Ill. House votes to borrow pension money, give governor sweeping budget powers

Ill. House OKs borrowing, emergency budget plan

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The Illinois House voted Tuesday to borrow billions of dollars and give the governor broad new control over state spending, two key pieces of a Democratic budget plan.

It took two tries to approve the borrowing measure, which would provide $3.7 billion for troubled government pension systems. It first failed by a single vote, then passed after some arm-twisting by the governor and legislative leaders.

The other measure passed easily after weeks of lobbying by Gov. Pat Quinn. The “Emergency Budget Act” would let him, rather than legislators, make many of the decisions on where to cut state spending.

It also lets the Democratic governor dip into special government funds and sell off some future income to get cash now.

Both measures now move to the Senate.

Democrats are trying to piece together a budget that addresses a $13 billion deficit without raising taxes or slashing spending. They hope to finish by May 31. After that, new voting requirements kick in and Republican support would be needed to pass any budget.

House Minority Leader Tom Cross, R-Oswego, said Democrats are producing “a budget that has a lot of duct tape around it. … It doesn’t really add up, but that’s what we’ve grown accustomed to in the state of Illinois.”

Borrowing to provide pension money was a major point of contention.

With a record-high deficit, Illinois doesn’t have enough money to make the annual payment. The House voted against raising taxes and against slashing spending enough to come up with the money.

House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, said that left only two options: “We can borrow the money or we can take a hike on our responsibility.”

Delaying the pension contribution could cost the pension systems, which already face a huge shortfall, billions in lost revenue. Executives say they’ll have to sell assets to keep delivering monthly pension checks to retired state workers, downstate teachers, university employees and more.

The borrowing plan failed earlier in the month, and it initially failed Tuesday, getting 70 of the 71 votes it needed.

But the governor and legislative leaders leaped into action, looking for lawmakers who might change sides. In the end, two “no” votes switched, as did one “yes” vote. The second time around, the outcome was 71-44.

“You’ve got to sort of do the mature thing, which is at least try to get us through this crisis,” said one of those who switched votes, Rep. David Miller, the Democratic nominee for state comptroller.

The governor’s office said the budget legislation would permit spending of about $56.7 billion in the budget year starting July 1. Much of that is federal money and special funds over which the state has limited control.

The money provided by Illinois taxpayers and controlled by the state would total about $25.9 billion — down roughly $1.3 billion from the current budget. That’s a reduction of about 4.8 percent.

Associated Press Writer John O’Connor contributed to this report.

The bill is SB3514.

Online: www.ilga.gov