Budget 2010

The fiscal crisis was the main topic of discussion at the 77^th Annual Fall Conference held in Chicago this past weekend. Over 11,500 board members and school officials gathered in Chicago for this annual meeting and conference. Here are the quick facts for next year's budget: The target budget for next year will be about $26 billion. In terms of revenue the budget is expected to have a $12 billion shortfall based on these facts: $6 billion of the current budget is made up of one time funds that will not be available next year, $356,000 in fund sweeps where designated money has be swept up to pay general bills, $ 4 billion in unpaid bills from last year, $ 1.2 billion in pension payments, and $800,000 in interest payment on short term loans used to pay bills. At this time it appears that 38% of a stagnant budget could be unfunded. The state is almost broke! From now until a new budget is developed you will hear that government entities need to cut to deal with the deficit but unfortunately cutting will not solve the crisis nor can taxes be raised enough to solve this problem.

Three main issues need to be dealt with in the budget crisis:

The issue of unfunded mandates imposed by the state needs to be addressed. A Joint House Resolution (JHR) 74 has been brought forth by Representative Roger Eddy to create a blue ribbon committee to review all mandates and recommend those that are not needed to be eliminated. This would save a great deal of local resources.

Pension reform needs to be addressed and the pension system modernized. Issues such as automatic cost of living increases and retirement age need to be addressed. It is possible that a two-tier system needs to be implemented. The real issue with the five Illinois pension systems is that the State has not made their required payments to support the plans while members and local entities have made payments as required. The pension crisis is a result of the state not addressing government funding and using dollars allocated to pension payments to pay general bills. There is a reason that Illinois is ranked 51^st in support of public schools lagging behind 49 states as well as the District of Columbia.

The final crucial issue to be address is the rising cost of medical care and medicare. Costs are rising and there are no funds to pay these bills that impact some of our most vulnerable citizens.

A new funding bill has been presented for consideration. This bill is HB 174 which can be found on the General Assembly web site. Contact you local state representatives and senators and tell them that the the time has come to stop pointing fingers and assessing blame and to get to work to develop a fiscal plan to save Illinois.

www.ilga.gov