Gov. James Thompson pared $363 million from the state`s operating budget Monday, forcing the layoffs of 1,755 employees in cabinet agencies and universities but preserving what the governor called the ”core functions” of state government.
Thompson`s action means that the 2,500-inmate Menard Correctional Center will not be shuttered, as had been threatened. But there will be more than 300 layoffs throughout the Department of Corrections system.
Thompson cut $167.8 million from the legislature-approved budgets for elementary and secondary schools and $67 million in operating funds for the state`s colleges and universities.
The governor, saying he had no real choice, followed through on his pledge to cut the state`s general-funds spending levels to $10.4 billion from the $10.8 billion blueprint approved by the legislature. But Thompson spared some programs–in corrections, mental health and economic development–from deeper cuts that he said would cause significant harm to the state.
Across the board, agency budgets were cut an average of 4 percent below their fiscal 1987 spending levels.
”These cuts today, whether you agree with them or disagree with them, whether you would assign a higher or lower priority to other areas of spending, do not represent any attempt on my part, or on the part of my staff, to inflict intentionally pain or punishment on anyone,” Thompson said at a Capitol news conference.
”We didn`t take it out on people in legislative districts because their legislators refused to support a tax increase,” he said, emphasizing that the budget reductions were not intended to induce a tax increase. ”We haven`t cut especially hard at human services because that would provoke headlines in the hopes of provoking a tax increase. That was not done.
”To the contrary, to the best of my ability, core human services were protected and, in fact, enhanced.”
Thompson vetoed $16 million in funding for the Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities, although he said the department still would have more money available in fiscal 1988 than it spent during the last fiscal year. He said the funding will allow the hiring of 130 additional employees.
”This state simply cannot afford, either morally or fiscally, to fail to care for the mentally ill or the developmentally disabled, who truly have nowhere else to turn,” he said.
But officials of the mental health community immediately challenged his actions as ”another downward step in the continued erosion” of the state`s mental health system.
”To say that this action in any way protects the mental health system is misleading in two regards,” said Jan Holcomb, president of the Mental Health Association in Illinois. ”First of all, it implies that a system of effective care and treatment exists. It does not. Secondly, it implies protection–that persons in our state-run facilities are housed in a safe and humane environment. They are not.”
Thompson cut $62.5 million in general state aid to elementary and secondary school districts, bringing it to a level 3.4 percent below current spending. Chicago will lose $24.1 million in state aid, a cut of nearly 4.1 percent.
The governor said the cuts to education probably troubled him the most, and he conceded that the decreases in appropriations stalled the state`s heralded efforts at educational reform, approved amidst much bragging two years ago.
State Schools Supt. Ted Sanders and University of Illinois President Stanley Ikenberry urged Thompson and the leaders of the General Assembly to reconsider their actions during the legislature`s fall veto session and to restore full funding to reaffirm the state`s commitment to educational improvements.
”For three years, Illinois led the nation in the educational reform movement. We are now in danger of being the first to become a dropout,”
Ikenberry said.
Sanders said the state now faces a ”nightmare” in its efforts to improve the quality of teachers and teaching. He predicted the budget cuts made by Thompson will put pressure on local school districts to seek property tax increases and could exacerbate labor negotiation difficulties.
Of the state`s 996 school districts, about one-third to one-half are expected to be entwined in teacher contract negotiations this fall.
The governor also said that cash-flow problems during the fiscal year could prevent the state from making an advance school-aid payment to local districts next month as it has in the past.
Such a payment would mean $50 million to the Chicago school system at a time when current labor negotiations could delay the opening of the schools this fall.
Thompson said an advance payment could be made only if a case challenging the constitutionality of the state`s message tax on out-of-state telephone calls is settled this month. If there is a settlement, Thompson said, ”it might be possible to advance a school aid payment. If we don`t settle this month, it will be impossible.”
In higher education, Thompson said the cuts could mean mid-year tuition increases of up to $100, staff reductions totaling 1,100 positions at public universities and 5,000 fewer scholarships.
Although Thompson and Corrections Director Michael Lane had threatened to close the Downstate Menard penitentiary, they said Monday that the institution was protected when the General Assembly added more money for corrections by depleting the line item appropriations for Medicaid provider reimbursements and income tax refunds.
Instead, Lane said three work camps–at East Moline, Vandalia and Hardin County–would be closed, and beds at community correctional centers in St. Louis, Springfield and Chicago would no longer be available.
In addition, 284 correctional officers will be laid off throughout the system, a situation which aggravates existing security problems in the state institutions. Cuts for the penal institutions totaled $7 million, also causing more delays in the opening and construction of new prisons.
”We`re going to be safe and we`re going to be secure,” Lane said. ”We will manage to the best of our ability to get by, hoping that better days will return soon.”
In order to save some other programs from deeper cuts, Thompson reduced the state`s contribution to employee pension funds to 44.6 percent of payout. About $75 million was trimmed from pension fund contributions, making those funds available for other programs.
Thompson said he did not share the optimism of some lawmakers and other groups that additional revenues may become available during the next year, but he proposed that he and the legislature review revenue forecasts in January.
”To the extent the outlook has improved and we have kept spending under control elsewhere in the budget, I will gladly join with the General Assembly to provide additional, needed resources to fund education and other vital programs,” he said.
But such an action also would be predicated on the General Assembly upholding the majority of the spending vetoes he made Monday. The legislature can override his actions with a simple majority vote during its fall session.
