Lawmakers look to boost school funding in marathon budget sessions
SPRINGFIELD -- State lawmakers expressed optimism Friday they'd have a budget deal done by midnight tonight that would add millions in school spending.
But the deal would be unbalanced and liable to be pruned by the governor's veto pen.
A deal also would avert another marathon overtime at the Capitol and have the added bonus of delaying politically burdensome automatic pay raises for lawmakers until after the fall elections.
A deadline for rejecting raises would expire next week if lawmakers remain at the Capitol. But if they can adjourn their spring session this weekend, the countdown to the deadline would freeze and not likely resume until their fall session, after voters go to the polls in November.
The nearly 12 percent raises would boost state lawmakers' base pay to $72,985 from $65,353. They can make thousands more serving in leadership and chairing committees. The governor's pay would rise to $192,773 from $170,917.
The House rejected the raises, but Senate leaders have yet to act. Both chambers must reject, or else the raises automatically take effect.
On the budget front, negotiators said a state spending plan -- which some lawmakers said could approach $60 billion -- would include $515 million more in education spending. Nearly $150 million would go to two dozen school districts waiting years for promised state help.
"It's difficult to get my hopes up because my hopes have been dashed so many times before," said Diane Cody, superintendent of Winfield Elementary District 34.
The DuPage district has been waiting for $2.3 million in state construction aid since 2002.
"I'd hope that if the legislature passes this … that the governor will do the right thing," Cody said late Friday.
But critics, and even budget negotiators, say the plan expected to pass will have more spending than dollars to back it up. The strategy is to approve a budget before the May 31 midnight deadline and leave it to the governor to manage.
That could put the governor on the hook for politically unpopular cuts. But it also turns control of exactly what gets cut over to Blagojevich. Last summer he slashed projects in his critics' areas to balance the budget, though his aides said politics played no role.
Earlier this week, Blagojevich told the Daily Herald he expected lawmakers to act responsibly and send him a balanced plan, calling last year's version an "aberration."
"I have to think that they would never do that again," Blagojevich said.
Also unclear late Friday was the status of a construction-spending program that'd grown to $34 billion in a matter of days. The spending is financed with new and bigger casinos, slots at horse tracks and selling off the state's right to lottery proceeds. Backing up any borrowing is the state's increased sales tax take from sky-high gas prices.