BRIEFLY CONGRESS WATCH Expect road work ahead It was a route filled with political potholes, but the nation's key transportation funding legislation finally moved ahead last month. Reauthorization for the 1991 Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, or ISTEA, had been stuck in the no-passing lane since fall, when U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bud Shuster of Pennsylvania declared the bill wasn't going anywhere until Congress came up with more money for road and bridge building and repair. Things started moving again in early March when the Senate, buoyed by a surplus in the federal budget, First agreed to a surprisingly robust $173 billion for roads and bridges. Part of the boost came from the bipartisan decision to return 4.3 cents per gallon of the federal gasoline tax to transportation coffers. Since 1993, those gas tax monies had been used to reduce the federal deficit. Yet in one of the most politically critical spending bills of the decade (what's more important to the voters back home than decent roads?), determining dollars for highways was the easy part. The Senate soon hit a bottleneck over mass transit spending. Western and southern states demanded a bigger share of dollars for developing new systems and, in the end, got it. In last-minute bargaining, funds for mass transit in cities with populations of 50,000 or less doubled, from $250 million to $500 million over a six- year period. Meanwhile, 11 large cities with established but aging mass transit systems, including Chicago, also got the $760 million they were seeking. In all, Illinois can expect to receive more than $5.3 billion over six years for highways, and some $2.1 billion for mass transit, a boost of more than 30 percent over the last ISTEA. A "reverse-commute" amendment co-sponsored by Illinois' Carol Moseley- Braun and other senators won $250 million more a year to help workers travel from innercity and rural areas to suburban jobs. In other legislative changes with direct social impact, the Senate approved stricter drunk driving regulations and renewed its 15-year- old commitment to helping minority- and women-owned firms win construction projects. On March 12, the Senate agreed on $214 billion for the transportation package. The House is expected to want to spend more in its draft, which will have to be reconciled with the Senate version before it heads to President Bill Clinton's desk by a May 1 deadline. In its effort to please all the senators most of the time, the Senate bill exceeds spending caps set by the 1997 balanced budget agreement, which could spell budget cuts for other domestic programs. In the past, federal dollars covered about 60 percent of the annual $600 million tab for road and bridge repair in Illinois. The state transportation department applies these funds to everything from roadside tree-planting and highway paving to installation of traffic signals and earthquake-proofing of bridges in southern Illinois. The foot-dragging in Washington temporarily put the brakes on regional road plans. Northern states with limited construction seasons like Illinois were unable to take bids on spring projects because they weren't sure how much funding to expect. The largest project on the state's agenda, the rehab of Chicago's crumbling Stevenson Expressway, has been put on hold for a year Gayle Worland Turth-in-legislating After another of their "fast-track" laws was ruled unconstitutional, the GOP finally gets it. Read Pate's memo: Let's be cautious about multisubject bills that violate the state Constitution's single- subject rule for legislation. "I'm not surprised the courts ruled the way they did," says Republican Sen. Ed Petka, a Plainfield attorney, of the court's decision last month on the 1995 truth-in- sentencing law. "They've issued warnings to us in the past. This phenomenon of mixing subject matter started a long time ago, but I do believe now we'll attempt to be a lot more diligent." Judges axed the law that made murderers serve 100 percent of their sentences because it also dealt with allowing hospitals to file liens. They've also thrown out GOP initiatives on capping lawsuit awards, redrawing the high court district map and creating a sex offender registry because the bills also dealt with other issues.
Between 1995 and 1997, the
Republicans controlled the General
Assembly and the governor's office. It
was a time for rapid passage of their
agenda. Now, says political scientist Jack
Van Der Slik, "We're reaping a little bit
of that rush." 8 / April 1998 Illinois Issues Jim Edgar's last-chance budget The primary may be over, but the general election is just ahead. As lawmakers turn their attention to state spending, can they afford to help a lame duck governor who wants to leave his mark? Edgar had his say in February. Now lawmakers will use the next couple of months, a portion of the brie/respite between the primary and general elections, to further their political fortunes and the state's spending plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1. With the best bank account in years, both parties are salivating at the prospect. But Edgar, who is retiring from politics this year, warned the General Assembly about an election-year tax cut or spending binge as lie unveiled his proposed $37.4 billion budget. Still, it's clear the governor also wants to take this chance to leave something a bit more permanent than a balanced checkbook. As lie has each year, Edgar made education a high priority. He earmarked the $1 billion in expected new money for program spending. Most — $614 million — would go to schools, from kindergarten through college. But he also used his last budget to promote a few projects lie hasn't been able to afford during his tenure.
