By CAPITOL NEWS ILLINOIS

SPRINGFIELD – Gov. JB Pritzker on Wednesday offered a $45.4 billion general revenue budget plan for the upcoming fiscal year that would include new spending on education and health care while also providing about $1 billion in temporary tax relief that he said would soften the impact of inflation on Illinois consumers.

In his budget address delivered from the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Pritzker claimed credit for the state being in its best fiscal condition in decades.

The overall budget plan is about $1.6 billion, or 3.4 percent, smaller than what officials expect the state to spend in the current fiscal year. But officials also expect the state to end this fiscal year on June 30 with a $1.7 billion surplus, money Pritzker proposes to spend paying down the state’s pension debt and shoring up its “rainy day” fund, among other uses.

Budget officials currently project the state to take in $45.8 billion in revenue during the year, which includes $4 billion in federal funds and nearly $2 billion in statutory transfers into the general fund from other funds, such as lottery and marijuana revenues.

Included in the budget are initiatives aimed at expanding the state’s health care workforce. Among those is a $25 million program called the Pipeline for the Advancement of Healthcare, or PATH, workforce program to help community colleges train nurses, technicians and other high-demand health care personnel.

It also includes a $180 million Healthcare Workforce Initiative directed at hospitals, clinics and other providers to pay for staff bonuses, continuing education, training and staff retention and recruitment.

Some other highlights of the budget proposal include increased funding for all levels of education – early childhood, K-12 and higher education – as well as increased funding for human services like foster care, mental health and disability services; and funding to train and hire 300 new Illinois State Police officers.

And, as the administration had announced earlier, the plan calls for a one-year holiday from the state’s 1 percent grocery tax, a one-year cancellation of the scheduled inflationary increase in the motor fuel tax and a 5 percent property tax rebate to an estimated 2 million qualifying homeowners that would be in addition to the property tax credit they can claim on their income taxes.

This year’s speech was also Pritzker’s first major public address of his re-election campaign and portions of it took on a decidedly political tone, taking credit for the state’s improved financial condition while brushing aside his opponents and critics.

“What a self-indulgent position the cynics take, always opposing what’s in the best interest of the people of Illinois, if they think it will advance their political standing,” he said. “…During this budget cycle especially, seats at the grownup table will be off limits to those who aren’t working in the public’s best interests.”

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PENSION CONTRIBUTIONS: Illinois’ largest general revenue fund expenses continue to be K-12 education and pensions. The latter will make up 20.7 percent of the proposed general revenue spending in the upcoming budget, or about $9.6 billion.

The governor has proposed adding another $500 million to the pension payment beyond what is required by law in fiscal years 2022 and 2023.

That’s notable, because previous governors have been widely criticized for shortchanging the pension system – something Pritzker proposed, then quickly abandoned, in his first year in office. Critics often point out that the state law governing pension payments already shortchanges the system from what accountants suggest should be paid into it.

The governor proposed spending $300 million of the surplus from the current fiscal year to pay down pensions, with $200 million added to the statutory payment in the upcoming budget. 

The governor’s office estimated the $500 million increase beyond statutory amounts would reduce unfunded liabilities – which sit at about $130 billion – by about $1.8 billion. A pension buyout program previously approved by the General Assembly has reduced that liability by about $1.4 billion, according to the governor’s office.

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BUDGET REACTION: The governor’s speech and budget proposal also drew predictably partisan reactions from Republicans, including Jesse Sullivan, a GOP candidate for governor, who called the proposed tax relief package “nothing more than attempted bribery” and “a classic election year tactic.”

House Republican Leader Jim Durkin, of Western Springs, also issued a statement criticizing the budget plan.

“The governor’s budget address is always a wish-list, and this year it’s clear that the governor wishes to be reelected,” he said. “The budget laid out by Gov. Pritzker today is packed with gimmicks and one-time tricks, but no structural reforms.”

Meanwhile Democrats, who control both chambers of the General Assembly with supermajorities, universally praised the budget plan.

“I’m not accustomed to good news in a budget speech,” Senate President Don Harmon, of Oak Park, said in a separate statement. “This is a budget proposal unlike any I’ve seen in my time in the Senate. It speaks to the work we’ve done, together, to bring stability to our state finances. That stability allows us to invest back in our state and provide relief to those hit hardest by the pandemic and associated economic downturn.”

Industry groups, on the other hand, had mixed reactions to Pritzker’s budget plan.

