Stepping up his efforts to pressure local officials to support his tax plan, Gov. James Thompson released details Thursday of how much state aid school districts would lose if his proposals foundered in the legislature.
Hopeful of enlisting the support of the state`s powerful educational community, Thompson aides released copies of letters to school officials outlining the ”depressing” and ”dramatic” consequences of school-aid cuts that would be necessary without new taxes.
Release of the letters to school officials came one day after the governor, in a separate set of letters, described the largess available to city and county governments under his $1.6 billion tax plan.
The governor has proposed a 20 percent increase in the state`s personal income tax, a new sales tax on a broad range of personal services and a 9.5-cent-a-gallon raise in the state`s 13-cent gasoline tax.
Thompson`s intensive letter-writing campaign is the latest move in his drive to rally support for his much-maligned tax plan and to pressure lawmakers into voting for his controversial tax package. In all, the governor has mailed 22,000 letters to mayors, county officials, educators and special- interest groups.
Unlike his letters to local government officials, which appealed for support for the plan and listed local benefits under it, the governor`s message to educators was more ominous.
The governor said that without new taxes he would be forced to slash $194.5 million from his budget of more than $3 billion for elementary and secondary education in fiscal year 1988, which begins July 1.
Those cuts would include a reduction in general state aid of $93 million and another $77.7 million in programs contained in the highly-praised education reform package adopted by the General Assembly two years ago.
The governor said the state`s $74.7 million preschool program for children at risk of academic failure would drop to a $18.3 million program, dropout prevention programs would be sliced in half and funding for the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy would be cut nearly in half.
”Depressing as these cuts from my proposed fiscal year 1988 budget would be, the true picture would be even worse,” Thompson wrote. ”Built-in pay raises through multi-year staff contracts, annualization costs, and mild inflation costs mean that the fiscal year `88 dollars will buy less.
”A level funding budget, in plain terms, means dramatic cuts in personnel and programs,” he said.
For Chicago, those cuts would mean a loss of nearly $4.6 million in state aid, compounded by funding cuts for other school programs, says the Illinois State Board of Education.
But if Thompson`s tax proposal is approved at current levels, the city could expect an additional $26.3 million in new general state aid.
Attempts to contact School Supt. Manford Byrd Jr. and board president George Munoz were unsuccessful.
Among the suburban Cook and ”collar counties” expected to lose state aid without a tax raise are Oak Park-River Forest High School District 200, $391,100; Elmhurst School District 205, $51,091; and Arlington Heights Elementary School District 25, $79,654.
Some school districts will receive more state aid even without the tax increases.
In a similarly gloomy message to higher-education officials, Thompson said $107.5 million would have to be pared from their $1.435 billion budget.
Those cuts would mean no pay raises for faculty and staffs, no new institutional programs, $17 million less for scholarships, $14 million less for community colleges and $72 million less for public universities.
