(upbeat music) - Welcome to Illinois Lawmakers, weekly coverage of the spring session of the Illinois General Assembly.

I'm Jak Tichenor along with Amanda Vinnicky of Channel 11's, Chicago Tonight.

Amanda, great to have you back.

- I'm glad to be back with you, Jak, especially for this exciting time in Illinois politics.

- This has been kind of an interesting week.

I mean, we always say that.

But one of the state agencies that hardly ever gets any public attention, the Illinois Prisoner Review Board, has been on the spotlight for the last several days here.

The board has lost its quorum.

There was action earlier this week, one of the governor's appointees was rejected by the Senate.

Another one resigned just before the Senate took up the appointments and the governor actually pulled one, a few days back.

What's going on?

- Well, the resignation, pulling of a nomination is a recognition that these appointees were going to be in trouble.

Despite the fact that you of course have Democrats dominating all of Illinois government, including having a super majority in the Illinois Senate.

So while you've had Republicans trying to make hay about the constitution of the Prisoner Review Board, for some time, didn't really get a lot of attraction, in part, because I think it's been confusing, in part, because as you noted, this is a state agency that really doesn't get a lot of attention.

And also because of course, Republicans are in the super minority.

So you've had Governor J.

B. Pritzker, this week, during a press conference that was actually meant to highlight the anniversary, 100 years of the Illinois State Police on his stance on crime, instead sort of got that message blurred.

The governor, trying to say that this is the GOP, in fact, he pointedly called the GOP the GQP, apparently a reference calling Republicans members of QAnon.

Republicans are saying, "Hey, wait a second.

We don't have the votes to kill a nomination to, instead it was Democrats who did not support nominees by Pritzker to this board.

I think that that is somewhat yes, a recognition that perhaps the Pritzker administration, despite being aware that this was on the horizon, did not put a proper attention and internal lobbying to members of the Senate to try and get them on board.

But also a larger or issue showing that crime is most certainly on voters minds.

And therefore it is also on the minds of elected officials in particularly suburban Democrats.

And those who voted for that Safety Act, the big criminal black caucus push measure at the end of last year, that is still on the way going into effect that they're afraid voters aren't going to like that and that they want to do what they can at this point to appear that they are tough on crime.

The rub against some of these nominees, was that they had voted to, because by the way, they've been serving on the board, despite not having Senate confirmation at this point in time that they were light on crime by having let out of prison individuals, including those who had killed police.

The governor, again, sticking up for it and not necessarily begrudging the decisions.

Really, he is framing this as something political.

- He's got some options, of course he could name all nine new appointees here at any point.

And the deal is, they can sit in that position until 60 session days expire.

So we are at the end of this session, practically, veto sessions up in the fall.

So conceivably they could serve well into next calendar year.

- Yeah, I imagine going to see Democrats, Pritzker included, doing all they can to avoid this issue, going forward, at least until after the elections, as you pointed out.

It's not just 60 calendar days, 60 business days.

It is 60 session days.

We have basically, I'll give or take a week left, as you and I are taping this, of session days right now.

And so, this can be pushed off far into the horizon.

One might expect the governor to have to make appointments, regardless, as I noted, you can have people serving on these state agency boards for quite some time, before they need send an approval.

And even then, you can kind of do a trick where you pull a name from nomination and then resubmit that person.

And that allows another way of getting around this clock.

Be it because you don't want to bring attention to it, be it because the Senate doesn't get around to it, whatever it may be.

We are certainly going to see this pushed off until after the election.

The question will be, who does the governor appoint?

And when?

Because he is of course trying to win reelection right now, but this is dicey.

He's looking at the sort of more progressive length of the Democratic Party, as well as, as I just noted those who are maybe more moderate and who are more concerned about more tough on crime.

And yet you don't want there to be any inaction.

Pardon me?

Because then the board won't have enough quorum to meet, and that will be a story that makes the press.

- Amanda, thank you so much for your expertise and your timing.

Hope you get feeling better soon.

Thank you so much.

Democratic Senate President, Don Harmon of Oak Park.

is our guest on this week's Illinois Lawmakers in the lead off position.

Great to have you back on the program, Mr. President.

- Glad to be with you, Jak, thanks for having me.

- As we sit down and talk on a Thursday morning, there are nine days left before the spring session is supposed to wrap up on April 8th.

Where do things stand right now?

As we look at the big ticket items, like getting the budget taken care of.