Health care groups like the Illinois Primary Health Care Association and the Illinois Medical Society praised the budget plan for investing in the state’s health care workforce and Pritzker’s plan to pay down past-due bills in the state employee health insurance program.

But the Transportation for Illinois Coalition, made up of business, labor and infrastructure groups, warned that canceling the scheduled increase in the motor fuel tax could have a long-term impact on future road construction and maintenance.

And Illinois Hotel and Lodging Association President and CEO Michael Jacobson issued a statement saying he was disappointed that the budget plan did not include any additional relief for the hospitality and tourism industry, which he said was particularly hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lawmakers will spend the next several weeks holding committee hearings with state agency officials in order to craft a final budget plan. They are scheduled to wrap up their work by April 8, leaving them time to campaign for reelection ahead of the June 28 primaries.

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BLACK, LATINO CAUCUS REACTION: Members of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus and Illinois Legislative Latino Caucus voiced their overall support for Gov. GB Pritzker’s budget in separate news conferences Wednesday, but said they will continue to push to address the lack of access to health care, affordable housing, economic development, and high quality education for Black and brown communities in Illinois.

Illinois Senate Black Caucus Chair Robert Peters, D-Chicago, and Latino Legislative Caucus Chair Sen. Karina Villa, D-West Chicago, said Pritzker’s budget is a fair starting point.

“This budget is at a good place, and considering the circumstances, it reflects a more optimistic outlook than where we were a year ago,” Peters said.  “The budget proposal certainly takes into account the improved circumstances of our state’s economic and fiscal situations, and it’s a good place to begin the process of drafting our first budget that puts us on the road to economic recovery during this pandemic.”

Villa and Peters, in separate appearances, praised the investment of $240 million in new money for the Reimagine Public Safety Act for increased funding for community-based violence intervention programs, behavioral health programs and trauma recovery.

Peters also pushed for the full implementation of the SAFE-T Act, a criminal justice reform passed in January last year.

The proposed budget includes funding for the Illinois Supreme Court’s requested $26 million to establish comprehensive pretrial services in the 63 counties that lack such services. It includes another $10 million in new appropriations from the Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board to pay for the obligations associated with the SAFE-T Act.

Peters said he supported housing assistance that includes $10 million for eviction mitigation, and $40 million for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.

Villa praised a one-year proposed vacation on the 1 percent grocery tax, as well as a proposal to cancel an anticipated 2.2 cent increase to the state’s motor fuel tax for the current fiscal year.

Leaders of the two caucuses said they will continue to work to improve opportunities for their constituents as they negotiate the budget.

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COMPTROLLER RESPONSE: Comptroller Susana Mendoza said she expects the state’s credit rating to improve and the remaining bill backlog reduced under Gov. JB Pritzker’s $45.4 billion proposed budget.

Another credit rating upgrade would be noteworthy, as the state had gone 23 years without receiving such a vote of confidence from a ratings agency at the time it was upgraded by Moody’s Investors Service in June 2021.

The state’s unpaid bill backlog, which climbed to $16.7 billion during the budget impasse between former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic leaders of the General Assembly, now sits at about $2.9 billion.

That equates to the state paying its bills on a cycle of about 15 days, whereas the oldest voucher at the height of the impasse was 500 days old. That’s a fact Pritzker noted in his speech in which he specifically credited Mendoza by name.

Mendoza credited the governor for his attention to the backlog, including allocating $898 million to pay down overdue health insurance bills. She said paying down the backlog avoids late payment interest that totaled hundreds of millions of dollars annually at the height of the impasse.

Mendoza succeeded Leslie Munger, a Republican appointed by Rauner, by winning a special election in 2016.

The Democrat and former Chicago city clerk was a frequent critic of Rauner, publicizing her lack of autonomy over state finances due to consent decrees and court orders which mandated her to pay certain bills with the state’s dwindling finances during the height of the impasse.

She won reelection in 2018 and has continued to prioritize the timely payment of bills.

“I don’t think anyone would have thought this was possible five years ago,” Mendoza said of the proposed budget in a phone call with Capitol News Illinois Wednesday. “We’ve made incredible strides, incredible progress.”

She also praised the governor and state legislative leaders for paying down $3.2 billion in pandemic-related borrowing early. In 2020, Illinois borrowed the money from the Federal Reserve’s Municipal Liquidity Facility due to revenue shortfalls associated with the pandemic. It was repaid in January.

If the budget is passed and signed into law, Mendoza said, “there is no doubt in my mind” that Illinois’ credit score will once again improve.

