Untitled Document
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 trying to drive a wedge between Madigan and House Republican
leader Tom Cross 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, advocates for AIDS patients, 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 changes in administrative rules
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 that 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 council, including a million dollars for the Illinois
Channel and $1.5 million for grants for public radio and TV. 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’s and
attorney general’s 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 Democrats 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
and $500,000 for a program to track birth defects, backed strongly by
some House Democrats, 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 that the Democratic governor was an
ultraconservative Republican. A newborn hearing program was eliminated, for
instance, as was a $1.2 million plan for preparedness against pandemic flu.
A quarter-million dollars for a committee to study capital-punishment
reform was zeroed out, as was as a $240,000 grant to the Downstate
Innocence Project, which works to release wrongly convicted prisoners. But the governor didn’t base his choices on
ideology. The cuts were almost entirely political revenge, which makes this
just about the oddest budget ever.
Rich Miller
publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and
thecapitolfaxblog.com.
This article appears in Aug 30 – Sep 5, 2007.
