount of the shared revenues. I disagree. And so do local governments. And so should the taxpayers of Illinois.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Thursday, May 19, 11 @ 9:32 am:
I thought businesses created jobs?
Now its aldermen in Moline?
- Cincinnatus - Thursday, May 19, 11 @ 9:46 am:
One of the 35,
Do you know where the sharing agreement for income tax was codified? As someone pointed out yesterday, it’s not in the state Constitution, so it must be a law, which I would like to read.
- wordslinger - Thursday, May 19, 11 @ 9:46 am:
One, I just thought Waverland’s comments were silly, that locally generated revenues, from state taxes, just belong to the localities. Obviously, the state Constitution doesn’t see it that way.
Any deal made by statue can be undone by the same.
I doubt if Moline wants to try and get by on just their own revenues anyway. When I was in the Quads, the local officials in Iowa were always amazed by the amount of state cash Denny Jacobs brought home for the bi-state mass transit service, which was two to three times what the state of Iowa was kicking in.
- One of the 35 - Thursday, May 19, 11 @ 10:11 am:
Word: Agreed, the Mayor’s comments were based on strong emotion rather than points of law. But this stuff is very emotional for those of us in local government. Unlike the state, we have tried very hard to live within our means and now we could be punished for acting in fiscally responsible ways.
- One of the 35 - Thursday, May 19, 11 @ 10:59 am:
Cincinnatus: It’s not the law; it was a good faith agreement. It’s beginning to look like, “shame on us for making an agreement with the state”. But keep in mind that if the state welches on the agreement it also stiffs Illinois taxpayers. The original income tax should then have been less because it would not have included monies intended to go to local governments. Taxpayers bamboozled again!
- wordslinger - Thursday, May 19, 11 @ 11:03 am:
As the great Sam Goldwyn said, “a verbal agreement isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.”
- He Makes Ryan Look Like a Saint - Thursday, May 19, 11 @ 11:13 am:
With no state money, what is to stop the cities from not doing the unfunded mandates? I would stop every one of them. That will save some much needed dollars.
- dupage dan - Thursday, May 19, 11 @ 11:13 am:
In my home town the budget has been seriously cut back by elected officials w/the determination to live within our means. That has meant the loss of some non-essential things, like the annual festival. However, other things, like meals on wheels, necessary public safety expenditures and vital infrastructure maintenance, has suffered greatly. The local elected officials have done the job we asked them to do.
However, the state officials are now floating a trial balloon which appears to have been made out of lead. I was not aware that the sharing agreement had not been codified - bad news for the local officials to have trusted the state. That sucking sound you hear is the largest vacuum known to all of us east of the Mississippi and west of the Wabash. Hang onto your wallets, folks, this is going to get ugly.
- Cincinnatus - Thursday, May 19, 11 @ 11:18 am:
Wordslinger,
Good one, and right on the mark.
One of the 35,
Thanks.
Oh, brother, it’s not codified. So that must also mean that cities would be allowed to implement their own income tax, and to He Makes Ryan Look Like a Saint’s point stop performing any unfunded state mandates, starting there first of course. If some of these coalitions like the DuPage Mayors and Managers Conference were to toe in on the unfunded mandates, we’d have a hellava donnybrook.
- Anonymous - Thursday, May 19, 11 @ 11:29 am:
And in other news, Gov. Quinn has replaced Don McNeil at the Student Assistance Commision with Kym Hubbard from Ernst & Young and added Miguel del Valle to the Commission.
- Ghost - Thursday, May 19, 11 @ 12:55 pm:
I would kep the locals at the same funding levels dollar wise they had before the income tax increase, and dump the entire increase into the GRF.
One Education, find all the rainy day funds, and cut those districts budgets by the amount of the rain day fund….its not just raining its pouring.
- GA Watcher - Thursday, May 19, 11 @ 2:10 pm:
Ghost: That’s exactly what the Mayors are fighting for. Local governments did not get any part of the income tax increase passed in January. There are some who want to take away what they had before the increase.
- Janice - Thursday, May 19, 11 @ 6:05 pm:
@top of the state - Which lesson from which point in the past? Weren’t JBT’s initial contracts with Oppenheimer for Bright Start kind of a lousy deal that Giannoulias renegotiated when he took office? I don’t remember details, but I remember being pleasantly surprised.
Also, to clarify, did you mean you were burned by Bright Start, the 529 savings plan? The prepaid tuition plan’s (College Illinois) funded ratio sure looks like it may have trouble keeping up with future tuition growth, but so far there haven’t been any reports that someone who tried to use their College Illinois hasn’t gotten what they paid for.