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Budget Battles
The wrap up of the 2008 spring legislative session
brought with it both good news and bad news. Personally, I am thrilled to be back
in the district after almost seventeen straight months of travel to and from Springfield. The bad news, however, is that the
Fiscal Year 2009 budget that was passed has serious flaws and I do not see a
clear path to remedying those flaws.
Almost everyone agrees that the budget we passed is
out of balance – meaning the expected revenues fall short of
expenditures. The $64,000
question (excuse the pun) is how much?
The Governor has said the budget is out of balance by approximately $2
billion. Others I have spoken
with say it is not anywhere near that much.
At this point, I do not have specific information on
what revenue projections were used to develop the budget so I am unable to
make my own determination. But I
can lay out for you some of the options that were on the table and how much
new revenue they could be expected to bring in for FY 2009. Those potential revenues include:
Natural revenue growth (from income, sales and other
taxes) $520
million
The sale of the long dormant license for the 10th
casino $575
million
Increased enforcement by the Illinois Department of
Revenue
(basically going after tax cheats) $
47 million
Transfer of special purpose funds to General Revenue $530
million
State issuance of Pension Obligation Bonds $500
million (or so)
So what does it all really mean?
Basically, the House and Senate are waiting on the
Governor to make a decision about how to handle the budget. He can veto the entire budget –
in which case we start from scratch except that now we need a super majority
of votes in order to pass a FY 2009 budget (a repeat of the scenario from
last year). He can line item veto
the spending that he believes is excessive or unnecessary and bring it into
balance (or at least get it closer).
Or he can sign the budget “as is” and use his authority to
spend or not spend during the upcoming fiscal year to manage the cash flow.
The Governor has proposed additional meetings with the
legislative leaders to try and come to resolution. While I don’t anticipate that
this will be successful, I am trying to be an optimist. So stay tuned….
New Physician Profile Website to Help Illinois
Families
Governor Blagojevich recently announced the launch of
a new physician profile feature available to the public at www.IDFPR.com, the Department of Financial
and Professional Regulation’s website. The new feature allows health care
consumers to review important information about the professional and
disciplinary background of 44,000 physicians and surgeons licensed to
practice in Illinois.
Over 85 percent of all licensed physicians and
surgeons have provided the information necessary to create their profile in
categories that include: the location and scope of practice, the type of
insurance the physician accepts, specialties and certifications, legal and
disciplinary actions taken against them, his or her educational background
and any professional activities or honors the physician would like to
add. Physicians’ licenses
are subject to renewal in July 2008.
Before a license is renewed, physicians must provide the information
for their profiles
Results of the New Illinois Power Procurement Process
Illinois recently completed its first electricity
procurement following the enactment of last year’s reform legislation,
Senate Bill 1592. I thought you
might be interested in learning more about how that law has benefited
Illinois consumers.
As you may recall, in 2006, after receiving approval
from the Illinois Commerce Commission, ComEd and Ameren conducted so called
“reverse auctions” to purchase electricity from wholesale
markets. The results of this
approach were a disaster for Illinois consumers. So, last year, we were able to pass
legislation to fix this system.
This legislation had four components: 1) $1 billion
dollars of rate relief refunds for ComEd and Ameren customers; 2) Replacement
of the reverse auction with a new, more pro-consumer electricity procurement
method; 3) Reform of the rate system to protect Ameren’s electric
heating customers; and 4) Financial swaps, negotiated by the Attorney General
and authorized by statute, that guaranteed consumers a fixed price for
approximately half of the electricity to be purchased by ComEd and Ameren to
serve their customers.
One year later, the evidence suggests that the new
procurement method and financial swaps have worked, as intended, to benefit
Illinois ratepayers. Although
wholesale electricity prices have increases since the 2006 reverse auction, Ameren and ComEd customers will pay lower
prices for electricity during the coming year than the process
established by the 2006 auction.
I am most pleased that we were able to include both
short and long-term relief and
reform for Illinois consumers through this legislation.
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