* I told subscribers about this earlier today and then updated subscribers on potential House action for tomorrow. It looks like they may have it figured out…

To the Honorable Members of The Illinois Senate, 102nd General Assembly:

Today, I return Senate Bill 2800 with specific recommendations for change so that the various sets of appropriations included in the bill will take effect at the necessary time.

Senate Bill 2800 is the omnibus appropriation bill for Fiscal Year 2022. It includes the Fiscal Year 2022 appropriations for both the operating budget and the capital budget. In addition, it includes a number of necessary supplemental appropriations for Fiscal Year 2021. Appropriations to implement the Fiscal Year 2022 budget require an effective date of July 1, 2021 so that they take effect on the first day of the fiscal year. In contrast, supplemental appropriations for Fiscal Year 2021 require an immediate effective date so that they can be available for use during the remainder of Fiscal Year 2021.

Article 999 – the effective date provision in Senate Bill 2800 – references many of the bill’s articles and, depending on whether the particular article contains new appropriations for Fiscal Year 2022 or supplemental appropriations for Fiscal Year 2021, specifies either a July 1, 2021 or an immediate effective date for each article. However, as is evident from the language in the bill, some articles were assigned the incorrect effective date, and many articles of the bill were not referenced in Article 999 and thus were not assigned a specific effective date.

It is evident that the errors and omissions in the effective date provision of Senate Bill 2800 were inadvertent as all appropriations bills traditionally have effective dates that align with the language of the appropriations. I believe that the legislative intent for Senate Bill 2800 was for new appropriations for Fiscal Year 2022 to have a July 1, 2021 effective date and for supplemental appropriations for Fiscal Year 2021 to have an immediate effective date. Without this amendatory veto, many of the appropriations in the bill would not take effect until June 1, 2022, eleven months into Fiscal Year 2022.

Therefore, pursuant to Article IV, Section 9(e) of the Illinois Constitution of 1970, I hereby return Senate Bill 2800, entitled, “An ACT concerning appropriations,” with the following specific recommendations for change:

On page 3088, delete lines 8 through 12 and insert in lieu thereof the following:

“ARTICLE 999

Section 999. Effective Date. This Act takes effect upon becoming law, except that Articles 25 through 129, Articles 137 through 173, and Article 997 take effect July 1, 2021.”

With this change, Senate Bill 2800 will have my approval. I respectfully request your concurrence.

Sincerely,

JB Pritzker
GOVERNOR

Suffice to say it was a massive error in a tiny paragraph.

…Adding… Press release…

In response to Governor Pritzker issuing an amendatory veto on the state budget, SB2800, Deputy Minority Leader Tom Demmer (R-Dixon) released the following statement:

“Governor Pritzker’s amendatory veto once again highlights the need for an honest and transparent process in budgeting. Dropping a massively flawed budget in the last minutes of session is unfair to democracy and the residents of Illinois. Instead of working to fix a budget that increases lawmaker’s salaries, hikes taxes on businesses and has over $1 billion in new unvetted pork spending, the Governor chose to just make sure the law goes into effect sooner.”

* Related…

* Budget clean up could be on docket for returning lawmakers