House back to examine cuts
By KEVIN P. CRAVER - kcraver@nwherald.com
Having a state budget in place means that state employees will get paid on time, providing that they don’t get laid off as a result of cuts to balance it.
But that is little consolation to the Adult and Child Rehabilitation Center and other agencies whose payments are being held up by the Democratic political infighting in Springfield.
At least $8,000 in payments for services rendered are being held up, or about 1 percent of the agency’s budget, center Executive Director Kim Larson said. Unlike many social-service agencies that receive lump-sum state grants, the Woodstock-based center bills the state on a case-by-case basis.
“My finance manager was told that the $8,000 in checks are sitting on the desk and will not be signed until the budget is balanced,” Larson said. “That’s half a payroll for us.”
TodayTuesday, July 15 is the start of a three-day House special session to determine whether to override any of Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s $1.4 billion in cuts to the budget, which took effect June 1.
But without the Senate’s cooperation – and Senate President Emil Jones said he was unlikely to call it into special session – the House’s actions are for show.
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McHenry County’s state representatives agree but allocate the blame differently. State Rep. Jack Franks, D-Woodstock, said the mess could be laid at the feet of Blagojevich and ally Jones.
Franks said Jones wouldn’t convene the Senate before the fall veto session so that pay raises long sought by Senate leadership wouldn’t come up for a vote before the November election.
“We’ll have made hundreds of votes and will have restored all of the veto cuts, but it’s all political theater,” Franks said.
State Rep. Mike Tryon, R-Crystal Lake, also pinned the blame for the budget fiasco on House Speaker and Blagojevich nemesis Michael Madigan.
“This is the fallout from the Democratic leadership feud, and it’s ridiculous,” Tryon said. “People’s lives are in the balance, and we’re seeing who can beat their chest louder – the governor, the speaker or the Senate president.”
The General Assembly on May 31, the last day of the 2008 fiscal year, passed a 2009 budget that Blagojevich said was $2 billion in the red. He convened a special session last week, but his long-standing ideas to fill the void, such as leasing the state lottery, were soundly rejected in the House. Blagojevich cut $1.4 billion from the budget shortly thereafter.
Jones has said the Senate would not consider any House veto overrides unless they also provided for ways to fund them. Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said such measures, likely moving money around, would be part of the discussion.
“There’s more than enough ways to pay for any number of things,” Brown said. “I don’t know that you need any additional revenue.”
As for revenue, all Larson of the Adult and Child Rehabilitation Center wants is the money that the state owes.
Larson said the $8,000 delayed by the budget war was part of $60,000 that the state owed.
“They’re playing a game with an agency that provides much-needed services,” Larson said, “and I’m frustrated.”
