(light orchestral music) - Hello, I'm Jak Tichenor, and welcome to "Illinois Lawmakers" weekly coverage of the spring session of the Illinois General Assembly.

Our lead-off guest is Rich Miller of capitolfax.com.

Rich, good to have ya on the program again, sir.

- It's good to be here.

It's very good to be here.

- Big news.

We're taping this on Thursday.

Big news overnight was that the Illinois House passed legislation to partially offset the state's $4.5 billion unemployment insurance fund debt.

It was pretty much on a party line vote.

- It was on a party line vote.

These things are produced by an agreed bill process.

It has been since Jim Thompson was governor.

Any changes to workers' comp or unemployment insurance.

And that process has broken down.

But the state is facing a March 31st deadline to pay down some of its debt using ARPA funds, the American Rescue Program funds.

And the House voted yesterday to spend $2.7 billion out of the remaining ARPA funds.

Well, 1.8 billion short.

- [Jak] Yeah, exactly.

- They spent some money on capital projects.

They spent some money on the stuff they were supposed to spend it on.

But they didn't leave enough in the account to pay off that debt.

So, now it's gonna have to be paid one of three ways, or a combination of three ways, which is tax hikes on employers, benefit cuts for unemployed people, and borrowing.

- I talked with the Deputy House Republican leader Tom Demmer yesterday ahead of that vote overnight for the unemployment insurance fund.

He said he was concerned that anything less than paying off the full amount was gonna result in higher taxes for businesses and cutting unemployment benefits for those who need them the most.

- He's not wrong.

When that will happen, I don't know.

This looked like a punt yesterday.

They may come back in the veto session after the election and try to do something then.

The governor has been expressing hope for a year or more that the federal government would step in and help out with some more money to pay off this trust fund debt, unemployment insurance debt, of $4.5 billion.

Just didn't happen.

They're like, "We gave you over 8 billion.

"Use some of that."

And so they did.

The state has actually spent a higher percentage of its ARPA dollars on this than most other states have.

But then again, we had a pretty darn large deficit, as well.

- So, this is kinda like I can draw a corollary to the state's pension funds.

This is gonna be something that grinds along for quite a while in the future, right?

- Not quite as bad as that.

I mean, $100 billion, versus a couple billion dollars, but it will take a while to pay off, yeah.

If they want to keep the tax rates lower and the benefits higher, then, you know, borrowing to do that.

And then minor adjustments both ways is probably in the future then.

- There's some breaking news as we sit down to talk today, with the Illinois Supreme Court ruling about how campaign funds can be used for criminal defense.

- Yeah.

A Chicago alderman sued, saying his predecessor was using his campaign funds for legal fees and that made it all the way to the Supreme Court.

And they ruled today, Thursday, that you can continue using your campaign funds for lawyers.

I mean, it's in the law that you can use it for legal expenses.

So, they weren't going to go beyond the law, I guess.

Although, I think this has happened in other states.

I haven't had a chance to fully read that opinion yet, but they didn't go beyond existing state law.

They said if the General Assembly wants to prohibit it, they can.

- Rich Miller, thank you so much for your expertise and your time here on "Illinois Lawmakers."

- Thanks for having me, Jak.

- Deputy House Republican Leader Tom Demmer of Dixon joins us now on "Illinois Lawmakers."

Good to have you back on the program, sir.

- I'm glad to be here Jak, thanks.

- We're counting down the days before the scheduled end of the session on April 8th.

Where do things stand with the budget and the other big issues that still need to be addressed before lawmakers go home?

- Well, I think we have a ways to go.

As you know, a lot of times those major issues kind of come together in the final week or so of session.

So, while time is ticking away.

You know, here we are at late March, we still have several weeks of session left.

So, I think progress on many of the bigger issues is still in front of us.

On the budget side, we have completed in the House, through our appropriations committees, at least the first round review of the governor's proposed budget.

We bring in all the agency directors, the department heads, and each talk about their budget proposal.

But of course the General Assembly's where the budget is made.

The governor's budget is only a proposal.

It's a starting point.