BRICKS AND MORTAR Big Jim has the Thompson Center in the heart of downtown Chicago, the city he loves — and the one he loved to bargain with while he was governor. But this Jim loves downstate, so it's no wonder Gov. Edgar's last budget — and his last chance to recast his legacy — calls for plenty of bricks and mortar south of the city of big shoulders. He calls for $11.7 million for museum and historic site preservation and renovation. He wants $30 million for a new Department of Natural Resources building on the state fairgrounds in Springfield. And he's using his final year in office to try to get in on the ground floor of the proposed $40 million Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, a project that has been stalled for years. Most of the governor's proposed capital budget is routine, along the lines of normal repair and maintenance. And, setting aside prison construction, that has been the case throughout his two terms. True, Edgar has faced some tight budget years since taking office in 1991. But, unlike his predecessor, this governor is fiscally prudent by instinct. It's hard to imagine him launching anything like Build Illinois, as Thompson did midway through his 14 years in office. Still, though more modest in scope, this last wish list from Edgar, a student of history, hints at a desire for a physical legacy, including the presidential library and a new Lewis and dark interpretive center in Madison County. Edgar is asking for $4.9 million this year for planning the proposed presidential library. "This money will help us determine what it will look like, where it will be, what it will contain," says David Blanchette, spokesman for the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. There are some items the state definitely wants to include, such as the entire state-owned Lincoln collection, the state historical library, exhibits and a research center. "Other Lincoln sites focus on specific times in his life: his young adulthood, his law career, his death. This would tie all those together. It would be the one place where you could learn the entire Lincoln story," says Blanchette. Edgar also wants to devote $1.7 million for the Lewis and dark interpretive center, marking the site where Meriwether Lewis and William dark began their historic 1804 journey to explore the Louisiana Purchase. This money along with $1.24 million previously appropriated would fund a 5,500-square-foot visitors center, similar but slightly smaller than the visitors center at Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site near Springfield. Officials hope to have the center built in time for the expedition's 200th anniversary. "For the sake of our future, we must preserve and treasure our past," Edgar said, in asking the General Assembly to approve his capital requests. Other related Edgar initiatives include: * A new five-year $50 million grant program to expand museum facilities statewide. * $800,000 for initial planning and design of a new state museum next to the proposed Department of Natural Resources headquarters on the state fairgrounds. * $1.2 million for final work on a visitors center at the Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site in rural Coles County near Edgar's hometown of Continued on next page Illinois Issues April 1998 / 9 BRIEFLY Charleston. • $1 million to restore the historic Bjorklund Hotel at Bishop Hill, first settled by Swedish religious dissidents in 1846. • $954,000 for additional improvements and renovations at Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site. • $762,000 for restoration of the home of the late poet Vachel Lindsay in Springfield. • $508,000 to replace the roof at the Vandalia Statehouse, the state's second Capitol. • $474,000 to rehabilitate Metamora's original courthouse, where Abe Lincoln practiced law. • $427,000 to rehabilitate the Biesman House in the Ulysses S. Grant Home neighborhood in Galena. • $368,000 to rehabilitate the Postville Courthouse in Lincoln, another site where Lincoln practiced. This is the largest capital budget Edgar has ever proposed. But lawmakers may have a few ideas of their own. Still, even if Edgar doesn't get his wish list, he can always look to the Illinois State Library, built while he served as secretary of state. Just across the street from the Capitol, that $36 million building, with its classic architecture and sandstone walls, opened in 1990, about six months before Edgar was first elected governor. At least one analyst sees something more in the two buildings erected by the two governors named Jim. "If you look at the [Thompson Center] or 'Starship Illinois' as it was first called, its construction is very avant-garde. Kind of like Thompson himself. But the state library looks very solid, very classic, much like Jim Edgar," says Charles N. Wheeler III, who covered both governors as a Statehouse reporter and now teaches public affairs reporting at the University of Illinois at Springfield. "If you look at the two buildings, they're indicative of the different styles of these two governors." Jennifer Davis MOMS IN PRISON?
Plans for an all-women As the state's politicians moved to get "tough on crime," prison building has of necessity become a growth industry in Illinois. Indeed, since 1978 the state has built 17 prisons for adult males. Three of those came during Edgar's tenure. Now he has proposed a new 500-bed minimum security prison just for women. The move reflects a policy trend, but it reflects social changes as well. In fact, though females are a small percentage of the state's 40,397 inmates, they make up the fastest growing segment of the state's prison population. And many of .those women are parents. As a result, Edgar also wants to expand a program uniting prison moms and their babies. But that doesn't satisfy critics.
