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player ready...Gov. James Thompson set the stage Tuesday for a renewed battle over efforts to raise the state income tax by telling Illinois educational leaders he will not recommend any increases in school spending in his next budget.
”You can count on no more than you have,” Thompson told a first-ever joint meeting of the Illinois Board of Higher Education and the Illinois State Board of Education.
For 1988-89, educators have sought $413 million more than the current year`s spending for elementary and high schools and $243 million more for colleges and universities.
But, Thompson said they will get ”zero” increases in the budget he will recommend Feb. 25 to the General Assembly. The governor said the school spending requests were reasonable but emphasized that the state will not have additional funds unless a tax increase is enacted.
Thompson`s warning represents a shift in his strategy from last year, when he proposed a 20 percent increase in the income tax and based his budget recommendation on the expectation that the legislature would approve. When lawmakers declined, he had to scale back spending.
The educational community responded to the governor`s comments by announcing formation of a coalition of groups representing higher education and elementary and high schools to fight for a tax increase.
”It`s time for the citizens to wake up and take charge,” said Stanley Ikenberry, University of Illinois president. ”This is a budget in retreat.” The educators predicted dire consequences if Illinois education must do without more funds for 1988-89:
– At universities, they said, tuition would increase, enrollments might be cut, an exodus of professors would accelerate, programs would be eliminated and 1 of the 12 campuses might be considered for closing.
– In elementary and high schools, teachers would be laid off, class sizes would increase, extracurricular and athletic programs would be cut, local school districts would press for property tax increases and contract conflicts between school boards and teachers unions would be exacerbated.
– In Chicago, where the school board faces a projected deficit of upwards of $150 million, yet another confrontation with the Chicago Teachers Union would be likely next summer.
Thompson shifted his strategy from last year, when he proposed a 20 percent boost in the 2.5 percent state income tax and based his budget recommendation on the expectation of legislative approval. When lawmakers balked, he had to scale back state spending.
Thompson said he is reversing his strategy this year because his 1987 plan didn`t work. He is hoping that after the legislative session begins, a consensus in favor of a tax increase will build-although this is an election year for many lawmakers. If the consensus forms, the governor said, he then will propose a ”modest” tax increase.
Thompson is counting on the educational community to lead the effort.
”He is taking the most powerful interest group and putting the burden on them to pass a tax increase,” said one legislative analyst who predicted that other interest groups will see slight increases in other budget areas when Thompson unveils his spending plan.
Whether the legislature will pass an election-year tax increase is debatable, although many believe that the legislative leadership could
”structure” a roll call with enough votes and protection for the politically vulnerable.
”I think it depends on what the educational support groups do, to what degree they convince members of the General Assembly-specifically the leadership-that in fact they do need more resources and that they`ll support whatever is necessary to get them,” said Rep. Gene Hoffman (R., Elmhurst).
Senate President Philip Rock (D., Oak Park), the first legislative leader to acknowledge a need for a tax increase last year, said he again believes there is a need for additional revenue.
But, House Speaker Michael Madigan (D., Chicago), though ”willing to continue to work with the governor on additional revenues, as he did last year, at the moment remains unconvinced,” according Steven Brown, his press secretary.
On Feb. 25, Thompson will propose his state budget to the lawmakers, but he said Tuesday that the request for state support of education will be $2.7 billion for 1988-89, the same as the current year.
Thompson said that when he delivers his budget message next month, he will ask for $2.7 billion in state aid for elementary and high schools and $1.27 billion for higher education, the same as the current year.
He told the educators that their budget recommendations for a $656 million increase were ”reasonable and responsible.”
But, he emphasized that ”without the revenue to back that spending plan, those increases are neither reasonable, nor responsible, nor possible. The state cannot afford your call for increased spending at this time, without new revenues.”
Thompson said state revenues will grow in the next year, though he warned that some economists are scaling back earlier projections. But even with growth in tax revenues, the governor said he must continue his effort started in 1987 ”to put our fiscal house in order.”
”As long as we are forced to `get by` with unpaid bills, short-term borrowing, low balances and other such devices, education funding will remain erratic,” Thompson told the educators meeting in the Chicago Westin Hotel.
The governor said that Illinois is falling behind on payments of state income tax refunds and Medicaid payments and warned that any ”natural growth” in revenue may be earmarked to eliminate more than $100 million not yet paid in tax refunds and $159 million in lagging Medicaid payments.
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The state`s financial dilemma would have been even worse, Thompson said, if he did not reduce spending last July by $363 million from the budget approved by the legislature. Even with that spending cut, he said, ”the state cash flow is limping through the year.”
”Unfortunately for education, that means you will have to live with a zero spending increase,” Thompson said.
The governor urged the educators to mount a campaign to persuade the lawmakers to enact a tax boost.
”This year when a legislator just says `no,` you must ask that legislator to justify saying `no` to our children, `no` to a better skilled work force, `no` to economic development,” Thompson said.
Richard Wagner, executive director of the state higher education board, said a 1988-89 budget without an increase ”would sap the vitality and cripple the responsiveness of higher education in Illinois.”
In the current year, faculty and other university and staff members are not receiving pay increases. The board`s 1988-89 budget proposed a 10 percent raise. Salaries for professors are lagging 4 percent behind their counterparts in comparable institutions, Wagner said.
Stanley Ikenberry, University of Illinois president, said two top professors already have been lured away to other campuses for next September. He predicted a mass exodus of leading faculty members if they must face another year without higher pay.
”Illinois is hanging out a shingle to virtually every other state saying, `Come get our top people at bargain basement prices,”` Ikenberry said.
The annual salary for an average U. of I. professor is $36,000.
Edward S. Davidson, associate director of the Center for Supercomputing Research and Development, has been lured by the University of Michigan where next fall he will be chairman of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computing Science. Frederick A. Leckie, head of the Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, has been recruited by the University of California at Santa Barbara to become chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Ikenberry also predicted higher tuition, enrollment cuts, program cuts and the possible closing of 1 of the 12 public university campuses.
State School Supt. Ted Sanders said elementary and high schools would face extensive teacher layoffs, larger class sizes, cuts in athletic programs and other extracurricular activities, more borrowing to meet deficits and higher property taxes.
Sanders said that in 1985, lawmakers adopted a ”dream” education reform plan that still has not been fully funded. One component was to provide early education for 112,000 poverty-level 3 and 4-year-olds.
Last year, 7,000 of these children were served, but only 5,000 will be in early education class this year, Sanders said. Current funding for this program is $12.7 million. Sanders wants a boost to $45.8 million for 1988-89. Chicago Schools Supt. Manford Byrd Jr. said that if the city does not receive more school funds, school reform efforts would come to a standstill and staff and program cuts would be made. ”That`s too horrible to think about,” he emphasized.
Last year, the school funding crisis resulted in a 19-day strike by teachers and other employees, Chicago`s ninth in 18 years and its longest.