|
Illinois' school construction program and the governor's 10-region jobs initiative known as Opportunity Returns.
In fiscal year 2004, the state's capital budget expenditures totaled just over $10 billion.
Becky Carroll, spokeswoman for the Office of Management and Budget, said historically legislators have approved both the
general fund operational budget and the capital budget simultaneously - but this year is the exception.
"Gov. (Rod) Blagojevich has separated the two budgets because they represent completely different functions of state
government and have no business being combined," she said. "And in doing so, the governor is putting more sunshine on the
(budgetary) process of both. It's a deliberate effort to create more accountability and make it a more clear process."
But Republications such as State Rep. Mark Beaubien Jr. of Wauconda, who is the budget negotiator for the Illinois House of
Representatives, said the governor's intentions are just the opposite.
"As the budget negotiator for the House, I am the next level down from (Democratic House Speaker) Mike Madigan's office,"
Beaubien said. "But at this point, just a few weeks before the veto session, I've heard nothing as far as the details of the
fiscal 2005 capital budget. It sounds like business as usual, but this time it's going to backfire on the governor. I don't
think the governor is going to be able to buffalo legislators anymore like he did with the general fund budget."
Beaubien said legislators of both parties are becoming increasingly frustrated with being shut out of the process.
"This is our budget and we ought to be in on what's going on since we're the ones who will be asked to vote on it," he
said.
A substantial portion of the FY 2005 capital budget will be devoted to funding capital projects already in progress.
Illinois Capital Development Board fiscal administrator Gus Behnke said the agency has requested that $500 million be
allocated toward elementary and secondary level school construction grants to continue to fuel the two-step process that the
CDB and the Illinois State Board of Education began several years ago.
"CDB and the Illinois Department of Transportation are the two biggest pieces in this school construction grant," he said.
Illinois Chamber of Commerce President Douglas Whitley said businesses are equally suspicious of the lack of budgetary
information being supplied by the governor's office.
"This administration has not been nearly as forthcoming with its fiscal reporting as any previous administration," said
Whitley. "The first year, they put the budget out two months late. And the Bureau of the Budget used to publish a quarterly
financial report but has stopped doing that."
Whitley questions why only six of the governor's 10 Opportunity Returns economic development initiatives have been
introduced. The first six plans, including the $160 million, 50-plus project initiative for Southwestern Illinois, were
announced nearly a year ago.
|
"The last four Opportunity Returns plans are apparently on hold," Whitley said. "This question begins to come into play: If
the governor wants the legislature to adopt an Opportunity Returns mega-bonding program during the November veto session, why
is he not willing to allow legislators to review the remaining four plans?"
Andrew Ross, spokesman for Opportunity Returns, said the initiative is still on course but could not identify a timeframe
for when the final four regional plans would be announced.
But State Rep. Jay Hoffman, a Democrat from Collinsville, said the delay of the plans' announcements is tied to an
uncertain budgetary climate in Springfield.
"The legislature had indicated that it was going to be problematic to pass the capital bill," said Hoffman. "You don't want
to get people's hopes up. We need to clarify the revenue stream before we continue rolling out Opportunity Returns
initiatives."
Hoffman affirmed that the projects announced via the first six Opportunity Returns programs are going to come to fruition
because that funding is in place.
"The first six Opportunity Returns plans certainly avoid the mistakes that were made under Gov. (George) Ryan's Illinois
FIRST program," Hoffman said. "These plans do not have the type of pork barrel fluff projects that were allowed in Illinois
FIRST. A good number of the already-announced Opportunity Returns plans, such as the ones for Southwestern Illinois, are able
to occur under the current bonding authority we have."
State Sen. Chris Lauzen, a Republican from Aurora, is a minority spokesman on the House revenue committee and a 12-year
member of the appropriations committee. A Harvard MBA graduate and the owner of an accounting firm for 25 years, Lauzen said
the nondisclosure thus far of any FY 2005 capital budget numbers is "blatant partisanship that has characterized the
Blagojevich administration."
Lauzen said he has heard a myriad of differing numbers concerning the proposed capital budget.
"I am always concerned when we should be getting the proposals out and running the numbers but we are not able to," he
said. "Gov. Blagojevich has used up a lot of goodwill with legislators in the past two years, playing an unconscionably
partisan game. An example of that is how he is raking the trucking industry over the coals to pay for his tollway plan.
Recklessness like that cost Illinois nearly 18,000 trucking registrations last year alone. We're spending big money like it's
Monopoly money and it's scary."
But Carroll said the Blagojevich administration has actually issued less debt to pay for capital projects than have
previous Illinois governors.
"What we issued last year was the smallest amount since fiscal year 1999," she said. "We propose to issue even less debt
for fiscal 2005."
|