"Most of [the growth in the female prison population] is attributable to mandatory sentences for drug crimes, not an increase in violent crime," she adds. "There is a greater willingness to prosecute women and put them in jail. The philosophy now is to treat women and men the same." According to the Department of Corrections' most recent figures, 2,401 women are incarcerated in Illinois prisons, more than seven times as many as 20 years ago, when only 326 women were behind bars. By 1988 that number rose to 862, and in 1993 it jumped to 1,576 women inmates. With more women sentenced to serve time in jail, officials must find a place to house them. The Decatur Correctional Center, a 500-bed minimum security prison, will open in the spring of 1999. The state has been converting a former mental health center for that facility since last year. Another $8.3 million is needed this year, Edgar says, to finish that prison, which will be the second state facility to house only women inmates. Edgar's other female prisoner initiative in this year's budget calls for spending $234,000 to expand the women's and children's community residential program. "Similar programs are very successful in other states," says Bates, arguing that recidivism rates for inmates enrolled in such programs are much lower than rates for the general population. Such initiatives allow incarcerated women to live with their babies. Substance abuse treatment, job readiness training and parenting and nutrition classes are included. To be eligible, a prisoner must qualify for work release, be within two years of release, have no major medical or psychological problems and pass a screening by the Department of Children and Family Services. Jessica Winski 10 / April 1998 Illinois Issues GREEN GOVERNOR One act pops into environmentalists' minds when they review Gov. Jim Edgar's record: his decision to repeal the law providing state subsidies for incinerators that burn garbage. "Illinois became a magnet for incinerators," argues Lynne Padovan, executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council. The downside: They emit such pollutants as dioxin, arsenic and lead. She calls the move to repeal it the "shining star of Edgar's tenure." But activists also put other stars on Edgar's report card. "He has a very good record on conservation issues, most anyone would agree," says Padovan, citing Conservation 2000, a six- year, $100 million program. Jack Darin, state field representative of the Sierra Club, echoes Padovan. "I think Edgar will be remembered as someone who saved and restored large examples of Illinois' ecosystem." Claudia Emken, director of government and community relations for The Nature Conservancy, says Edgar got off on the right foot by merging several state agencies into a new Department of Natural Resources. He followed that reorganization with wise staffing decisions, Emken says, including the appointment of Brent Manning as director. Reviews of Edgar's pollution prevention efforts, however, are mixed. "The state's track record when it comes to enforcement of air and water standards is poor," says Howard Learner, executive director of the Environmental Law and Policy Center. Darin agrees water pollution prevention efforts have been weak, but says it's a problem that probably predates Edgar. Yet Darin says efforts to prevent air pollution have been more successful, adding that the administration has made strides toward complying with the federal Clean Air Act. Edgar's final budget includes funding for additional programs aimed at protecting and promoting the environment.
Rivers. $100 million is designated over the next 15 years to help clean up the Illinois River watershed. Combined with federal and private dollars, funding is expected to reach $500 million. Of that, $3 million in state funds is proposed for fiscal year 1999 to encourage private landowners to participate in efforts to reduce soil erosion and sedimentation on 232,000 acres along the river. Wetlands. $4 million is set aside for construction of a new state-of- the-art education center at the Cache River State Natural Area in southern Illinois. The wetlands have been recognized for their international significance. The area is unique because of the presence of an ancient cypress swamp, rare to northern states. Edgar's budget also includes money to protect and restore the state's lakes, encourage pollution prevention by businesses, and upgrade local water treatment facilities. Jessica Winski Illinois Issues April 1998 / 11 BRIEFLY
DOLLARS FOR At Springfield's Hope School, the average worker earns less than $6.50 an hour to wash, dress and feed the school's 104 physically and developmentally disabled children. No wonder many employees decide to leave, says Shayne Squires, a volunteer community relations coordinator for the school. Gov. Jim Edgar proposes to send a few dollars their way. He's asking the General Assembly to approve a one-time $35 million appropriation before July and then a 3 percent cost- of-living adjustment worth $189 million for fiscal year 1999. The last COLA for community providers in fiscal year 1997 meant 50-cent and 75-cent raises for most employees, says Jeff Stauter of the Illinois Association of Rehabilitation Facilities. "If you look at the numbers, since fiscal year 1991 the state has given community providers increases totaling 12.4 percent. In contrast, it's given state-operated facilities 30 percent. The cost of inflation in that time has been about 24 percent," says Stauter, adding that community providers care for 200,000 mentally ill and developmentally disabled Illinoisans each year, while the state's facilities care for about 7,000. GOP Senate President James "Pate" Philip appears open. And Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan pushed for an increase before the governor did. The remaining stumbling block in Stauter's eyes is Edgar's desire to tie the COLA to an insurance tax. "I think we can get the COLA regardless of the insurance tax," says Stauter, despite Edgar's budget message declaration that it "can be afforded only if the General Assembly approves a revised insurance tax to replace the one that was struck down by the Illinois Supreme Court last October." That tax was ruled unconstitutional because it was levied only on out-of- state insurance companies doing business in Illinois. The proposal is a smaller, across-the-board tax, says Department of Insurance spokesperson Nan Nases, who adds there hasn't been opposition to it from the insurance industry. Though Stauter's group is optimistic its members will get a 3 percent boost this year, he says they'll be back begging for more next year. "We've been asking for parity for a long time, but the state doesn't want to pay for it." Jennifer Davis
