State Budget

SPRINGFIELD, IL – State Senator John Sullivan (D-Rushville) is keeping a promise he made during last fall’s veto session to make sure a panel studying the role of Regional Offices of Education submits its findings in time to affect next year’s budget. SB 2566, passed unanimously today by the Senate, will require the panel to make its report four months earlier – by April 1, instead of by August 1.

“I made a promise last fall to local units of government and to my colleagues to move the date forward,” Sullivan said. “We need all the facts sooner rather than later – and in time to incorporate them into the budget discussions. We cannot continue to burden local governments with the cost of running the ROEs.”

Governor Pat Quinn has appointed State Senator Dan Kotowski (D-Park Ridge) to serve as Chairman of the Budgeting for Results Commission. The commission will make recommendations about budgeting goals, proposed expenditures, spending cuts and additional reforms.

"I am honored to be appointed Chairman of the Budgeting for Results Commission," said Senator Kotowski. "This bipartisan commission will implement a framework to cut, eliminate, reform and fund agencies and programs based on performance, not politics and self-interest. Illinois families live by these principles everyday; now the state government will as well."

It’s no secret that Illinois is currently facing some very difficult budget challenges at the state level. It’s also no secret by now that nearly every other state in the nation is facing some kind of budget shortfall, too. However, judging by a recent informal ploy to drum up support for a plan that would slash the Local Government Distributive Fund by $300 million, some must not realize that nearly every municipality in Illinois is also struggling to make it through these difficult times.

Springfield, IL—Senate Appropriations II Chairman Dan Kotowski said, "The Senate is making real progress on instituting historic spending reform. For Fiscal Year 2012, there will be no borrowing to make the state’s pension payments." On Friday, the Illinois Senate passed three bills that allocate funds so that the state can meet its pension obligation without borrowing.