Statehouse Insider: The games never end

SJ-R.com offers a look at the politics of the General Assembly and the Governor during the past summer:

And the never-ending games go on.

To briefly recap, the General Assembly in May took the bold step of passing a budget that spent about $2 billion more than the state has. Lawmakers said it was up to Gov. ROD BLAGOJEVICH to “manage” the budget so that everything evened out. That’s Statehouse jargon for “We don’t want to make the cuts and take the heat. Let the governor do that.”

Blagojevich did, whacking about $1.4 billion, cutting money for statewide officials, substance abuse programs, state human service agencies, parks and historic sites, among other things. All of a sudden, lawmakers decided maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to let Blagojevich manage their mess, especially when the public started howling about parks and historic sites closing. Lawmakers scurried back to Springfield to fix the problem they helped create.

They passed a plan to rescind some of the cuts. Parks and historic sites can stay open, substance abuse programs will get some badly needed money, and more than 300 state workers won’t lose their jobs. To pay for this, they approved a plan to “sweep” more than $220 million from dozens of special state accounts.

There are literally hundreds of these funds where the state charges a special tax or fee and the money is supposed to be used for a related program. The road fund is an example. When you buy gasoline, you pay 19 cents a gallon to the state. The money is deposited in the road fund and is supposed to be used for road construction. (Please note: Lawmakers didn’t raid the road fund this time.)

Lawmakers passed both the spending and revenue bills and sent them to Blagojevich. Last week, Blagojevich signed the sweeps bill. This is where things get stupid.

Go there and read the whole thing!