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House of Representatives
Session of 2015 - 2016 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: September 14, 2016 08:59 AM
From: Representative Seth M. Grove
To: All House members
Subject: Strengthening the Balanced Budget Provision of the Commonwealth’s Constitution
 
On August 10, George Will wrote an opinion piece in the Washington Post entitled, “Illinois Exemplifies Our Fiscal Foolishness”. This article highlighted the travesty of Illinois overspending and basically ignoring its constitution’s balanced budget requirement. “What is misleadingly called the state’s constitution requires balanced budgets, of which there have been none for 25 years. This year, revenues are projected to be $32.5 billion, with spending of $38 billion.” We do not want to go down this path of financial disaster.

In the near future I will be submitting a constitutional amendment to strengthen our balanced budget amendment, as well as, require future administrations to provide the General Assembly more robust financial information so we can more effectively prepare a yearly financial plan for the Commonwealth.

Section 12: Governor’s Budget, Financial Plan, and Cost Savings Plan
  • Require the Governor to abide by provisions in Section 13 & 14 when developing the Governor’s budget.
  • Requires the governor to develop a reasonably detailed cost saving, innovation, and efficiency plan for each agency, including specific appropriations for which the savings come from, when they develop their proposed budget.
  • Requires the Governor to provide a detail projection of any additional supplemental appropriations for the upcoming fiscal year and provided an update to the General Assembly by June 1st.
  • Requires the Governor to provide detailed performance data for each state program.

Section 13: Balanced Budget & State Appropriations
  • The operating budget shall fund the pension actuarially required contribution (ARC).
  • The governor cannot sign or allow a budget into law that exceeds certified revenues.
  • Requires the State Treasurer to deny any payment which exceeds enacted appropriations and require the Treasurer to notify the General Assembly of all payment requests made by the administration which exceed appropriations.
Section 14: Financial Transparency and Accountability
  • The Governor would be required to notify the General Assembly and State Treasurer by May 15th of any potential commitments of appropriations exceeding the current fiscal year.
  • The Governor would be required to notify the General Assembly and State Treasurer by June 1st of any potential unspent appropriations for the current fiscal year and by June 30th require the administration place all unspent appropriations into a restricted account.
  • The Governor is required to place any costs savings as they occur during the fiscal year into a restricted account.
  • The Governor is required to place any revenue received from litigation into a restricted account.
  • The Governor is required to place any returned state dollars from any source into a restricted account.
These common-sense updates to Article VIII are critical to providing taxpayers and the General Assembly more financial information, as well as, reinforce our balanced budget mandate. The General Assembly cannot continue to budget with only a partial picture of our commonwealth’s financial position. These reforms will provide more transparency and accountability about how, where, and why taxpayers’ dollars are being spent.

Please join me and co-sponsor this constitutional amendment to ensure the commonwealth has a financially sound and balanced budget. Please contact Jordan Grant at jgrant@pahousegop.com if you have any questions.

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