Lawmakers prepare for a possible last-minute budget showdown

SPRINGFIELD — The last time the Illinois General Assembly met, lawmakers spent a week voting on all kinds of hot-button issues from civil unions to legalizing medical marijuana.

Getting those often time-consuming items off the agenda in early December could help lawmakers come back Monday with a sharper focus on what's arguably the state's most critical issue: money problems.

“It gives us more of an ability to concentrate on the budget,” said Rep. Mark Beaubien, a Barrington Hills Republican and his party's budget leader in the House. “You basically clear the table.”

Starting Monday, lawmakers, many of whom are in the last weeks of their terms in office, might make a mad-dash effort to make progress on a state financial crisis that's been years in the making.

Gov. Pat Quinn privately has mulled a plan to borrow $15 billion so the state can pay its piles of unpaid bills. The loans could be paid back over time by increasing in the income tax rate, raising cigarette taxes, or some other yet-unknown idea to raise money.

Over this General Assembly's two-year term, though, many big ideas about fixing the state's finances have fizzled. A plan to raise the income tax rate stalled in the House. And more recently, a proposal to borrow about $4 billion to pay for the retirements of state workers stalled as well.

The new General Assembly is scheduled to be sworn in Jan. 12, so the old one has limited time to get anything done and so is scheduled to work right up until its deadline. Legislation has to start from scratch after the new Legislature takes office.

In the meantime, local schools, caretakers of the disabled and some medical providers that depend on state support continue to suffer as they wait for the money they're owed.

With the original plan for $4 billion in loans facing heavy opposition, it could be even more difficult for Quinn to get lawmakers to borrow nearly four times as much.

And a vote over abolishing the death penalty, among other issues, is possibly lingering as another factor that could derail movement on any budget solutions.

Still, the lame-duck session that starts this week provides a unique political opportunity for Quinn. Lawmakers who lost their elections in November and don't have to worry about their next campaigns might be more open to taxes than they once were.

Rep. Mark Walker, an Arlington Heights Democrat, has opposed tax increases during his term. But he said recently that encouraging news about consumer spending during the holidays has him thinking the economy might be in better shape.

Walker said that because of the economic news his stance on an income tax increase is now “fluid.”

“I'm getting flexible,” he said.

For his part, Quinn still is publicly supporting his plan to raise the income tax rate from 3 percent to 4 percent in order to help pay for schools, said Quinn budget spokeswoman Kelly Kraft. He also supports raising the taxes on a pack of cigarettes by $1, more than doubling it from the current 98-cent state tax.

But Kraft said “nothing has been finalized.”

A bigger income tax increase, to 5 percent, has already been approved by the Senate, but the House has showed little interest in it.

“The governor's plan is to stabilize the budget,” she said. “And he's been working with legislators on both sides of the aisle to get that accomplished.”

For those negotiations to succeed, Republicans likely would have to be included. If lawmakers want to approve a borrowing plan, GOP votes are needed in the House.

House Republican Leader Tom Cross of Oswego said he acknowledges the state's budget deficit — estimated to by $15 billion by July — is a “huge, huge monster.”

“We know it's real,” Cross said. “We know it's a problem.”

Cross said last week that he so far had not been invited to negotiate by Democrats yet, though.

“One of the reasons we're in this mess is that we pass budgets at the last minute,” Cross said.

Republicans might get behind efforts in the Senate to reform the state's budget-busting Medicaid program, which provides health care for the poor.

State Sen. Pam Althoff, a McHenry Republican who was on a Senate committee that has been trying to tackle the issue, said she expects to see legislation moving soon. Changes could include changing who's eligible for the program and how doctors are paid.

Althoff said Republicans continue to want to see spending cuts from state government.

“Medicaid reform, obviously, is one of those initiatives,” she said.

Also with budget implications is the proposal to allow slot machines at Arlington Park and license five new Illinois casinos, four of them in northern Illinois.

Rep. Lou Land, a Skokie Democrat, said he'll be tweaking some “smaller items” in the plan that Sen. Terry Link and the Senate already approved. That means even if the House approves gambling expansion, the Senate would have to vote again in order to send it to Quinn.

Quinn hasn't been a vocal supporter of new casinos and slot machines. The expansion could reap the state some cash though — as much as $460 million upfront and $550 million in years after, according to one estimate.

Illinois casino revenues, however, have dropped more than 20 percent in recent years.

Lang said he hopes to get a vote on the plan before new lawmakers are sworn in. A committee hearing is scheduled for Monday.

But with taxes and borrowing possibly on lawmakers' plates, Lang said he might not be able to find enough support.

“We have a very big potential agenda the next two weeks,” he said.