THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEDNESDAY, JULY 16, 2008
Republicans Lay Out Finance Plan
The Illinois House of Representatives' top Republican Tom Cross (R-84th) and local legislators and candidates laid out a seven-point plan to fix the state's finances and stem corruption in one of three statewide town hall meetings yesterday (Tuesday) in Arlington Heights.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich is cutting $1.5 billion from the current state budget to put it back in balance.
Last year's state budget still has a hole of hundreds of millions of dollars. Area candidates Rep. Rosemary Mulligan (R-65th), candidate for the 66th district Christine Prochno and 57th district candidate James Tatooles took part in the event with Cross at Forest View Educational Center in Arlington Heights.
The seven-point plan includes a capitol bill, measures to ensure a balanced budget by not allowing transfers of unfunded obligations from year to year.
Ill. House Republican Organization Political Director Kevin Artl told the Journal that a capitol bill could create 700,000 new jobs and invigorate the economy. He said most of the plan would not require more spending, except the capitol bill. Options to pay for that included an expansion of gaming in the state, leasing the state lottery, reallocating money from the state sales tax and saving money through curbing corruption by introducing "anti-pay to play" measures that would limit contributions to campaigns by companies doing business with the state and shrinking the size of the state's bureaucracy.
The proposal also attempts to open the budget process allowing for greater scrutiny of documents between the time they are introduced and voted on.
Both Republican and Democratic state lawmakers have complained to the Journal and Topics Newspapers that large budget bills are hammered out between top leaders and are introduced to legislators for a vote, sometimes with less than a day to examine them.
Another measure entails doubling the state's property tax rebate. That measure, Artl said, could cost $400 million to $500 million.
Other measures put forward as part of the plan include electronic monitoring of violators of orders of protection; requiring social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook to provide parental notification for minors on the sites and better enforce age requirements; requiring computer repair technicians to report child pornography found on machines they work on; and mandate greater support for universities to lower tuition rates and increase financial aid to students.