And so we've heard that proposal, asked some questions about it, and now members of both parties are starting to think about where, as legislators, our budget priorities might be.

- You've always been one of the top Republican budgeteers, the folks behind the scenes who are actually going into the budget, going line by line literally, to try to balance things out.

How are House Republican ideas being represented in the budget as we speak?

- Well, we're really pushing for attention on some of the one-time revenue sources that the state has had both in the current budget year and the upcoming budget year.

And trying to make sure that we're not going to grow state spending on a permanent basis, because of one-time revenues.

And so, you know, folks have probably heard some of the attention that's been given from the federal government.

We've had billions of dollars come to the state through COVID relief efforts.

Things like the American Recovery Plan Act, or ARPA as we call it.

Previously the CARES Act that passed along quite a bit of money.

Those have made for some very unusual state budgets.

You know, we had these unpredictable swings one direction or another, or a huge influx of one-time revenues.

We have to be very careful not to grow our structural spending.

And you know, it might look good in one year because we have some of these one-time revenues.

We don't want to set ourselves up for a cliff in a future year when those one-time revenues are gone.

- You and House Republican Leader Jim Durkin co-wrote a letter to Governor Pritzker earlier this week, asking that the state commit what's left of the federal COVID funds to be targeted towards the state's unemployment insurance trust fund.

Why is this such a big issue?

What's at stake here?

- This issue with the unemployment insurance trust fund will touch every single employee in the entire state of Illinois.

Everybody who works and earns a paycheck is gonna be impacted by this, and anybody who files an unemployment claim would be impacted by this.

This is a really significant issue, one that we've been trying to call attention to for over a year.

The unemployment insurance trust fund, which is what pays out benefits to people on unemployment, understandably took a huge hit when the stay-at-home order was in place, businesses were forced to shut down.

We jumped to the highest level of unemployment in state history, and that quickly depleted the reserves that had been built up in the trust fund.

And we went into debt.

We're today nearly $5 billion in debt in our unemployment insurance trust fund.

That is doing a couple of things.

First, it's costing us interest.

Every single day that we're in debt, we're accruing more and more interest penalties.

But second, we stand to, if we don't use the resources we have to pay off this debt, we will have a massive tax increase on employers and a massive benefit cut for every single employee who files an unemployment claim.

That's the only way to close the gap unless we come in and use some of our COVID relief dollars we got from the federal government to take care of the problem.

And so our proposal that Leader Durkin and I put forward is very simple.

It says the federal government gave us one-time COVID relief dollars.

We have a one-time COVID-caused problem in our unemployment insurance trust fund.

There is no more natural connection than to use those dollars to take care of that problem, and avoid a tax increase and avoid a benefit cut.

- As you were saying, the debt now is somewhere around $4.5 to $5 billion in the fund.

How much is actually left on the ARPA funds balance?

We got something like $8 billion in, and I'm reading from the governor's staff that we're somewhere around $3.5 billion left.

- Well, I think it's important to know first we looked at both the funding we received from the CARES act in the first round, and ARPA in the second round.

And that was nearly $13 billion that we received through those two groups.

It's important to know, too, that the figure that's been cited of $3.5 billion left, is simply 3.5 billion that has not yet been appropriated.

But more than that has not been spent.

And so we're calling for some of the money that's not been spent yet to be repurposed towards this fund.

I think it should be a priority of the state to not have a tax increase on every job in the state, and a benefit cut for every unemployed worker in the state.

And so we're calling for some of the dollars that have not been spent, to be redirected to take care of this debt.

- So, where do things stand today?

You were saying earlier that a lot of the budget has actually kind of worked its way down in terms of the negotiations and all.

Democrats have their priorities, as well.

What kind of a hearing are you getting from the other side of the aisle on this particular issue?

- Well, you know, we've been in talks on the budget for the last several weeks.

As I've talked about, we went through all these appropriations committees.

We've had some discussions at a smaller group level with House Democrats about the budget and where things stand right now.

But we really think it's important that we engage more lawmakers in this process.

One of the criticisms we've had of the state budget making in recent years has been how little transparency there is in the process.

