POLITICS

State lawmakers achieved
what they set out to do this spring

by Charles N. Wheeler III

They positioned themselves for re-election by approving the first all-inclusive relief from the income tax since it was instituted in 1969.

Boring. Dull. The quietest legislative session in memory. For those who fancy legislative sessions as a political version of World Champion Wrestling, the General Assembly's performance this spring surely was a dud. The only relief from five months of ennui, for heaven's sake, was the brief tantrum House Republicans threw over alleged Democratic ghost-payrolling. Almost makes one long for the good old days when "Chaos in Springfield" was a standing headline for Illinois newspapers.

Looking beyond the lack of the usual theatrics, however, one might reasonably conclude that lawmakers achieved what they set out to do this spring — position themselves for re-election — and managed to be fairly productive in doing so.

Consider some of the talking points the typical lawmaker can bring to the campaign trail in the coming months:

• The first all-inclusive relief from the income tax since it was instituted in 1969. The plan would double the personal exemption, to $2,000, over the next three years, at a cost of some $300 million.

Granted, the measure will save a taxpayer less than a dime a day once it's fully phased in. Still, it's long overdue recognition that inflation has eroded three-quarters of the exemption's original buying power. And because every individual taxpayer can claim the higher exemption, it's preferable to increasing the existing property tax credit, which would benefit only homeowners.

Lawmakers also raised the income ceiling to $14,000 from $12,000 for a program that provides cash grants to the elderly to help offset property taxes and pay for medication. The change should allow almost 50,000 more senior households to qualify, at a cost of some $8 million.

Some businesses also won tax breaks under a proposal that would change the way corporate income taxes are computed. While an estimated 7,000 firms could benefit, $60 million of the projected $95 million savings would go to just five companies, according to revenue officials.

• The first significant restrictions on the state's heretofore wide-open campaign finance practices. The proposal would ban personal use of campaign funds, prevent state officials and key employees from accepting most gifts from lobbyists, require large contributors to disclose their occupations and employers, and limit fund-raising on state property and in the Springfield area during the final 90 days of a legislative session.

Here, too, those who advocated more extensive reforms, such as contribution and spending limits, may be disappointed. Even its supporters concede the measure's gift ban has, as one put it, more holes than a golf course. Still, it's meaningful reform for a state in which campaign coffers have doubled as private piggy banks, even paying funeral expenses for one departed lawmaker.

• Health insurance coverage for some 200,000 children of the working poor. Outlined by Gov. Jim Edgar in his State of the State address, the Kid- Care program is designed to help youngsters whose families earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but can't afford private health insurance. Families would be eligible if they earn up to 185 percent of the federal poverty level, roughly $36,000 for a family of five. Those at the higher end would make co-payments; some also would pay monthly premiums for coverage. The estimated price tag: $117 million.

• A 3 percent increase — the first in years — in rates paid community agencies that provide health care and other services for the elderly and people with physical and mental disabilities. To cover the estimated $120 million cost, lawmakers enacted a new tax on the insurance industry to replace one the Illinois Supreme Court threw out last fall. Legislators also provided $70 million in additional funding for hospital outpatient and nursing home services.

• A nearly $38 billion budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1 that includes a projected end-of-year balance of $700 million. Although less than the $761 million posted last year and the $775 million expected come this June 30, it's still the largest

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amount lawmakers have ever agreed to leave untouched heading into a fiscal year.

Credit for the legislatures admirable self-control over the checkbook balance must go to the state s robust economy, which is expected to provide revenue growth of more than $1 billion in fiscal year 1999. With Illinois relatively awash in tax dollars, lawmakers found themselves in the happy position of being able to increase spending on key programs, provide election-year tax relief and still leave an adequate cushion against hard times.

And the budget includes some $180 million in good old-fashioned pork- barrel spending for local legislative districts (although lawmakers prefer the euphemism member initiative to the p-word). Incumbents will be

Illinois is relatively awash in tax dollars, so lawmakers could increase spending on key programs and still leave an adequate cushion.

able to take credit for roads, bridges, sidewalks, community centers, sewer systems, firehouses, swimming pools, baseball fields and a host of other projects from the Wisconsin border to the Ohio River.

To be sure, the legislature dropped the ball on several issues. Lawmakers should have provided the extra $24 million Edgar wanted for day care subsidies for low-income working families; if the funds were not needed, as some suggested, the money would not be spent. As is, however, some 2,700 mothers could lose child care assistance on July 1. The legislature also failed to close gaping loopholes in state regulation of factory farms or tighten controls on managed health care. And some constituents might begrudge the pay raises lawmakers allowed for judges, state elected officials, high-ranking administrators and themselves.

On balance, though, even without the fireworks, the spring session should provide incumbents a comfortable launching pad for the fall.

Charles N. Wheeler III is director of the Public Affairs Reporting program at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

Illinois Issues June 1998 /39