12 / April 1998 Illinois Issues
WELFARE-TO-WORK: To hear William Leavy tell it, the state's new job training program for hard-core welfare recipients will do nothing more than pair "high-turnover people with high-turnover jobs." Leavy, executive director of the Greater West Town Community Development Project, a not-for-profit Chicago-based job training group, has a lot of bad things to say about the new program the Department of Commerce and Community Affairs will run in cooperation with the state's Department of Human Services. But fellow social service providers and researchers say it's too soon to make an assessment. "All we know is there's going to be a lot of money out in the community, which is the opposite of the way it's always been and what we've always felt was the answer," says Toby Herr, director of Project Match, an employment program based in Chicago's Cabrini Green public housing project. "So, now we have this chance to see if it is." Illinois is spending $48.6 million this year ($36 million in state funds) and about $45 million next year to focus on finding work for hard-core welfare recipients. That includes people who are uneducated with little to no work history and may have substance abuse or mental health problems. Also eligible are those who have received assistance for 30 months or are within 12 months of their lifetime welfare limit. New federal rules say welfare recipients must find work within two years. There's also a five-year lifetime limit. "In this situation, because the time limits are running, our first priority is to get people working. At least 20 hours [a week] if not full-time," says James O'Brien, supervisor of DCCA's job training division. "At least that stops the clock." Illinois was one of the first five states to get a share of the federal government's $2.2 billion in welfare-to-work grants, money to be distributed this year and next. After recipients find work, "then we'll deal with their education and other barriers on an individual basis," says William Holland, director of transitional services for DHS, adding that "you don't hear too much criticism [about this program] from job placement people, interestingly enough." Indeed, Leavy's livelihood revolves around job training, and that's why he feels qualified to speak about what works and what doesn't. "With low-wage work, these people will be dependent on public aid forever," he says, adding he has welfare clients starting out earning $7 an hour, but they also have benefits and promotion opportunities. But the state, pointing to declining welfare caseloads, argues it is doing the job. Since 1991, DHS says more than 200,000 families have moved from welfare to work, including 41,000 since last February. DHS officials also cite a recent study ranking Illinois number one among Midwestern states in improving the lives of poor families. The Tufts University Center on Hunger and Poverty also ranked Illinois 10th nationwide in developing policies to help welfare families. Jennifer Davis
ART IN SCHOOLS Healy Elementary students recently spent two months pounding on tiles and putting together puzzles. Now, as a result of their work, they have a crazy, colorful mosaic to eat lunch by. "The kids just love it. It's gorgeous," says Analila Chico, principal of the multicultural grade school in Chicago's Bridgeport area. Beautiful and educational — that's just the kind of arts program the Illinois Arts Council hopes to bring to schools statewide. And if the General Assembly approves its proposed budget increase, there might be a chance to do just that. That's a departure for Gov. Jim Edgar, who hasn't matched his predecessor Jim Thompson's efforts to support the arts with cash. Thompson launched the collection of state-owned art and created the state-run artisan's shops. Edgar, handicapped by fiscal problems, made a balanced budget and elementary and secondary education his top priorities. But Edgar wants to boost dollars for the state's arts council before he turns out the lights at the governor's mansion. Indeed, his proposed $3.4 million increase in grants funding brings the agency's budget back up to fiscal year 1990 and 1991 levels, where it was when he first took office. It's no secret the arts council has not been happy with its funding in recent years, even last fiscal year when state support appeared to hit record heights. The majority of that boost — $6.4 million — went to politicians' pet projects, council staff complained. This year's proposed funding would target grant- funded arts programs in schools and communities. "We think it's our job to find ways to bring the arts to underserved communities," says Kassie Davis, the council's executive director, who expects to fund statewide visiting artists like the one who helped Healy's students create their mosaic. Jennifer Davis MILLENNIAL BUG In an age when almost everyone depends on computers, the year 2000 could create problems for state agencies. Unless, says Gov. Jim Edgar, the General Assembly agrees to spend a lot of money: $8 million to start. Those funds will pay for consultants, software and how-to seminars, says Judy Pardonnet, a spokeswoman for the Department of Central Management Services, the coordinating agency "Anything that is set by date could be affected," she says, estimating CMS has already spent about $1.5 million on the problem. Most of the proposed $8 million — $3.6 million — will go to the Department of Human Services. Another big chunk — $1.5 million — will go to Public Aid. The remaining funds will be parceled out to the Department on Aging and the departments of Children and Family Services, Commerce and Community Affairs, Public Health, State Police and the Guardian and Advocacy Commission. Jessica Winksi Illinois Issues April 1998 / 13 |
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