GUESTWORK | Larry Joseph and Manya Khan

For the second consecutive year, the Illinois General Assembly has confronted the state fiscal crisis by “passing the buck.” Last month, the legislature passed a General Funds budget for fiscal year (FY) 2011 that would give most state agencies lump-sum funding rather than line-item appropria tions. The largest gaps between FY 2011 appropria tions and current funding levels are those in human service agencies. Some portion of these shortfalls will be offset by an additional lump sum to be allocated by the governor, although the gov ernor is not required to distribute the entire amount. Related legislation would give the governor sweeping emer gency budget powers to control spending and make changes in state pro grams.

On the revenue side of the budget, the General Assembly has again relied on stopgap solutions. Gov. Quinn’s proposal for a 1 percent income tax surcharge earmarked for education garnered virtually no support. Another revenue measure — House Bill 174 — would raise the state income tax to 5 percent and expand the base of the state sales tax to cover more consumer services. This legislation was approved by the state Senate in May of last year and was still a legislative option for FY 2011, but it was never brought up for a vote in the House of Representatives. In the meantime, the recession has continued to batter state revenues, which plummeted by $2 billion in FY 2009 and are expected to fall another $2 billion by the end of FY 2010.

In April, the governor signed pension reform legislation that will reduce mandated state contribu tions by about $1 billion in FY 2011. Nonetheless, the matter of pension funding for the coming fiscal year remains unre solved. In FY 2010, the lump-sum appropriations allo cated by the governor — $3.46 billion — were specifically tied to borrowing the same amount to cover pension costs. The FY 2011 budget has again appropriated $3.46 billion to the governor’s office, but the General Assem bly has not authorized additional borrowing or provided any other source of funding.

The FY 2011 budget passes the buck to the governor to make decisions about allocating funding to particular programs and services. Some areas of the budget will be partially protected by federal funding and related federal mandates, while programs funded pri - marily with state revenue are likely to be in much greater jeopardy. Especially vulnerable areas include early childhood education, bilingual education, community mental health services and youth services.

Moreover, by ignoring the huge backlog

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