Illinois General Assembly

Rep. Tracy Supports Original Budget Bill

For Immediate Release
November 30, 2011
Contact Rep. Jil Tracy
(217) 223-0833

Springfield, IL...State Representative Jil Tracy (R-Quincy) released the following statement on her vote in opposition to a recently passed budget reallocation measure that failed to restore funding for school transportation costs, swept dedicated funds from areas like workers' compensation and spent revenue on other expansions.
 
"I continue to believe that the original budget the General Assembly overwhelmingly agreed to in May was the best spending plan for the state. It contained responsible cuts, while also funding all the necessary state services at proper levels. The original budget would have allowed the seven state facilities the Governor threatened with closure to remain open, and it did not slash funds needed for school transportation.
 
"The budget that was passed in the spring brought everyone and their ideas to the bargaining table. I have consistently supported keeping open the Jacksonville Developmental Center and the other mental and developmental state facilities that Governor Quinn proposed closing. This fall, I believe the Governor haphazardly threatened to close these facilities as a ploy to force the legislature to accept this budget allocation bill as a way to negate some of our original budget cuts and reinsert areas of extra spending that he favored. More importantly, the budget reallocation spends more money that should be going to the payment of our overdue bill backlog or funding our downstate school transportation costs.
 
"Senate Bill 2412, the reallocation bill, provided again for the seven state facilities Governor Quinn slated for closure to remain open for the rest of the budget year and it also restored $28 million for alcohol and substance abuse funding that had inadvertently been left out of the original bill due to a clerical calculation in the original budget. I feel both of these objectives could have been accomplished by a simple bill that did not increase spending over the original budget.
 
"Tough decisions based on prioritized government funding principles were made by the General Assembly in the original spring budget, which finally kept spending below our projected revenues. It was agreed that any surplus revenues would be used to pay down our outstanding bills and late payments. This bill also contained the downstate education transportation funds and operating funds for the mental and developmental facilities. For this reason, I determined our original budget should be adhered to with the exception of a separate bill to correct the alcohol and substance abuse funding error. I could not support the reallocation budget bill that swept dedicated funds and increased overall spending for additional programs."