You know, last year the budget was introduced at 11:50 pm and voted on just before midnight on the last day of session.

That's not fair to lawmakers.

That's not fair to the public.

So, we're calling from more transparency and more engagement of every legislator in the House of Representatives in this process.

And so far, House Democrats have been a little hesitant to embrace those calls.

- There was a really interesting article earlier this week in "Crain's Chicago Business," that Democratic members of Congress are urging Governor Pritzker to focus their spending priorities on such things as racial equity, climate change, and maintaining existing roads, instead of building new ones and doing more infrastructure.

How is that playing itself out as you read it from your side of the aisle?

- Well, you know, I think the infrastructure question is a little separate from the state's normal operating budget.

You know, we pay for those through the road fund, which is separate than our general revenue fund.

It's also, much of the infrastructure investment was the result of a bipartisan capital bill that passed a few years ago.

And so, you know, many of those decisions and a lot of the road building decisions are made as part of the five-year plan that is put out by the Illinois Department of Transportation and tries to prioritize those investments.

I think it's very important to have investments in our infrastructure.

We know how critical that infrastructure can be to a thriving economy.

We see it every day as trucks and trains and planes come in and out of Illinois, and bring the products that we're growing or manufacturing here to markets to be sold all around the world.

That's an incredibly important part of our economy.

And so while I think it's important to recognize there's a lot of different priorities in that, I think we should ask what can we do to make sure Illinois has a safe, reliable, and modern infrastructure network.

- I wanna touch on the road fund.

You just mentioned that.

The governor had some temporary tax relief built in by removing that escalator for the gasoline tax.

House and Senate Republicans are basically asking for a different approach to providing folks a little bit more comfort at the pump, so to speak.

- That's right.

So, our proposal has been to reduce the sales tax that's charged on gasoline.

The sales tax is a percentage.

If we look at the motor fuel tax, it's a fixed number of cents per gallon.

Doesn't fluctuate as the price fluctuates.

But obviously we're all paying a heck of a lot more for gas at the pump right now.

And as the price of gas goes up, the percentage that we collect or the dollars that we collect in sales tax go up, because the percentage is of a higher number.

So, we're calling for, and there have been a number of proposals on this, to freeze that or to cap the the sales tax that we're bringing in.

And I think that's a responsible way to do it, to absorb that through the state's general budget and not divert dollars away from some of the infrastructure investments that we've made.

- Democrats, of course, are in the majority, in both the House and Senate.

Are your ideas being heard?

- I think they're being heard by some members.

I've had conversations with Democrats, rank and file Democrats, who are looking for new ideas or ways to help provide some relief to Illinois families.

And so I look forward to working with them on some of these bipartisan proposals.

- Leader Demmer, thank you so much for joining us on "Illinois Lawmakers."

I appreciate the time, sir.

- Always glad to talk, thank you.

- Up next on "Illinois Lawmakers," we're talking with Democratic Majority Conference Chair, LaToya Greenwood of East St. Louis.

She represents the 114th district in the Metro East area.

Representative Greenwood is also the vice chair of the House Elementary and Secondary Education Appropriations Committee.

Great to have you on the program.

- Thank you so much for inviting me this morning.

- Oh, absolutely.

Let's kind of start at the beginning.

Budget negotiations are moving forward right now in the last couple of weeks of the scheduled spring session of the General Assembly.

How are things playing out for Governor Pritzker's education funding proposal, especially as it plays out for K through 12 education?

- Well, thank you so much for that question.

So, as you know, in our state, improving education in Illinois always starts with creating equity.

And Governor Pritzker has introduced a budget that addresses all of those issues by focusing on comprehensive measures to impact all of the students.

No one is being left behind in his budget.

All of the students across the state of Illinois.

And we know that we have some excellent schools in our state, but many underserved communities do not have access to safe and well-funded schools.

And so I believe that the governor is doing his best to try to address those issues in the budget, as well as members of the General Assembly with various pieces of legislation, as well.

- As we kind of drill down into the governor's proposal.

He's looking at roughly $9.7 billion for pre-K through grade 12 education.

