Stopgap Budget

Rep. Greg Harris • 13^th District

Springfield Update • July 1, 2016

Stopgap Budget

After months of crisis following Governor Rauner’s vetoes of the FY16 state budget, we finally have a compromise stopgap budget, SB 2047 along with its companion legislation, signed and in place to cover FY16 and the first 6 months of FY17.  This stopgap budget was the result of months of detailed negotiations between the “budgeteers” group of which I was a member, consisting of representatives of each of the 4 legislative caucuses and led by Tim Nuding, Director of the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget.

Like all compromises, SB2047 required give and take from all sides, and falls short of what each of us who were negotiating would have wanted. It was a budget only discussion, and included none of the Governor’s “Turnaround Agenda”  as a precondition.

As the word ‘stopgap’ implies, this is not the final solution to the problem, and the ultimate fixes to our state’s structural fiscal, revenue and debt  problems still must be addressed in the coming months. I look forward to playing an active role in those negotiations.

The stopgap measures address most areas of state government including elementary and secondary education, higher education, human services, public safety and general state operations. Here is a brief synopsis of key pieces of the stopgap package, as well as links to the actual legislative language:

Budget Implementation Bill (BIMP): Removes the obligation to repay approximately $450 million in interfund borrowing otherwise due by Dec. 31 of this year, thereby “creating” GRF which can be used for appropriation and allows refinancing of certain existing debt at lower interest rates, and freezes COLAs, per diems for the General Assembly and constitutional officers.

Chicago School Pension Parity: Establishes a one year requirement for FY17 that the state contribute the normal cost ($205 million) to the Chicago Teachers Pension fund in the same way as the state already contributes normal cost to all other teacher pension funds in Illinois.

Chicago Teachers Pension Fund Tax Levy: Allows the Chicago Public Schools to re-establish a separate property tax levy of no more than .383% for the purpose of stabilizing the Teachers Pension Fund.

ACA Hospital Access Payments: Generates approximately $800 million dollars of new revenue for the Illinois Medicaid program including approximately $400 million in hospital assessments and $400 million in new federal matching dollars, $150 million for other purposes and $3 million for the Illinois Poison Control Center.

FY2017 Stopgap Budget:  Provides a full year of funding for elementary and secondary education, as well as for Federal Funds and Other State Funds. The bill also includes road, bridge and transit projects envisioned in the IDOT 5-year plan, as well as previously mothballed Capital Development Board projects and emergency repair and life-safety projects. In addition, there are these highlights which are included as part of the stop-gap for FY16 and the first 6 months of FY17. This is not an exhaustive listing; you may see the entire appropriation bill here:

• Elementary and Secondary Education: Increases General State Aid by $361 million, and a hold harmless from the Governor’s FY17 proposal; an additional $250 million “equity grant” for high poverty school districts (including CPS), $12 million to the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund.
• Higher Education: Approximately $1 billion, including between 82%-95% for all State Universities, based on a funding formula; $151 million for MAP grants (approximately 81% of an annual appropriation); approximately $149 million for community colleges, $5 million for the Illinois Math and Science Academy, as well as other items.
• Agency Operations: $275 million from the Budget Stabilization Fund, $448 million in GRF (from the borrowing forgiveness mentioned above) and $31 million from the Commitment to Human Services Fund are appropriated to the operations of all the agencies of state government. This is in addition to personnel costs which are being paid pursuant to court order
• Human Services: The vast majority of items in Medicaid and the departments of Healthcare and Family Services, Aging, Children and Family Services and Human Services will continue to be paid pursuant to Consent Decree and court orders.  There is an additional $667 million added for programs and items not covered by consent decrees (this includes items for which contracts were issued without appropriation AND items that the Governor had previous vetoed out.)  Amounts listed in SB2047 are in addition to consent decrees and court orders, and are available to be used for both  FY17 and prior-year FY16 costs incurred (all amounts in 1,000s, again for complete details refer to the actual legislation here):

It is important to note that since there was no FY16 budget in place at the beginning of the last fiscal year, that these items reflect only a partial annual budget.  It was the hope of the budget working group to be able to provide full funding for these items when the FY17 budget is finalized in January.

As always, I look forward to your comments or questions. I can be reached at greg@gregharris.org.