Appropriations: Legislature holds the line

Sen. Howard W. Carroll

Illinois will operate this year with a budget crafted by legislators. The General Assembly redrew the gubernatorial budget to provide $200 million in new funds for education. And they denied Gov. James R. Thompson the opportunity to repeat claims that because lawmakers had spent too much, he had to exercise fiscal responsibility with his veto pen. Douglas L. Whitley, president of the Taxpayers' Federation of Illinois, sees a reversal. "I think the 85th General Assembly, both years, has to be looked at in marked contrast with the role we have expected: the legislature as the spender with the governor providing fiscal restraint," he says.

Lawmakers appropriated $11.19 billion in the general funds. Thompson trimmed that by $12.1 million, most of it in a single $10 million cut to the Comprehensive Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Lawmakers thought they had amended the program to limit future state financial liability by specifying that CHIP was not an entitlement program but depended upon annual legislative approval of funds. Thompson and lawmakers will likely clash over the issue in the fall veto session: In announcing his cuts on July 14 Thompson grudgingly acknowledged the legislative budget was not inflated. "The General Assembly came close to passing a balanced budget and with a few exceptions followed the spending plan that I proposed in February," he said.

House Speaker Michael J. Madigan had given his people their directions, "Peel out $200 million for education." With the twin goals of freeing money for schools and producing a balanced budget, lawmakers started making their cuts early. They began work on Thompson's February 25 no-tax budget, knowing that down the road he would propose a tax increase and new spending. Sen. Howard W. Carroll (D-1, Chicago), chairman of the Appropriations I Committee, says the promise of a tax hike might have made it easier to make cuts because some departments thought that they would see restorations with the tax increase.

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In the early stages there were more additions than cuts. As the appropriations bills moved out of the first house into the second, lawmakers had boosted Thompson's original request by $213 million, including $290 million in new education spending. By the time appropriation bills had cleared the second house, spending stood $247 million above Thompson's figures, with $335 million in new education spending. The big cuts, totalling $62 million, came in budgets for the courts and constitutional officers where Thompson had fully funded requests.

Then came the real appropriation process, a multi-day marathon held during the session's final days in Carroll's office with Republicans and Democrats from both chambers and the governor's aides. Rep. Ted. E. Levernez (D-51, Maywood), chairman of the House Appropriations I Committee, says the final conference was one of the easiest ever because neither party in either house came with a list of projects that had to be added. Carroll says, "This time they understood the issue: If you want to put it in, you've got to pass a tax to pay for it." In the closing hours conferees trimmed back the new education spending. Elementary and secondary education ended up with $135 million more than Thompson had sought. Other winners and their increases over Thompson's original budget were higher education with $65 million and the Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities with $19 million.

By the time of final negotiations, lawmakers had more money to work with. The state had closed its books on June 30 with $246 million in the bank, $46 million above the minimum set by Thompson. Lawmakers grabbed that money. And the governor's Bureau of the Budget had raised its estimates for fiscal 1989 by $65 million. Lawmakers grabbed that, too. But, they chose not to use even higher revenue estimates for fiscal year 1989 by the legislature's Economic and Fiscal Commission that would have provided another $150 million to spend. "What we were saying was taking his [Thompson's] lesser number was not allowing him to say, 'You didn't pass a tax increase, but you spent like you did,' " Carroll says.

This was the second year that the General Assembly redrew the governor's budget (Although a year ago their product was inflated and Thompson cut $363 million from it.). Carroll says he expects that to continue and adds that there is no constitutional prohibition against introduction of a legislative budget. "I think the General Assembly had shown in the early years all we did was go way over his [Thompson's] budget. Hopefully we're moving toward a partnership," he says.

Leverenz, too, sees no retreat for lawmakers. He suggests that lawmakers first cut hunks of fat out of the budget and are now turning up the heat to let the fat drip out — "As long as we say 'no,' the directors have to do a better job of making their requests." Leverenz says lawmakers do not want to be caught again in a situation where they have to borrow $100 million in the middle of the year.

Leaner the budget is. Bereft of goodies it is not. Lawmakers passed $20,000 to pay for a 1987 trip to Vienna, Austria, by the Edwardsville High School Orchestra after being assured Thompson would sign it. He did. The governor balked, however, at $40,000 for design of an international art exhibition Three Hundred Years of Polish/Jewish Art. That, Carroll says, is as it should be. Lawmakers should weigh both member requests and the governor's proposals in making their decisions.

Neither Carroll nor Leverenz says he has been besieged by complaints about the budget. Leverenz suggests he knows why. A 4,000-call telephone poll he did before the primary identified crime as voters' No. 1 concern, followed next by jobs and economic development and then by education.□

Michael D. Klemens

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