- I fully expect we're gonna adjourn on April 8th as scheduled with a very responsible balance budget heading to the governor's desk.

I would not have predicted two years ago as we were coroning through the first days of the pandemic and imagining the economy going off the cliff, that we'd be here where we are today.

But through an awful lot of responsible decision making, we have reached a point where we're are gonna pass one of the best budgets we've seen in my time in Springfield.

We have moved from chronic deficits to expecting a 1.7 billion surplus.

Our bill backlog for all practical purposes is gone and we're gonna be able to live up to some promises, increasing our education funding for early childhood through high school, pursuant to our landmark funding law from five years ago.

A real investment in higher education scholarships for families, recognizing that that was an area that was neglected for far too long.

And meaningful relief for taxpayers.

The governor led his budget address with the proposal for a billion dollars in relief, relief at the gas pump, relief at the grocery store, some relief for property taxpayers.

So we're working through that now to make sure that that relief gets to the families in Illinois who need it.

- It's interesting you mentioned the contrast between just a few years in budget making in the state and the impact of COVID the late budget director, Steve Schnorf said, it was getting to the point where the budget negotiations were about allocating pain and scarcity.

This is a complete turnaround.

- It really is.

And again, we bated down the hatches during the pandemic, in the end, many people, many people suffered and I don't ever wanna minimize that.

The economy as a whole did better and some businesses and some individuals did really well.

So, we've been able to use that to the state's advantage.

And again, paying off our bills, putting money in the ready day fund, making an payment on our pensions, lots of good things, a lot of responsible budget making going out right now in Springfield.

- A lot of this has been targeted towards repairing some of the harm that was done in the budget impasse and the COVID constraints.

The Department of Children and Family Services, a lot of the social services, safety net got shredded over the last five to 10 years.

And so, there's gonna be more money there for the social services.

- There will be.

And that's one of those ironies is we spend on so much time outsourcing the performance of those social safety net responsibilities to not-for-profits and healthcare providers.

And then we don't pay them what they should be paid to do that work.

So we're trying to make up for that.

We've been able to enact some modest rate increases to the people who provide those service on the front lines.

We are trying to rebuild a fragile safety net.

And as you said, the budget impasses did it no help.

- There's some unexpected drama here in the last few days of the session, when it comes to the state's Prisoner Review Board, that's an agency of state government that doesn't get a whole lot of public attention, but the board's now down to six members, if I'm correct on that.

And that's not enough to hold a forum to handle cases.

Two of Governor Pritzker's appointees, are now off the board.

One was voted down in the Senate earlier this week.

Another resigned before the vote, and another was pulled by Governor Pritzker before it even came to a vote.

Where do things stand with that now?

- A very contentious issue, certainly, but I wanna be clear there was never a caucus position.

I voted to support the governor, but each member of the Senate voted his or her conscience and constituency.

So we're looking forward, we're expecting new nominees and we hope to be able to make sure that we help the governor live up to the responsibilities so that the board can continue to function.

- How does this mirror, Senate Democrats concerns about how Democrats are going to be positioned on public safety and crime issues, going into a very contentious November midterms election?

- Crime is an issue we're seeing across the state and across the country, frankly.

And we're sensitive to that anxiety.

On the one hand, we are very proud of the work we did two years ago on the safety act, bringing responsible policing and justice improvements to the system.

That's not an in any way at odds with public safety, we need to continue to make some investments there.

And I think that we can do that, in a way that addresses people's concerns.

I'm looking forward to the new bail model where dangerous people will be kept in jail, even if they have the resources to bail out, instead of the current model that puts dangerous people back on the street.

So we're gonna continue to try to give law enforcement the tools and we're gonna fund the police.

We're gonna make sure that we're living up to our commitments there as well.

And that police officers and law enforcement agencies have the money they need to police responsibly with an eye towards justice.

- I wanna circle back to a bill that was passed last week, and that has to do with the spending of $2.7 billion from the American Recovery Program to shore up the Unemployment Insurance Fund, as well as make a dent in some of the other areas that the state has some shortages in.

Republicans said, "Hey, the overall debt is $4.5 billion, 2.7 billion, isn't going to make the changes we need.

We're worried about increases on tax, increases on businesses and cutting benefits for employees."

- Well, Jack, let me start with your lead in there.

The bill wasn't about only the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund.

We also invested in the retirement security for police officers and teachers and correction officers.

People who don't often think we have their retirement security at the top of our list.

We paid bills that were owed to doctors and dentists and healthcare providers, who'd provided services to public employees without being paid.