That's about something like 20% of the overall state budget of around $45 billion.

And there's roughly a half a million more dollars half a billion dollars, excuse me, in this year's budget proposal.

- Yes.

So, we know the governor has always had a passion for early childhood education, as well.

We know that starting school-age children off to a great start at an early age impacts them as they move forward in the education system.

Another area that I would like to highlight in his budget is about the CTE program, and understanding the importance of vocational education, as well, to our students.

Not all students are college bound.

And so we as a state have to start to provide the access and the necessary resources to address those students who just want to learn a trade and get a well-paying job in the trades, because they do exist.

And so creating opportunities, again, for all students across Illinois, regardless of your zip code.

And I believe that's one of the things that Governor Pritzker has been dedicated to, and the members of the General Assembly, as well.

- You mentioned early childhood education.

Looks like there's something around $54 million more there to extend early childhood education services to another 7,000 students.

So, that's critical in getting kids off to a good start.

- Absolutely.

And I would like to do a shameless plug.

So, outside of the CPS, Chicago Public Schools, the East St. Louis School District receives a large early childhood funding grant that has been amazing for the the children over at the Vivian Adams Early Childhood Center in East St. Louis.

It is a full-day program and it really does prepare the students moving forward in their educational future.

- There's another $96 million or so for transportation funding and for special education funding for Illinois kids.

- Again, the budget is making sure that we leave no child behind.

The transportation issue is something that I know very well.

One of the first bills that I passed as a legislator had to do with providing transportation for all of the students that were in East St. Louis.

Because of the high crime and other issues, it was difficult for students to get to school.

So, now all of those students in the community of East St. Louis can receive free transportation.

Anything with providing access and equity to a child's education, we should always continue to explore and support.

And the issue with special education, again, is about having equity for all students at whatever stage that they're in within the educational system.

And so to make sure that we have the necessary resources for those families and the students, as well.

- There's another $350 million this year for the evidence-based funding formula for K through 12 schools.

This is a way of kind of leveling the playing field between the richer districts, if you will, and the poorer districts.

And we're making that payment again this year.

We're two or three years into this new education reform, funding reform measure.

How's that working out for schools in your district?

- It's working very well.

You know, East St. Louis School District is one of two school districts that are under state oversight.

And so it's East St. Louis and North Chicago School District.

And this funding formula, again, has created equity, in that regardless of where you live, your zip code, that you should be receiving the same amount of programming and resources that other school districts.

And I'll just say, for instance, Edwardsville is a well-funded school district that is around my district.

Representative Stewart is the representative there.

But just to have the same amount of funding and resources per child is very important in lifting people up.

Because for years, and for decades, some of these communities like East St. Louis have been just not invested in, and it shows in the education system, which will then affect the social structure, and everything else.

The health, the social structure, everything else is connected to education.

- Oh, no doubt about it.

There's another issue, of course, that's a major one.

And that has to do with the shortage of teachers.

We're down thousands of empty positions across the state, in terms of classroom teachers being able to work with kids.

What are some of the ideas floating around at the Capitol these days about trying to get more teachers back on the payroll?

- So, I know various legislators have legislation that attempts to address that, but I also know that the Illinois Student Assistance Commission has numerous programs right now that will focus on improving the teacher pipeline.

And they will receive additional dollars, as well, to help implement some of these things.

We have the Minority Teacher Program of Illinois.

That's a scholarship program.

And I think it's distributed through ISBE.

We have the Golden Apple Scholars of Illinois Program, and we have an Early Childhood Access Consortium for Equity Scholarship Program, as well, for teachers or individuals that's interested in the teaching profession.

Then you have programs like the Grow Your Own Teacher Program which will receive funding, as well.

I know East St. Louis School District is planning on applying for that grant to assist with creating a pipeline from individuals already in the community, possibly parents, paraprofessionals, who already have some kind of connection to the students.

We think that's important, as well.

Being connected and having home-grown individuals come into the teaching profession.

- Representative Greenwood, thank you so much for your time this morning on "Illinois Lawmakers."

We certainly appreciate it.

Glad to have you here.

- Thank you so much for having me.

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