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TEACHER SHORTAGE BILLS: Two bills aimed at relieving the state’s teacher shortage, at least in the short term, advanced out of a Senate committee Tuesday.

The Senate Education Committee unanimously endorsed two bills that would allow retired teachers to work as substitutes more days in a school year without losing any of their pension benefits.

Senate Bill 3201, by Sen. Napoleon Harris, D-Harvey, would extend the return-to-work limit for downstate teachers in the Illinois Teachers Retirement System to 150 days from its current 120 days. But Harris said he intends to amend the bill to drop the proposed limit to 140 days to satisfy concerns from teachers unions.

Allowing retired teachers more flexibility to return to work was one of the recommendations of the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools when they released their annual survey in January in which 88 percent of the districts responding said they had a shortage of full-time teachers, while 96 percent said they had a shortage of substitute teachers.

But that would only be a short-term solution. A similar bill is pending in the House that would extend the return-to-work limit only through June 30 of this year. Harris, however, said he thinks it should be extended through the 2022-2023 academic year as well.

The committee also advanced SB3465, by Sen. Robert Martwick, D-Chicago, which would offer a similar option for teachers who retired from Chicago Public Schools. It would allow those retired teachers to return to work in “subject shortage areas” through June 30, 2024, without losing pension benefits.

Martwick said the bill is identical to one that passed last year that applied only to downstate teachers.

Both bills advanced out of the committee on 13-0 votes, although Harris said he plans to bring his bill back with an amendment.

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SCHOOL MASK LAWSUIT: A Sangamon County judge is considering a motion to block Illinois schools from requiring people to wear face masks in classes and excluding students and staff from school buildings if they’ve had close contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.

Circuit Judge Raylene Grischow heard oral arguments last week in a class action lawsuit against 145 school districts that was filed last year by Greenville attorney Thomas DeVore, who has unsuccessfully challenged the state’s COVID-19 mitigation measures in several other lawsuits.

In September, DeVore filed a motion for a temporary restraining order to permit students to continue in-person learning in school.

Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office is defending the districts and the Illinois Education Association, along with the Illinois Federation of Teachers, has entered the case as intervenors on behalf of the teachers they represent.

The cases were originally filed individually in several Illinois counties but were later consolidated into Sangamon County Circuit Court.

At issue is whether school districts are violating state law by implementing orders from Gov. JB Pritzker and guidelines from the Illinois Department of Public Health and Illinois State Board of Education to impose certain mitigation measures in order to hold in-person instruction.

Those measures include requirements that all students, staff and visitors wear face coverings in school buildings, that students and staff be excluded from buildings if they test positive for COVID-19 or have been in close contact with someone else who has, and that school personnel be vaccinated or submit to weekly testing.

In the suit, DeVore argues that exclusions amount to a kind of “quarantine” and that under the Department of Public Health Act, schools cannot exclude students for public health concerns without their parents’ consent or a quarantine order from a public health department.

He also argues that schools have no legal authority to require vaccinations or the wearing of masks unless a public health department has issued a quarantine order.

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INMATE TRANSFERS: The Illinois Department of Corrections resumed intake of inmates from county jails last week after a two-week pause due to a COVID-19 spike.

As COVID-19 cases at Illinois correctional facilities continue trending downward, space previously used to safely quarantine and isolate incarcerated individuals who had been exposed or tested positive for COVID-19 will now be available for county jail transfers, according to a statement released by IDOC.

IDOC paused intake of inmates on Jan. 11, citing high transmission rates due to the omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus. IDOC resumed intake into their facilities on Jan. 27. In that span, hospitalizations for COVID-19 in Illinois have decreased from more than 7,200 to 3,805 as of Monday, Jan. 31.

Sheriffs around the state complained the move to pause transfers to IDOC put more strain on county jails that continued to house, feed, clothe and provide medical attention for offenders awaiting transfer to IDOC. Before a transfer to IDOC, inmates are held in isolation for 14 days as a quarantine measure to help stop the spread of COVID-19.

Gov. JB Pritzker ordered all IDOC guards to be vaccinated in August, but the union took the case to arbitration. The arbitrator ultimately sided with the governor, but that was in late December. Guards were to have their first shot by the end of January.

The Better Government Association reported that in early December 2021, there were fewer than 160 COVID-19 cases throughout IDOC. Six weeks later, that number jumped to 3,300 inmates and 1,100 staff members.

