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First of all, I want to apologize for the lateness of the Spring IPCSA Newsletter. I had been hoping to give you an End of Session Report and kept delaying my submission, while waiting for white smoke to emerge from the State Capitol. As the Governor and Legislative leaders started to meet to discuss the budget and other end of session matters, I thought they might appreciate the same pressure I received to complete this column. So, I forwarded to them all of the angry e-mails I received from Newsletter Editor Carol Gierut, hoping the leaders would get the same message about hurrying up and finishing. Unfortunately, Carol’s pressure did not sway them. As of this writing, there still is no final budget agreement. First of all, I know everyone outside of Cook County will want to hear about Senate Bill 488. We never expected to do as well as we did in the Senate, which unfortunately raised our expectations when we got to the House. While Speaker Madigan did respond by releasing the bill from House Rules Committee, he did not schedule a hearing in the House Executive Committee. He has a reputation as a fiscal conservative, especially on pension matters. The legislation to include IMRF probation officers in the alternative pension formula known as SLEP remains a high priority for the IPCSA Executive Board. We made a great leap this year and hope to find another solution to make it to the final goal. The next greatest issue facing IPCSA was the continuing effort to raise the age of juveniles to include 17 year olds. Pushed by the Juvenile Justice Institute and supported heavily by the Juvenile Law Committee of the Illinois State Bar Association, their new tactic this year was to include only misdemeanor offenses and require a study commission to pave the way for 17 year old offenders facing felony charges to move to Juvenile Court. This proposal was included in House Bill 1517 and it received the support of legislators who had previously opposed the earlier versions that included all 17 year olds. The unfortunate aspect of this legislation was that the Juvenile Justice Institute used faulty research to support their claims that less than 300 17-year olds in Illinois would be affected. The Criminal Justice Information Authority publishes an annual report based on arrest and fingerprint data supplied to it by police departments. It has become unfortunately apparent that police departments are not diligent in following this requirement. The only concession to our position that this was faulty data, was that the Senate delayed the effective date of the legislation by six months to July 1, 2008. We also have a commitment from the Senate sponsor to help us get State funding for this change The budget situation is still very much in flux. The Supreme Court introduced a budget giving an eight percent increase to the probation reimbursement line items, four percent for annual growth and four percent for recapturing past reductions. We are very appreciative of the members of the Supreme Court trying to make up for past cuts to our reimbursement line item. Unfortunately, there is no agreement on the budget right now. The House has passed a budget that is identical to last year’s budget. The thinking is that this would be a temporary budget for six months, and any needed changes could occur in January, 2008, when procedurally, the House and Senate would only need a simple (50%) majority to pass a budget. Between June 1st and December 31st, an extraordinary (60%) majority is needed for budget matters. The House is also getting ready to pass a 30-day temporary budget, to prevent any State agency shutdowns The other problem with this “temporary” House budget is that it did not change last year’s language on the pilot project for Title IV-E funding beyond four counties. We are also trying to change the amount of the State appropriation from $5.0 million to $20.0 million. We are still trying to remove the pilot project status and open up Title IV-E to all counties. Another budget item that should be of concern involves the transfer of the Cook County Temporary Detention Center from the jurisdiction and control of the President of the Cook County Board to the jurisdiction and control of the Chief Judge of Cook County. House Bill 236 authorized this transfer and is awaiting the signature of the Governor. The “temporary” House budget still appropriates $7.5 million to the Cook County Board President for the operations of the Detention Center. This amount, and more, may have to be transferred to the Supreme Court budget when qualified probation officers are hired or transferred to run the Cook detention center. When, or if, there is a State budget resolution, we will post information about the status of these budget items on the IPCSA website: www.ipcsa.org Have a nice summer, and hopefully we’ll see you in Collinsville, Oct. 17-19. |
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2007 End of Session Capitol Report |