It was the afternoon of November 5, the second day of the second week of the General Assembly's fall veto session. The galleries of the Illinois Senate had been filling for an hour as the senators plodded through their calendar. Lobbyists crowded the carpeted corridors outside the upper chamber to make last minute pitches.

House bills vetoed by Gov. James R. Thompson and overridden two weeks earlier by the House were coming up for votes. Most failed. Senators agreed with Thompson that school children need not vote on whether to name the Tully Monster the state fossil. They agreed to veto a bill that would have required the Department of Public Health to publicize alternatives to breast cancer surgery. Neither was the stuff of great debate.

At 2:30 p.m. Thompson entered and sat with Senate Minority Leader James "Pate" Philip (R-23, Wood Dale). The battery of 10 television cameras wheeled nearly in unison to zoom in on the governor. House Minority Leader Lee A. Daniels (R-46, Elmhurst) entered, sat down and conferred with Thompson and Philip. Other representatives drifted into the Senate. Then Senate President Philip J. Rock (D-8, Oak Park) announced, "We're on that order of business," and called House Bill 483.

That order of business was whether the Senate would follow the House's lead and restore $62.5 million that Thompson had cut from the aid for Illinois public elementary and secondary schools. It was as close to drama as the fall session got. It was the most public airing of the General Assembly's reaction to Thompson's budget cuts. The governor had been preaching a sermon of fiscal responsibility for three months. Override crusaders used the debate to push their cause: responsibility to school children. To put back the money would take 30 votes, a simple majority. Republicans opposed the restoration. Most Democrats favored it. Rock was an exception, and he said the votes for passage were not there. It was time to find out.

Sen. Arthur L. Berman (D-2, Chicago) led the charge to restore the money. "This is a vote that's going to determine whether we live up to a commitment to every school child in the state of Illinois," he began. Berman argued that Thompson was trying to cure fiscal woes in a single year and that the legislature had a responsibility to set its own priorities. He closed to thunderous applause from the galleries full of parents and educators.

Opponents pushed fiscal responsibility. Sen. Adeline J. Geo-Karis (R-31, Zion) argued that the money simply was not there: "We either are going to tell the people the truth or we're going to lie about it for political expediency."

Some acknowledged the dilemma. Sen. Glenn Poshard (D-59, Carterville) said he liked neither the governor's nor the legislature's alternatives. Then he uttered the "t" word: "I believe after considering all the information available to us that we should restore the money. We should meet the basic needs of our children and we should come back here in January and vote for the appropriate tax to pay for it."

Back and forth it went for an hour and a half. Distributing the money through an imperfect school aid formula offered little appeal to some. Sen. Aldo A. DeAngelis (R-40, Olympia Fields) argued that his schools had already raised property taxes $5 million. "One commitment is forgotten. We made a commitment last year through our own legislative action the year before to abolish that cockamamy school aid formula. That formula that raised my property taxes 60 percent for education."

Freshman Sen. Penny L. Severns (D-51, Decatur) broke ranks with fellow Democrats and argued for fiscal restraint over education spending. She quoted Lincoln, Jefferson and Washington. "If this override succeeds, I have serious concerns that when the tumult and shouting of this veto session dies, when the bands go home and the lights are dimmed, when the stark reality of our state's fiscal condition looks us squarely in the eye, who will be left to pay the bills?" she said.

Some said they chose fiscal responsibility over education reluctantly. Sen. John W. Maitland Jr. (R-44, Bloomington), an architect last spring of an eleventh hour attempt to fashion a tax hike for schools, said, "To leave Springfield this summer having virtually destroyed educational reform in Illinois was a trying experience for me and for many of you." But the consequences of overspending would be worse, he said.

Then it was time to vote. Berman concluded, "If you want to vote for the children, vote aye. If you want to vote for the bond underwriters and the auditors, you vote no." All 28 Republicans and five Democrats voted no, and the override failed. Fiscal won out over educational responsibility.

Thompson held a press conference afterwards. He characterized the Senate action as "a vote for fiscal responsibility." And he said the victory was "bittersweet" because it did not restore money to schools. He praised Philip, Rock and the four Democratic senators. "Perhaps now we can have a rational discussion of what the state can and can't afford with all of the House Democratic make-believe out of the way."

And Thompson continued to preach fiscal responsibility. "I am gratified that the legislature has agreed with me, and I hope we will come together now in the next session to do what has to be done for the next fiscal year." What must be done, the governor said, is passage of a modest income tax increase to support schools. How modest, he would not say. But he did admit that his 1987 proposal "started kind of immodest," and it got bigger.

