In grand opera, a supernumerary is a performer who appears in a nonsinging role, someone who sort of plays the animated scenery before which tenors and basses, contraltos and sopranos carry out the plot in music. In Illinois politics, at least over the last four months, the equivalent of these operatic "spear carriers" has been the rank-and-file legislators.

For most of the recently completed spring session, the average lawmaker's role was simply to press the correct button -- green or red -- in accord with the leadership's script. House leaders even rationed legislation, allowing members to advance only three bills apiece.

The plot was simple: Make no waves; pass a budget; and hit the campaign trail as quickly as possible. No room for ad libs, no opportunity for free-lancing by the back-benchers, no time for meaningful citizen participation.

And when the General Assembly adjourned in mid-April, with the earliest budget in 101 years, Gov. George H. Ryan and the legislative leaders patted each other on the back for a five-star performance.

Indeed, there were some memorable moments. A renewed Safe Neighborhoods Act will allow law enforcement to crack down on gang-bangers without exposing sportsmen to felony charges. A first-ever Rainy Day Fund sets aside $225 million in tobacco settlement proceeds as a cushion against economic bad times. Ryan's $1.9 billion VentureTech plan should help the state compete in the New Economy. And the working poor and lower-income senior citizens will benefit from new and expanded tax relief programs.

But the overarching theme -- get ready for the November election -- led to some excesses that overshadowed the handful of achievements. Consider two examples, tax relief and member initiatives, the preferred euphemism for old-fashioned, pork-barrel spending.

The governor and the leaders agreed to an earned Income Tax credit that will cut state income taxes for the working poor by an amount equal to 5 percent of a similar federal credit. The new tax break will cost the state about $35 million annually and provide an average of $55 in relief each year to about 765,000 families during its three-year lifetime.

Also approved was a permanent expansion of the existing Circuit Breaker program, which provides property tax rebates and prescription medicine assistance to low-income seniors. The income ceiling goes up, making another 178,000 households eligible, and more types of medications are being covered, all at an estimated cost of another $35 million.

While one can argue that tax relief for the working poor and for needy senior citizens is sound public policy, the rest of the tax relief program pushed by Ryan and the leaders is little more than election-year pandering.

Under the plan, some $280 million will be handed out to homeowners as a one-time rebate pegged to the 1999 property tax credit claimed on state income tax returns due last month, up to a maximum grant of $300. State officials estimate some 2.2 million homeowners will receive checks averaging $125 in late summer or fall, conveniently enough just a few weeks before the election. No word yet on whether lawmakers in target districts get to deliver the checks in person.

Moreover, the giveaway is to be paid for with tobacco settlement proceeds, to the consternation of some rank-and-file members who wanted the tobacco money used for smoking cessation efforts and other health-related programs. The final spending plan, however, earmarks only $30 million for anti-smoking programs out of $660 million in tobacco-fund outlays.

The architects of the property tax rebate plan are correct that relief is needed. But the solution is not to give homeowners less than a buck a day off one year's tax bill. Instead, real reform requires the political will to shift a chunk of the burden from local property taxes to the state income tax -- an option torpedoed three years ago by the folks now pushing hardest for the rebate checks.

Even less defensible from a public

Illinois Issues May 2000 | 42

Pork-barrel spending is a time-honored tradition, of course, but until last year, almost all such projects were spelled out in the budget, thus allowing interested citizens and nosy reporters to see who was getting what. Budget makers last year included lump-sum outlays on a smaller scale amid the more traditional projects; this year, leaders argued the early adjournment left no time to spell out how the money would be spent, leaving the rank-and-file to accept on faith that their projects would go forward.

The spear carriers scored one victory, however; a bipartisan group of mostly suburban and downstate lawmakers, with strong support from the teacher unions, blocked a plan to give nonpublic schools $12 million. The failed plan was written by Chicago Democratic House Speaker Michael J. Madigan to help inner-city parochial schools.

Downstate opponents argued state funds shouldn't go to private schools when their public schools stood to lose millions in state aid because of declining enrollment, rising property values, or both. In past years, budgets included "hold harmless" provisions that guaranteed each district at least as much state aid in the coming year as the amount received previously, but the fiscal year 2001 budget contains no such cushion, even though its price tag -- estimated at somewhere between $30 million and $40 million -- easily could be covered by slicing into the pork.

But after derailing Madigan's plan the day the session was to end, there was no time to pursue a hold harmless provision; instead, the $12 million was split evenly between two other programs in which private and public schools now both participate.

Another six weeks to negotiate might not have won downstate schools or anti-smoking programs any more dollars in the election-year atmosphere of pork-and-pander, but at least individual lawmakers would have had a chance to make their cases. Even spear carriers want to feel they're part of the show.

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