That was a very responsible thing to do.

And we also made sure that parents who had set aside money for their kids' college education in the College Illinois Program, will get the deal they bargain for.

We backfilled that deficit.

On the Unemployment Insurance Trustfund, that it's an odd situation.

It's always been a contained system, entirely financed by the employers and negotiated with the employees.

The 2.7 billion that we put in, is the first ever infusion of public money.

And it was designed to take the edge off and take the problem back down to a size that the system has been able to digest before.

So we'll allow the agreed bill process, where employers and employees sit down and negotiate how to parcel out the liability for the fix.

But that $2.7 billion was a landmark change the first time ever.

And it recognizes that the unemployment insurance system wasn't built to withstand a pandemic.

And so, it was important to make sure we invested that money.

- Will this work for the long term?

- It should.

And again, the 2008 recession created a very similar size challenge for the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund.

And the agreed build process did what it was supposed to do.

It created a way to finance that responsibly and built some sustainability into it.

Now, that was all upended by the pandemic.

But no one built a system for mass unemployment simultaneously, something maybe we should learn from, but in the short term, we're on a path towards fixing this problem in the same way we've done it before.

- Senator Harmon, thank you so much.

I know your time is at a premium here, as the clock ticks down to adjourn.

But we certainly appreciate you taking part on this week's Illinois Lawmakers.

- Delighted to be with you, thanks.

- Deputy Democratic Senate, Majority Leader, Laura Murphy of Des Plaines, who serves on the Senate Higher Education Committee joins us now on Illinois Lawmakers, Senator, welcome to the program.

- Well, thank you so much for having me.

- In years past, in times of fiscal constraints in the State of Illinois, the higher education budget was always kind of discussion of points of scarcity.

But this year, with the surpluses that are coming in, the economy is rebounding in the state of Illinois.

The state of Illinois stands to do better for the state's colleges and universities and community colleges.

- Absolutely correct.

We have some of the best colleges, universities, community college programs, I think that rival any state.

Unfortunately, when I first came into the legislature, and there was no budget, during the past administration, we decimated our whole higher education system, because students then felt that unstability and sought colleges and higher education programs in other states.

And we as a state, this is one thing I've never understood.

We make this huge investment in our kids from K through 12, and maybe now we'll go into early childhood.

But from K through 12, and then we watch it walk out the door to other states.

So even if you were to take a real fiscal approach to this, it made no sense, that we would not fund our universities of higher education.

And watch that brain drain as well as that financial investment leave the state.

- So we're looking at $2.2 billion, a higher ed budget for the coming fiscal year.

That's up by at least 200 million over the current fiscal year.

What are some of the program priorities that you expect to be funded this year?

- Well, it's our goal that our colleges and universities will be able to keep tuition flat so that we are competitive with surrounding states.

We're trying to also provide some assistance for kids and textbooks and all the other fees and living expenditures that go along with those programs, so that we'll be able to, again, keep them in Illinois and be competitive with our surrounding states.

- There's about a 5% increase overall for higher education in the new state budget.

And there's something like 122 million increase for the monetary award program that helps lower income students and their families get their start in higher education.

- Yeah, the MAP grants are hugely important for kids, that allows us to expand the MAP program so that I think that we'll be able to increase by almost 24,000 kids, that can now become eligible for MAP grants.

And that's huge.

And MAP grants provides that additional assistance that lower, to lower middle income families can receive to assist with paying for higher education.

And if we look at the U of I system alone, the projections are that I think they return $13 billion, to the economy every year.

So for us to make this small investment.

Look at how many folded it is returned to the economy in Illinois.

And I've always been an advocate that if we invest in kids, then that investment returns.

And we see that, when kids stay in Illinois, they go attend Illinois colleges and universities, and by the way, get an awesome education so that they are employable, businesses, then stay where the employee base is at.

And if we look at the return from COVID, no matter what business line someone is in, we're seeing the need for employees.

And if we can produce those here, we can make 'em homegrown and then have them stay in Illinois.

That feeds our job programs, that feeds our business environment.

And it spurs on to feed the whole state economy.

- I'm glad you made that point because there was a recent Moody's Investors report that said, universities like the University of Illinois and Southern Illinois University at Carbondale are major drivers of local economies in their parts of the state.

- Absolutely.

And again, I just had numbers quickly for the U of I system.

But imagine when you put that, and that only includes one public university that $13 billion.

Imagine then add all the other publics and privates on top of it.