Thompson had moved to seize the high ground of fiscal responsibility when he announced on June 29 that his tax package was dead and pledged an end to implementing new programs without money to fund them. Two days later lawmakers gave him a budget they claimed was responsible. It would have repaid none of the $100 million borrowed in February and would have left no money in the bank on June 30, 1988. Thompson continued on the theme when he trimmed $363 million from state spending on July 20 and when he vetoed new programs he claimed would cost another $400 million.

The fall veto session was about fiscal responsibility, education and taxes. It saw plenty of pressure brought to bear on lawmakers to restore gubernatorial spending cuts. It saw gubernatorial pressure on lawmakers to act responsibly. But the session was also about who should set spending priorities. Lawmakers won last spring when they denied Thompson his billion dollar tax package. During the fall veto session the governor won the battle for control of spending.

The session had opened October 20 with Robert L. Mandeville, director of the Bureau of the Budget, telling Senate appropriations committees that Illinois could afford no new spending. Afterwards he told reporters that lawmakers had been warned about cuts. "I mean, no one should be surprised at what is happening here. . . . We said it all before, exactly what would happen."

Fiscal and political reality are different animals. A day later the Capitol swarmed with individuals lobbying for restoration of cuts. It was nearly impossible to move on the third floor of the Capitol as parents and teachers sought more money for schools, college students asked for an aid hike for public universities and single mothers requested more money for day care. Thompson met with the legislative leaders that morning. House Speaker Michael J. Madigan (D-30, Chicago) advised Thompson he expected the House to override the education cuts. Thompson emerged from his office to tell the media, "Why the speaker wants to lead House Democrats down the path to bankruptcy to bail out a broken school system in the city of Chicago is beyond me." And Thompson pledged to take his case to the people if the overrides passed.

The first test came in the House. Madigan insisted beforehand that the money was "in the treasury.'' He blamed Thompson for poor management of the agencies and suggested money could be saved by delaying purchases and leaving positions vacant. Madigan also criticized talk of a $3.2 million supplemental appropriation to keep open the Illinois Math and Science Academy in Aurora, while the governor claimed there was no money for public schools.

On the House floor Minority Leader Daniels appealed for rejection of the education overrides. He said he knew parents and educators had come far to talk about school aid funding. "I'm willing to talk and I'm willing to listen," Daniels began. "I'll tell you one thing I won't do — and anyone that votes to override this veto will be doing — and that's delivering phony promises on a phony basis when this state budget cannot afford it."

But the House is Democratic and Madigan won. By a 70 to 44 largely partisan vote, the House overrode Thompson's school aid reduction. They also overrode $10.7 million in cuts to community mental health agencies and $2.2 million in cuts to public health programs. But Senate President Rock insisted overrides were irresponsible and that the legislature should instead pass supplemental to restore the most critical cuts. His supplemental was offered in the Senate but soon got loaded up with amendments. By the time it was voted on and passed, it stood at $69 million.

In the week between the veto sessions, Thompson made good on his pledge to take the issue to the people. The people he took it to were newspaper editors. When he was through he claimed "unanimous editorial support" for his contention that Illinois could not afford new spending. Lawmakers arrived back in town November 4. A second summit meeting was held, and leaders emerged saying they would wait to see how the Senate override vote went.

After the November 5 Senate vote things went smoothly, if slowly. The leadership hammered out the modest supplemental spending compromise on Friday. Nobody was especially enthusiastic about the package, but nearly everyone voted for it. When the session ended, lawmakers had added $29.3 million to state general funds spending. That's .3 percent of the total general funds budget and 8 percent of the Thompson July 20 budget cuts. Of the new tax money 66 percent went to public schools, 11 percent to the Illinois Math and Science Academy and 5 percent to day care subsidies. There was no new tax money for higher education. No parole officers or prison guards will be rehired. Local mental health agencies saw no new tax dollars.

Then lawmakers left for home. They return for one day in January, but before then legislators are likely to hear a litany of needs from those at home, along with a litany of concerns from those who wonder what Thompson's promise of a modest income tax increase means. That should be answered when the governor unveils his budget on March 2. The primary election falls two weeks later, and when the second year of the 85th General Assembly begins in earnest on April 12, legislators and leaders will know who faces tough elections and who does not, who must be protected on a tax increase roll call and who can safely vote for one. The choice between educational and fiscal responsibility will always be there. A tax increase could make next year's choice less painful.