Two Democrats see budget compromise differently
The plan to plug the $1.6 billion hole in the absurd ">2015 budget Democrats crafted last year took some twists, turns and compromises before it got approved in bipartisan fashion and sent for a vote in the Illinois Senate.
All but one of the House Republicans voted for the stopgap measure and that one (state Rep. Joe Sosnowski of Rockford) had an excused absence. I was more intrigued by the behind-the-scenes machinations, thoughts and votes of a couple of the more independent and fiscally conservative House Democrats. Second-term ">state Rep. Scott Drury of Highwood voted against the budget bills. ">State Rep. Jack Franks of McHenry, a 16-year veteran, voted for the budget bills.
Last spring, Democrats passed a budget they knew wasn't balanced. Neither Franks nor Drury voted for that budget. In recent weeks, after extensive negotiating between GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democrats House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton, representatives were presented with two bills that ">plugged the $1.6 billion hole with a 2.25-percent cut to most state programs and by "sweeping" many special state funds created to finance specific projects. Springfield is known for its long and ugly tradition of the governor and top leaders working out a deal on budgets and pushing it through last minute.
No change here. No breath of fresh transparency or accountability. No shaking up the budget process in Springfield this time.
These budget bills, both Franks and Drury said, were pushed through with little input from appropriations committees or any other members and not much, if any, explanation beforehand.
Drury said no one explained to him what was in the bills. Not in a caucus beforehand nor at anywhere else. He first heard about it in a radio report as he drove to Springfield last week.
No one sought his vote for the bill nor attempted to sway it, either from the speaker's staff or Rauner's.
Franks said House Democratic staff suggested to him he should vote against the bill because it contained cuts that might cause problems with some constituency groups. Franks said he was asking questions about the bill on the House floor to try to make sure it wasn't going to cause the state to lose federal matching funds or create other problems that would concern him.
"I was reading it as we sat down and it was the first bill we considered," Franks said.
Neither Franks nor Drury liked the notion of "sweeping" special state funds, which also has been done in previous years. The budget plug, if approved, will provide money to pay prison guards, court reporters and subsidize day care for low-income families, but it does so in part by taking $1.3 billion from some of the more than 700 special funds in Illinois designated for road construction, fire prevention, transit, arts funding and more as well as all that money from those cool-looking license plates we have for fighting domestic violence and breast cancer and many more.
Franks said the money in those funds should be spent on the purpose for which they were created. Drury wants to try to do something about the funds, perhaps consolidate or eliminate them, or eliminate the power to sweep them. Senate Democrat Dan Kotowski sponsored a bill three years ago that would have banned the sweeping of the charity special funds that might just occur soon, too.
"You have to question why is there so much money in these funds," Drury said, "What are they being used for and should they be in 600 or 700 separate lockboxes?"
The Democrats' concerns and complaints about transparency and accountability and about the jam-it-through process are similar, but Drury and Franks came down on opposite sides in the end.
"I don't want single moms having to quit their jobs to have to stay home with their kids," Franks said, noting Rauner didn't create the shortfall. "This is real. I certainly didn't think it was perfect. It was responsible."
Drury's conclusion: "I don't feel that it's in the best interests of my constituents to be voting on huge amounts of spending without giving it the proper analysis."
• Madeleine Doubek is chief operating officer of Reboot Illinois, an organization devoted to reform in Illinois government. This column is taken from the Reboot website, rebootillinois.com, with permission.