The return is huge.

And our businesses don't thrive without that employee base.

When you talk to employers and they're looking at entering into a particular state, into developing a business in a particular state, one of the top three elements that they need is an employee base.

And higher education.

- And we can provide it.

- Higher education is one of the underpinnings of that.

Senator Laura Murphy.

Thank you so much for your time on Illinois Lawmakers.

We certainly appreciate it.

- Oh, it's my pleasure.

- Continuing on the subject of higher education on Illinois Lawmakers, we're talking with state Senator Terri Bryant of Murphysboro.

She's one of the Senate GOP's point persons on higher education.

She has Southern Illinois University Carbondale in her district, as well as several community colleges.

So, I know this is a subject that's very near and dear to your heart Senator.

- Yes, it is Jak.

And thank you for having me to talk about this today.

It is a very important subject as our universities and community colleges, but more so the universities play such an important role as economic engines for the communities that they are located in.

- We were just talking to your democratic colleague, Senator Laura Murphy, of Des Plaines about the role that these institution of higher education play in the local economies.

As you look at SIU, Carbondale, for example, how does that impact on the areas economy?

Ripple out over the Southern quarter, actually Southern half of the state of Illinois when you take in the school of medicine in Springfield.

- Well, when you think about the number of people who come into the community, who are coming from other parts of the state, other parts of the country, other parts of the world, it first works as an economic engine in introducing the world to Southern Illinois.

A lot of my colleagues here in Springfield, who visit Southern Illinois for the first time are really shocked by the fact that it's the foothills of the Ozark Mountains.

So we have our version of the little mountains, right?

And they're surprised to see the beauty of it.

You gotta get 'em there first to see it.

But in regard to the local economy, it isn't just the businesses that are on the strip saying Carbondale, it's also those who live and work in the region.

So properties that used to be owned by people who lived in the region, but are now rental properties.

And then the people who own those, just trying to get those properties rented.

So we see a rural version of urban blight, just because a university town might not be as healthy as it once was.

- And we just saw overnight a very sobering announcement that Lincoln College, a private institution in Lincoln, Illinois named after Mr. Lincoln in his own lifetime is going to shutter later this year.

- Yeah, it's devastating to a community when any school closes, whether it's K through 12, community college, but certainly when a institution of learning such as Lincoln, or that stature of facility closes, it has a tremendous impact on everything in the community.

So once again, we wanna make sure that our institutions of higher education remain healthy, and we have a responsibility to the public universities and colleges at a level, here at the state level to make sure that we are funding them adequately.

But we also wanna make sure that that funding is used appropriately.

For instance, there was an article recently that talked about the pay of those working within institutions.

So whether it's a Dean or a college professor, or whether it's at the level of a chancellor or a president, we as lawmakers wanna make sure that the money is being spent appropriately and that it's actually going to help the students that are there, to have a high level of education and that the money is actually being used for that.

- And we're seeing in this new budget proposal that higher education institutions will be seen something like a 5% increase.

This is a big turnaround from a few years ago when we were in the budget impasse when higher education wasn't funded at all for a couple of years.

- Yeah, so they took a hard hit through, going all the way back to the budget impasse, but they've taken a pretty hard hit during COVID.

And in reading the article about Lincoln College, they mentioned the fact that just prior to COVID, they had their highest enrollment in history for that college.

And then we hit COVID and of course they weren't able to advertise.

They weren't able to bring students in.

So just using that was as an example, that facility, as an example, all the colleges, all the universities were hit in the same way.

So we have to rebuild them in a way that gets everybody healthy again.

And then of course gets the communities, regions around them healthy as well.

So we have a lot of work to do.

- We have about a half a minute left, there's an additional 200 million or more, like I said, a 5% increase for colleges and universities in this year's budget, is that sustainable?

We had a big influx of federal relief funds.

Can we keep this going to keep higher education healthy?

- Well, I hope so, but obviously, I've been kind of pushing against what the member pork projects have been.

We've seen a tremendous amount of, it's actually a billion dollars in pork projects for members of the majority party.

And so, I think as we move forward with the funds that we have to work with from ARPA, from CUREs, and from some of the windfall dollars that we're seeing in the budget right now, in revenues coming in, we gotta make sure that they are appropriately spent and making sure that our higher institutions of learning our adequately funded would be one of those as opposed to member pork projects.

- Senator Bryant, thank you so much for your time on Illinois Lawmakers.

We always appreciate you spending some time with us.