Pain was not a hallmark of Gov. James R. Thompson's fourth inaugural, except perhaps for Democrats. The governor offered a caution in his inaugural address, a warning that turned prophetic in the ensuing six months: "We cannot continue to be manacled by the tyranny of the short term focus imposed by unrelenting annual budgets and biennial elections."

Thompson then embarked on proposing and selling a tax hike. When that proved impossible the pain arrived on July 20 when Thompson outlined his $363 million in budget vetoes: "It should be clear to all Illinoisans that the level of services that they have requested — and expect — from state government will not be possible in fiscal year 1988."

Source: Governor's press office.

Who suffers? Young children do. One of the nuggets of the 1985 school reform package was a program to identify and help the estimated 100,000 preschoolers at risk of failure, before the pain of failure. About 6,000 were served by last year's $12.7 million program. The State Board of Education proposed to boost funding by $62 million for the current year, an effort that would reach 31 percent of those they believe need the program. It got no increase and the 25,000 youngsters remain unserved and at risk.

Source: Illinois State Board of Education.

Do school districts feel pain?

No, but the machinations over the state budget caused a fair share for school administrators. Because the state's general school aid formula in part equalizes spending between "rich" and "poor" school districts, the $62 million in Thompson general school aid vetoes hit some harder than others. Property rich Reed Custer Community Unit School District in Will County will get $173,464 this year, about $4,300 less than last. With the Thompson tax hike its aid would have been $8,000 more this year.

At the other end of Illinois, tax-base-poor Cairo Unit School District 1 in Alexander County will get $2,748,291, about $78,000 less than last year. The tax hike would have boosted Cairo's general state aid by $200,000 this year.

Do not despair, some children's programs continue. In September the secretary of state paid $3,000 for a pair of panda costumes for use in a new safety program. Pandy Pedestrian is to be a Smokey the Bear figure. The invoice said the costumes would be of acrylic fur having "padding around the tummy and derriere to simulate the body contours of a panda."

The 12 public universities hiked tuitions 4 percent last spring. After gubernatorial vetoes reduced support to public universities $53 million, undergraduate students took a second hit when universities imposed midyear tuition increases, as high as $150 per semester.

Source: Illinois Board of Higher Education.

More than 500 state workers lost their jobs. The hardest hit were in the state Corrections Department, which saw 266 layoffs, and the Revenue Department, with 107.

Source: Department of Central Management Services.

The budget was a mixed bag for the state's largest public employee union. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees lost about 400 members, or 1 percent of its membership outside public universities. The other 99 percent saw salary increases of 4.5 percent in the second year of a three-year pact.

Source: Council 31, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

If you work for the state and did not get laid off, you can look forward to higher reimbursement for using you own car. The reimbursement increased from 20.5 cents to 21 cents a mile on July 1, a 2.4 percent boost. But many agencies have cut travel budgets to save money.

Source: Comptroller's office.

Many of the estimated 3,000 young retarded adults too old for public school special education programs spend their days in front of the television while they wait for slots in workshops and day training programs. They will watch some more.

Thompson originally proposed $4.5 million in new funds, but ended up vetoing the $2.5 million the General Assembly approved.

Source: Illinois Association of Rehabilitation Facilities.

If you are a single mother looking for a job so you can pay state taxes, good luck. A $2.7 million cut will reduce the number of state subsidized day care slots by 973, to 14,950. Kids will not get tossed on the street, but as vacancies occur they will be left open.

Source: Department of Children and Family Services.

The general funds end-of-month balance for September was $108,410 million. The average daily available balance was $73,038 million.

Source: Office of the State Comptroller.

Nationally, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dipped to 5.9 percent in September from 6.0 percent in August. In Illinois unemployment fell to 6.4 percent in September from 7.0 percent in August.

For the fourth month in a row a record number of Illinoisans had jobs. There were 5.804 million people in the state's civilian labor force in September; 5.434 million workers had jobs (up 25,000 from August) and 370,000 were unemployed.

The start of the new school year accounted for much of the rise in employment: staff hiring, food services and transportation. But there was also some good news from the manufacturing sector: From May through September 1987, Illinois showed a cumulative net gain of 4,900 manufacturing jobs. Final July unemployment rates in the state's major metro areas were:

Aurora-Elgin, 5.3 percent.
Bloomington-Normal, 4.6 percent.
Champaign-Urbana-Rantoul, 4.3 percent.
Chicago, 6.6 percent.
Davenport, Rock Island, Moline (Illinois sector), 8.3 percent.
Decatur, 9.6 percent.
Joliet, 7.9 percent.
Kankakee, 8.9 percent.
Lake County, 4.1 percent.
Peoria, 7.6 percent.
Rockford, 10.0 percent.
Springfield, 4.9 percent.
St. Louis (Illinois sector), 8.8 percent.

Source: Department of Employment Security.

Michael D. Klemens