Alliance Legislative Report 99-30

Distributed via Email: July 9, 2015

ONE-MONTH BUDGET LEGISLATION PASSES

With still no Fiscal Year 2016 budget in place and the prospect of state government workers not getting paid for their work in July, the House of Representatives today approved a bill to put in place a temporary, one-month budget. SB 2040 (Steans, D-Chicago) would allow for the continued operation of state government for basic services through July while legislators work on a final budget compromise. The bill was approved along partisan lines last week in the Senate and the same type of partisan roll call was the result in the House.

The governor has signed into law the budget for elementary and secondary education so there are appropriations to run school districts in the new fiscal year and no education funding is contained in SB 2040.The original temporary budget would have funded the basic services listed below, but would not have covered the salaries for all state workers. A Republican-sponsored amendment was filed, however, to provide funding for all state workers, and the amendment was approved with the bare minimum number of votes necessary.The basic services covered in the appropriation in SB 2040 are:

• Department of Aging for senior citizen prescriptions
• Department of Veterans Affairs for operation of the state’s veterans’ homes
• Department of Healthcare and Family Services for Medicaid
• Department of Human Services for mental health services
• Department of Corrections for correctional and parole officers
• Department of Juvenile Justice for youth services
• Department of Military Affairs for the National Guard
• Illinois State Police for troopers
• Illinois Emergency Management Agency for disaster services
• Secretary of State for Capitol security

Now that the bill has been amended in the House, it will be sent back to the Senate for concurrence in the amendment. The Senate is scheduled to return to the Capitol next Tuesday. Even if the Senate concurs and sends the bill to the governor, the governor will have 30 days to take action. Obviously, if the bill is not enacted before the end of the month the measure is moot. The House is scheduled to return next Wednesday.

This legislative report was written and edited by the lobbyists of the Illinois Association of School Boards to provide information to the members of the organizations that comprise the Statewide School Management Alliance.

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Bill Text/Status: Illinois General Assembly www.ilga.gov

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