Those who have been paying close attention know that the General Assembly passed a one-month stop-gap budget prior to July 1, 2007, to fund essential State functions and services for 30 days. It did not pass a budget for the full FY 2008 until August 10, 2007, 40 days after the beginning of the fiscal year.

But that was not the end of the story. The Governor then issued a 79-page veto message that eliminated or reduced hundreds of budget line items. Some of these reduced or vetoed items appropriated funds for services to individuals with disabilities. Then, on October 2, 2007, the Illinois House voted to override most of the Governor's budget vetoes and reductions. However, the Illinois Senate decided to leave most of the Governor's vetoes and reductions intact.

To most people the budget process must seem difficult to grasp. Therefore, we decided to offer an article that briefly describes the State budget process in a way that we hope will be understandable for our readers.

STEP 1: State Agencies' Internal Budget Process
Just after a fiscal year begins on July 1st, all State entities such as constitutional officers, departments, authorities, public corporations, colleges and universities begin to develop their budgets for the NEXT fiscal year. Some State entities give the public at-large an opportunity to provide comments and recommendations on the next year's budget. As an example, the State Board of Education has already begun a series of regional public meetings on its budget for FY 2009.

STEP 2: The Governor Prepares and Submits a Proposed State Budget
The Governor's proposed budget is a collaborative effort involving the State entities that are funded in the State budget, representatives of the Governor's Office of Management and Budget (GOMB) and other members of the Governor's staff. The Governor's "budget message" is usually delivered in mid-February and the actual budget documents are made available to the public at that time. Individual agencies of the State usually issue materials to the public that are specific to the particular agency's proposed budget. Some agencies have "budget briefings" immediately after the budget address. The Departments of Human Services, Children and Family Services, Healthcare and Family Services and the Department on Aging customarily hold budget briefings where budget information is handed out and questions can be asked about the proposed budget for the agency.

STEP 3: The Legislature Takes Over
The Illinois Constitution provides that the General Assembly shall make appropriations for all expenditures of public funds by the State. The Constitution further provides that the appropriations cannot exceed funds estimated by the General Assembly to be available during that Fiscal Year. In other words, the budget is supposed to be balanced. Unlike the federal government, Illinois' Constitution does not permit the State to operate on a deficit budget.

So, once the Governor proposes his budget for the ensuing fiscal year, it is up to the General Assembly to come up with a balanced budget, run at least one budget bill that appropriates funds for the fiscal year to keep the State functioning, and send that bill or those bills to the Governor.

There are a few things we should mention about the legislative appropriations process:

(1)Legislators can introduce individual appropriations bills to fund specific State agencies or fund specific programs and services through specific State agencies. These individual bills usually do not pass as separate pieces of legislation, but the appropriations proposed in some of these bills may end up in the final budget bill or bills.

(2)Even if a specific funding proposal is not the subject of an appropriations bill, that proposal could end up in the budget if a strong, prudent and persuasive advocacy effort is made with legislators and the Governor to include the proposal in the final budget bill or bills.

(3)Both the House and Senate have multiple Appropriations Committees which hold hearings during the session regarding the budget of each State entity funded by the budget. The committees are usually organized by broad subject matters. For example, the House has appropriation committees for Human Services, General Services, Public Safety, Elementary and Secondary Education and Higher Education. The committees hold hearings where they take testimony and written materials from State agency representatives, interest groups and the general public.
,br> (4)The final budget bill or bills is usually pieced together through negotiations involving the Governor and the 4 legislative leaders with some input from key legislators, legislative caucuses, and the chairs and minority spokespersons of each appropriations committee.

(5)Much of the technical expertise on the budget and the drafting of budget bills and documents is provided by legislative and GOMB staffers.

STEP 4: Budget bill(s) Go to the Governor
Once a budget bill passes both houses of the General Assembly, it goes to the Governor just like any other bill that passes both houses. The Governor has the following options: (1) Sign the bill into law, (2) Veto (zero out) all or portions of the bill or (3) Reduce the funding levels for all or portions of the bill. The Governor can reduce some budget items and veto (or zero out) others in the same veto message. The items that are not reduced or vetoed become law and are included in the budget. That is what occurred this year.

STEP 5: Veto Override
The General Assembly can reject all or part of the Governor's budget veto message if a 3/5 majority in house votes to override a vetoed budget line item or a line item reduction. Remember that if BOTH houses do not vote to override the Governor's action stands.

This year, the House voted to override most of the Governor's line item vetoes and reductions, but the Senate only voted to override a handful of those. The only budget items that were restored to the budget were the ones both houses voted to restore.

STEP 6: Passing a "Supplemental Appropriations Bill"
Even if a budget item is vetoed, reduced or not included in the budget for a particular fiscal year, the General Assembly has the power to take up supplemental funding bills for the current fiscal year. These bills add appropriations for the current fiscal year. For example, if an agency determines that a certain program is spending funds faster than anticipated and the program will run out of money before the end of the fiscal year (June 30th), that agency will ask for additional funds to ensure that the program will be able to run until the end of the fiscal year. A supplemental funding bill can include increases in existing budget line items and new budget items.

WHAT ARE "MEMBER INITIATIVES?” We hear a lot of talk about "member initiatives" or "pork projects". These are specific budget items, usually one-time expenditures and not budget items that recur from year to year, that fund specific projects or programs in a particular legislative district, county, township, village, or other political subdivision such as a school district. Member initiatives are usually requested by individual legislators during the session in order to address needs at the local level that presumably are not otherwise being met by State or local government.

The budget process in Illinois is very complicated and often hard to understand. This article merely presents an overview of the process. We hope it is helpful to our readers.

Advocating for funds in the State budget is quite challenging and often very frustrating. Many groups, service providers, units of local government, colleges, universities, school districts and other entities seek funds for specific purposes every year and they are basically competing against each other for a relatively small pot of money. These efforts require strategies that are very carefully planned and implemented. Success is often determined by the timing of certain events, lobbying skills, grassroots advocacy and, on occasion, sheer good luck.