Gov. George Ryan is expected to unveil a five-year, $1 billion-plus technology program in his State of the State address Wednesday, sources familiar with the proposal said Sunday.
The high-tech program, intended to bolster Illinois’ role in that segment of the global economy, is expected to be part of an estimated $46.5 billion budget.
Ryan has decided to finance the new fiscal year’s operations without a tax increase, the sources said, as he tries to shore up flagging support among voters and to deflect some of the damage resulting from revelations of corruption that occurred during his watch as secretary of state.
Ryan will also attempt to appeal to a wide spectrum of voters by offering increased funding for education, health care and research.
The address before the General Assembly will include Ryan’s plan to suspend executions pending a review of the state’s death penalty procedures and his decision to use the state’s share of the national tobacco settlement to create a $400 million “rainy-day fund” and finance health-related research and care, the sources said.
The governor is expected to renew efforts to make the unlawful use of weapons a felony instead of a misdemeanor, setting up a potential showdown with Senate President James “Pate” Philip (R-Wood Dale).
Ryan will keep a campaign promise to pour more than 51 percent of $900 million in new state revenue into education and work force training during the fiscal year that begins July 1.
Ryan will ask a joint session of the House and Senate on Wednesday to approve two more prisons and to hire more parole officers to keep track of criminals back on the streets.
The multiyear technology initiative, formulated with the help of business leaders, is an attempt to create a flashy followup to last year’s $12 billion Illinois FIRST infrastructure plan.
“It will create a lot of opportunity, investment and capital for the terrific academic and business institutions that are trying to make Illinois a leader in the new high-tech economy,” said a source familiar with the proposal.
Highlights include $75 million for gene research at the University of Illinois and $30 million for the school’s National Center for Supercomputing Applications.
Ryan also wants more than $190 million over five years for better technology in elementary and high schools and to create college programs aimed at top-notch training for high-tech jobs.
A $12 million program would distribute $1,000 job-training scholarships in fields such as robotics.
The good-news budget comes as Ryan tries to turn around his political fortunes.
Since taking office a little more than a year ago, Ryan’s job-approval and popularity ratings have plummeted, a reflection of the federal corruption investigation.
A Tribune/WGN-TV poll earlier this month showed that 38 percent of the state’s voters have a favorable opinion of Ryan, a drop of 20 percentage points from when he launched his gubernatorial campaign in January 1998. His job performance received approval from 44 percent, the poll found.
Last week, Dean Bauer, the man Ryan selected to root out corruption in the secretary of state’s office, told the Tribune he expected to be indicted in the investigation. Bauer would be the closest aide to Ryan to face indictment in the scandal, in which state employees took bribes in return for issuing driver’s licenses to unqualified applicants.
Federal officials have been looking into whether internal investigations into official corruption were derailed under Ryan.
Authorities allege that more than $150,000 of the bribe money wound up in Ryan’s gubernatorial campaign chest. So far 28 people have been indicted and 17 convicted in the federal investigation, including eight former secretary of state employees.
Some members of the General Assembly privately consider the governor to be politically damaged, a perception that was reinforced when Ryan lost a December showdown with Philip over gun control.
But Ryan, a former House speaker, also has built up a quarter-century of goodwill among statehouse politicians.
Ryan is not expected to offer a tax cut. But he is likely in his speech to toss a few bouquets to legislators who are eager to bring pork-barrel projects back to their hometowns in this election year.
The governor insists that any tax cut must be meaningful while not bankrupting the state.
Lawmakers have bruited about ideas ranging from reducing the income tax to holding a “sales tax holiday” that would set aside a few days when no state sales tax would be charged. But there has been no consensus.
The new budget will reflect the loss of about $75 million because Ryan approved a tuition-tax credit for parents whose children attend private schools. In addition, the state is in the third year of a plan to phase in a doubling of the annual exemption on personal income taxes, to $2,000.
The governor is expected to ask for $650 million, about a 30 percent increase, for state-subsidized child care, reflecting a strong economy and the state’s success in reducing welfare rolls.
The proposed rainy-day fund takes advantage of the $9.1 billion the state expects to receive over 25 years from the tobacco industry.
The governor intends to take about $400 million of the tobacco money, more than half of which has already arrived in the state’s bank accounts, and designate most or all of that as the rainy-day fund for use during hard economic times, sources said.
Over the next five fiscal years, Ryan is expected to propose dividing up to $1.7 billion in tobacco settlement proceeds. He would invest half and put the other half in health-related programs, ranging from research to anti-smoking programs, the sources said.
Hoping to get more bang for the state’s buck, the governor wants to target tobacco money for programs in which the state can capture matching private or federal dollars, sources said.
The rainy-day fund is an idea that has kicked around state government for years. Supporters argue that the state should set aside money in good times as a hedge against a tailspin.
Ryan supported such a fund last year, but the idea stalled over concerns that the General Assembly could not resist the temptation to tap into the money.
Senate Republicans do not want to use the tobacco money now. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Steve Rauschenberger (R-Elgin) has said Illinois should wait a year to see how other states spend their settlement money and determine which programs would work in Illinois.
