* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…

The Democratic legislative leaders and the governor agreed to squirrel away $260 million in lump-sum appropriations to various state agencies last spring. But now some groups are figuring out that a big pile of state money is just sitting there and they are trying to stake their claims.

This came to light last month when the Chicago Tribune reported that people advocating to replace the lost federal money for afterschool programs wanted to tap into two separate $25 million lump-sum legislative appropriations to the Illinois State Board of Education for “grants and administrative expenses associated with after school programs.”

Trouble is, the governor committed to the House speaker and Senate president not to spend that money until all three could agree what it would be spent on.

The Tribune claimed it did not receive a response from the state board of education, but a board spokesperson told me, “At the request of the General Assembly, ISBE is awaiting their direction before proceeding.”

The appropriation, the spokesperson said, “was not tied to an existing statutory program that outlines the distribution method.”

“ISBE is working closely with leadership in the General Assembly to determine their intention for adding the new $50 million appropriation for after-school funding included in the FY25 budget,” the spokesperson said. “We understand the urgency surrounding after-school programming and remain committed to ensuring that these resources are allocated in a way that best serves students and families across Illinois.”

Also, the federal money the groups told the Tribune they want actually no longer exists. And the state appropriation doesn’t specify that the $50 million should go to 21st Century Community Learning Center grants, which is what they want it spent on. Apparently, that federal money was supposed to be used for startup grants for the past 10 or so years, but the state has allowed providers to use it as base, ongoing funding.

And there’s a whole lot more out there. According to Gov. JB Pritzker’s spokesperson Alex Gough, “there are lines included in the budget that the agencies need additional guidance from the General Assembly in order to meet the intent of the funding.” Legislative sources confirmed that this is the case.
Lump sums for pet projects?

Aside from ISBE, the agencies which “need additional guidance” from the legislative leaders include the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, which was lump-sum appropriated $75 million “for grants and contracts associated with youth employment opportunities.”

The Illinois Department of Public Health was appropriated $30 million “for grants and administrative expenses associated with public health programs, including but not limited to awareness, outreach, and other programs to improve health outcomes.”

The Illinois Community College Board was also appropriated $30 million “for grants and administrative expenses associated with workforce development programs.”

So far, I’m told none of those agencies and boards have set up any mechanism to distribute the money. Only the Illinois Department of Human Services has sent out a Notice of Funding Availability for its $75 million appropriation “for grants and administrative expenses associated with youth employment programs.” But no decisions have yet been made.

What’s going on here? Well, legislative leaders had a ton of pressure from their members for more spending, but there simply wasn’t enough money to pay for it all. So, they created these lump sums in order to cram more pressure into less money.

The leaders could’ve specified exactly how the money was to be spent, but then the leaders would’ve committed to spending way more than the available revenues allowed.

Instead, by doing it this way, the leaders could tell individual members that their pet projects were funded, even though they technically aren’t until the leaders decide what, if anything, to do with the lump sum cash.

The governor and ISBE have the power to spend the money now. But these vague lump sums were part of the final budget deal, which is deemed almost a sacred covenant. Once a governor or a legislative leader breaks a budget deal, a lot of trust is lost and future deals become that much harder to make.

Much the same thing happened last year, when legislators demanded a ton of spending even though there wasn’t enough money to pay for it.

The difference this year is that the state is looking at a large budget deficit next fiscal year, so things will need to change. At the very least, whatever is funded this year might not be continued next year. At most, some money might not be spent at all to help patch the upcoming hole.