Legislative Action

LAST YEAR 125 bills were required to pass appropriations for the 1976 fiscal year. This year, if Rep. Gerald Shea, House Democratic majority leader, had his way, the job would be done in a 575-page executive omnibus bill and 10 minor bills. All departments and agencies under the governor's control were included in Shea's major proposal. Requests for the lieutenant governor, secretary of state, treasurer, comptroller, attorney general, legislature, judiciary, education and miscellaneous agencies would be considered separately in Shea's minor appropriations bills.

Shea introduced the 11 bills on March 19. That same day, Speaker William Redmond (D., Bensenville), a cosponsor with Shea, informed House members "the bills were introduced at this time in order to speed up the House consideration of appropriation bills and to enable the House to examine the Governor's budget comprehensively."

Balancing the budget
Redmond also asserted that the consolidation of budget bills will enable the General Assembly to "balance appropriations and revenue estimates against each other." In the past, introduction of a large number of bills at different stages in the legislative process made it virtually impossible to know how much had been approved. Yet the Constitution requires a balanced budget (Art. VIII, sec. 2).

The House Democratic staff has been laying the groundwork for a consolidated budget bill since last July, after Shea and Redmond became irritated at the difficulties of controlling the appropriations process when spending bills were parceled out among several legislators, and the House leadership lost control over their progress. However, concern for providing a balanced workload between the House and Senate, adequate committee procedure, orderly debate for amendments, enforceable conference committee authority and a feasible printing schedule have caused many legislators to challenge Shea's plan.

An eight-member bipartisan committee, composed of both representatives and senators, met on April 21 to consider other alternatives for handling the budget this year, and developed three plans in addition to the Shea and traditional budget techniques. If the leadership and membership of both chambers accept any of these suggestions, major code departments and agencies would be extracted from the omnibus bill and broken down into separate bills. The other 10 proposals from the Shea-Redmond package would remain, although a division of higher and lower education bills could occur.

Committee members were Reps. Gerald Bradley (D., Bloomington), James M. Houlihan (D., Chicago), Donald L. Totten (R., Hoffman Estates), George Ryan (R., Kankakee)and Sens. Thomas C. Hynes (D., Chicago), Kenneth V. Buzbee (D., Carbondale), John J. Nimrod (R., Skokie) and Stanley B. Weaver (R., Urbana).

This is Shea's last session in the legislature. He has given what amounts to an "exit interview" to Illinois Issues (see p. 7) and the omnibus plan was his final chance to make what may be the most significant step forward in legislative control of the budget since the creation of the Budgetary Commission in 1937.

Ogilvie's executive budget
The plug was pulled on the Budgetary Commission a few years ago after Gov. Richard B. Ogilvie refused to give its members their usual opportunity to hold hearings on appropriation requests before formulation of the budget. This was a vital step in the Ogilvie development of a genuine executive budget. Under his predecessors, Illinois had developed a hybrid legislative-executive budget with the Budgetary Commission holding hearings on agency requests with the budget director sitting in and taking notes.

More and more legislators were growing dissatisfied with a small group of leaders exercising so much power, and this feeling crystallized in the report of the 1967 Commission on the Organization of the General Assembly (COOGA). This group charged that the Budgetary Commission "has never fulfilled its legal obligation to report its recommendations and the rationale for making them to other members of the General Assembly" (Improving the State Legislature, p. 106).

COOGA, chaired by Rep. Harold A. Katz (D., Glencoe), recommended that "no legislative agency participate formally in pre-budget hearings." But legislators don't like to kill legislative commissions and Ogilvie was left to carry out the recommendation. Despite criticism of the Budgetary Commission, some old-timers insist its role in holding down spending has not been equalled.

A radical reform?
Shea's move to encompass the enormous (over $9.9 billion) Illinois budget in 11 bills could have been merely a device to permit early committee hearings on appropriations or to scare agencies into introducing their own bills sooner. Or it could be the beginning of a radical reform that may enable the House to manage its business so that it can plan to adjourn on or before June 30.

In the past, many different legislators have sponsored budget bills. Some legislators became identified with the interest of the agency whose bill they