On Monday, Jan. 31, IDOC’s website reported 1,022 cases among the staff and 2,800 cases among offenders. The highest offender positivity rate was at Robinson Correctional Center with 409 cases. The eastern Illinois facility has a capacity of 1,200 inmates.

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DCFS HEARING: It was a full afternoon of questioning for Illinois Department of Children and Family Services Director Marc Smith, who appeared before the House Human Services Appropriations Committee for a three-and-a-half-hour virtual hearing Friday, Jan. 28.

“This hearing comes in the wake of recent reports of the department; the litigation issues, the court findings in recent cases, the deaths of children who have been in contact with DCFS, the deaths of DCFS workers and social workers such as Deidre Silas, who are working diligently with our children in the line of duty,” said Committee Chairperson Rep. Camille Lilly, D-Chicago.

“The goal of this hearing is very simple: to discover the truth, ensure accountability and develop long-term solutions. We’re not here to point fingers. We’re here to learn what we need to do to ensure the safety of our children under the DCFS department as well as his workers,” she said.

Smith told the committee the three children who had been the subject of contempt citations by a Cook County juvenile judge had been placed. And all but one of the contempt citations issued by Cook County Judge Patrick Murphy had been purged.

The three children at the heart of these cases have been placed, but only one is in permanent placement, according to Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert.

The 9-year-old girl who spent seven months in a psychiatric hospital is in a temporary emergency placement. The 13-year-old boy who spent five months in a temporary emergency placement is now in a foster home. The 17-year-old boy who was in a psychiatric hospital is now in an integrated care facility and on a waiting list for a therapeutic treatment center. 

DCFS is currently holding 53 children in psychiatric hospitals beyond medical necessity, Smith said. Five of those children have been held for more than six months. Smith told the committee DCFS has placed more than 300 children that were held beyond medical necessity into appropriate placements, but those placements depend on the child.

“Sometimes it is a tremendous amount of work to find a provider who can care for a very specific specialized kind of child,” Smith said. “So we have to work very closely with them to develop the programming in order to fit the need of an individual child and to be able to care for that child safely. “It goes to those providers to help them to be able to develop the resources to care for these very, very needy children who have so much going on.”

According to written testimony submitted to legislators, Golbert said his office had been raising concerns about inappropriate placement of DCFS wards since 2016. Now, it has reached a crisis, Golbert wrote. These children’s cases are reviewed on a newly-created Cook County docket informally called “the stuck kids call.”

Under questioning from Rep. Patrick Windhorst, R-Metropolis, about DCFS failing to abide by court orders and moving children into appropriate placements, Smith said DCFS is working with private agencies, which are facing their own hiring struggles and reconstituting services that were systematically dismantled by the lack of a state budget.

Smith also addressed safety concerns for DCFS employees in the wake of the murder of investigator Deidre Silas. Silas was murdered while checking on the welfare of six children in Sangamon County.

Smith told the committee that 90 percent of his offices have an armed guard, but those guards do not go out on calls. DCFS works with local law enforcement to determine if there are safety concerns at the site and can go to calls in pairs. DCFS also instituted training after the murder of DCFS worker Pam Knight three years ago in northwest Illinois, Smith said.

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DCFS CALLS FOR ASSISTANCE: An emergency housing facility at the center of court case that led to the state’s Department of Children and Family Services director being held in contempt of court was the subject of 161 service calls to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department in 2021.

The 12-bed facility is the Southern Thirty Adolescent Center near Mount Vernon. It is run by Lutheran Children and Family Services, and has a $1.9 million contract to house children in DCFS custody aged 11 to 17.

The facility is designed as a temporary shelter, offering children access to educational, mental health and other appropriate services for up to 30 days.

But DCFS spokesman Bill McCaffrey said the average stay there is 107 days.

It’s the same facility where DCFS placed a 13-year-old boy, identified only as C.R.M. in court documents, in emergency custody for months despite a judge’s order to move him to a more appropriate setting. Earlier this month Cook County Judge Patrick T. Murphy cited DCFS Director Marc Smith for contempt for failing to relocate the boy to a therapeutic foster home.

Call logs from the Sheriff’s Department from Dec. 14, 2020, to Dec. 14, 2021, showed calls from STAC for fights, criminal damage to property, unspecified juvenile incidents and alarms. But the vast majority of calls, 97, involved runaways. 

“The sheriff’s office uses significant resources responding to multiple calls for service each week at this facility,” Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Bullard said.

 

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government and distributed to more than 400 newspapers statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.