Capitol Report
By John McCabe
IPCSA Legislative Liaison

          The Democratic-controlled General Assembly and the Democratic Governor for the first time in three years found common ground and wrapped up the Spring Legislative Session on time.  The overtime Spring Session of last year was too fresh in everyone’s mind.

          The overall budget situation for the entire State government this year is still not healthy. The Supreme Court proposed to add back eight percent of the 14 percent cut last year, but the General Assembly and Governor’s Office required most agencies to hold the line on spending, at last year’s spending level. 

          Fortunately, the Supreme Court did not attempt to fund its operations out of probation fees this year and the same $58.8 million that Probation received last year is available to counties for State Fiscal Year 2006.   Counties will receive approximately the same State reimbursement as they received for Fiscal Year 2005, provided they have the same headcount. 

          And probation fees will continue to be heavily relied on again next year.  Approximately 50 counties relied on probation fees to fund probation officer salaries this past year.  That may increase this year. 

          State revenue growth continues to be quite slow.  This year’s budget solution was based on not funding the State employees’ pension systems to the tune of about $650 million for this year and next year. 

          Revenue growth is not improving very much, but pressures for increased spending are continuing to grow. 

          The Supreme Court has appointed a Task Force on Probation Funding to examine the future of our funding and possibly our relationship with the Court itself.  Interestingly, the Supreme Court transferred responsibility for the funding of Court Reporters from their budget to the Comptroller’s budget. 

          Most of the rest of the legislative news is about what didn’t pass than about what did.  The proposal to raise the age of juveniles from 16 to 17 years of age passed the Senate for the first time this year, but was stalled in the House, where it had previously passed.  This is an issue that IPCSA has philosophically supported, but the cost to counties has been a concern within IPCSA and ultimately the problem with the General Assembly.

          House Bill 2612 amended the Sex Offender Management Board Act to make it easier for the Attorney General’s Office to provide funds to the Department of Corrections and probation departments to cover non-reimbursed expenses.  Unfortunately, the bill got hung up in the Senate Rules Committee.

          Another bill we were watching closely was Senate Bill 30, an initiative of the Illinois Collaboration on Youth, to require additional counseling for truants before they could be placed sent to detention.  This bill caused so much confusion over who was for the bill and an alleged agreed amendment to SB 30 that the House Judiciary Committee voted the bill down.  It appears that the Regional Superintendents of Schools still want to use detention to combat truancy.

          Next year will be an election year with all Executive officers up for election, at least two-thirds of the Senate, and all of the Illinois House seats are to be voted on.  Starting in September, candidates will begin circulating their nominating petitions for the Primary Election to be held March 21, 2006.  The General Election will be held Nov. 7, 2006.  Please remember our friends and try to volunteer any time you have to help them.

          To close, the Illinois General Assembly will be losing an outstanding member and a good friend, Sen. Dave Sullivan of Park Ridge.  He announced his resignation this week.  With four kids, two in college, his tuition bill is more than his take-home pay as a legislator.  He will become a fellow lobbyist.