In
what has to be the most blatantly political budgetary veto in Illinois history,
Gov. Rod Blagojevich last week ham-handedly attempted to punish his enemies,
reward his friends and entice some members he will need on crucial votes.
The
governor, who has openly warred with House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate
Republican Leader Frank Watson, didn't even try to mask the political nature of
his hundreds of millions of dollars in line-item and reduction vetoes. He left
intact all of the "pork" projects for his Senate Democratic allies,
who will refuse to override the vetoes, while killing off most of the pork for
his House Democrat and Senate Republican "enemies."
Perhaps
not surprisingly, also spared was House Republican pork and most projects for
members who sit on the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules.
The
House GOP pork was likely spared because the governor is attempting to drive a
wedge between House Republican Leader Tom Cross and House Speaker Michael
Madigan on any override attempt of his vetoes. When Cross agreed with the other
legislative leaders to support the budget, he also agreed to back any motions
related to ensuring that the entire budget passed, including any overrides.
With
House Republican pork saved from the chopping block, Cross' members may be
unwilling to endanger the cash distribution for their projects. If Blagojevich
showed anything last week, he amply demonstrated that he is more than willing
to punish local schools, fire stations, police departments, AIDS patient advocates
and even veterans' homes that happen to fall within the districts of
legislators who refuse to toe his political line. He could easily hold up the
pork money for any House Republican who votes for a veto override motion.
Blagojevich
did not release his plan for spending the nearly $500 million that he slashed
from the state budget, but he reiterated last week that he will ask for
administrative rules changes to allow him to spend the cash on new health care
programs.
That's
most likely why he left intact almost all the projects put into the budget by
JCAR members, who will have to vote on any new rules changes. Some JCAR members
said they would not be swayed, but they will undoubtedly be under intense
pressure from recipients of their pork cash to not rock the boat.
Cutting
legislative "member initiatives" wasn't the only political move by
the governor. He drastically slashed funding for the Illinois Arts Council,
chaired by Shirley Madigan, the House Speaker's wife. At least $9 million was
cut out of grants distributed by the Arts council, including a million dollars
for the Illinois Channel and $1.5 million for Public Radio and TV grants.
The
Auditor General's office, which has produced some brutally honest audits of the
Blagojevich administration, saw its funding proposal cut way back, as did the
Comptroller and Attorney General offices, both of whom are headed by frequent
Blagojevich critics. Blagojevich did not cut the spending request for his own
office.
The
governor also zero-funded "Operation Ceasefire," which works with
former gang members. The Senate Democrats had sought to eliminate funding for
the program, but it was insisted upon by the House Democrats and Senate
Republicans. Blagojevich sided with the Senate Dems yet again on that one.
At
least $700,000 in budgetary add-ons sought by House Democrats for AIDS testing
and prevention programs were slashed from the budget and $500,000 for a program
to track birth defects, backed strongly by some House Dems, was also removed.
The
House Democrats had pushed for an extra $50 million for nursing homes in the
budget, but that was eliminated, as was money for cost of living increases and
"safety net" money for providers in areas such as alcoholism and
substance abuse ($6.6 million), developmental disabilities ($11 million),
mental health ($8 million) and hospitals ($40 million).
If
you didn't know any better, looking at many of the cuts you'd think the
Democratic governor was an ultra conservative Republican. A newborn hearing
program was eliminated, for instance, as was a $1.2 million pandemic flu
preparedness plan. $250,000 for a capital punishment reform study committee was
zeroed out, as well as a $240,000 grant to the Downstate Innocence Project,
which works to release wrongly convicted prisoners.
But
the governor didn't make his choices based on ideology. The cuts were almost
entirely made for political revenge, which makes this just about the oddest
budget ever.
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Rich
Miller also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and
thecapitolfaxblog.com