Education funding bill fails in Senate
Republicans vote ‘present;’ budget impasse blocks other bills
EDUCATION | Patrick Yeagle
Legislation to freeze Illinois’ property taxes and change the state’s school funding formula failed in the Senate last week, but not because of opposition to the bill. Instead, it was a casualty of the ongoing state budget stalemate.
The bill’s Democratic sponsor says he was disappointed with the defeat, but he’ll push for another vote on the bill.
“Where I’m disappointed is when you listen to the debate, you hear Republicans saying, ‘This is an okay bill,’ ” said Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill. “But it apparently wasn’t quite good enough.”
With no budget in place weeks after the start of the new fiscal year, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Democrat-controlled legislature continue to battle on two fronts. Democrats want Rauner to approve an out-of-balance spending plan, and Rauner wants to tie the budget process to passage of his non-budget sweeping “Turnaround Agenda.”
The Democratic majority in both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly have run bills that incorporate pieces of Rauner’s agenda. On some occasions, the bills have been run in what amounts to a public execution, but in other cases – like with Manar’s bill – pieces of Rauner’s agenda have been inserted in existing bills in an attempt to earn Republican support. Rauner has pushed Republicans in the legislature to vote “present” on several such bills, and that’s apparently what happened to Manar’s education funding bill.
“Trying to figure out what Governor Rauner wants is like nailing Jello to the wall,” Manar said.
Although part of Manar’s bill – freezing property taxes – comes directly from Rauner’s “Turnaround Agenda,” Republicans in the Senate voted “present” as a bloc. That’s because Rauner wanted Manar and Senate President John Cullerton to include another plank of his Turnaround Agenda: allowing voters to approve deals negotiated between local governments and employee unions. Many of Rauner’s agenda items focus on stripping power from unions, especially by limiting collective bargaining. The inclusion of that measure likely would have appeased Rauner, but it also would have made some moderate, union-friendly Republicans in the Senate uneasy.
Education funding and the property tax freeze are related issues because property taxes provide the bulk of funding for public schools in Illinois.
“Every metric says we’re the worst state in the nation when it comes to equitable distribution of resources for schools,” Manar said. “We also have the highest property taxes. Governor Rauner is correct in calling for property tax reform, but it would be irresponsible to do that without addressing school funding inequity.”
Manar has worked on the legislation since first being elected in 2013, and his bill has undergone several changes since then. It would change how the state distributes existing education dollars, so that school districts with weak property tax bases would receive more money from the state than districts with strong property tax bases. Some Republicans from wealthy Chicago suburbs have opposed Manar’s bill because it would mean less state aid for schools in their districts and more for rural and inner city schools.
Because Manar’s bill would take effect immediately and would preempt local control over property taxes, it requires a three-fifths “supermajority” vote to pass, which equals 36 votes in the Senate. It received 32 “yes” votes, but six Democratic votes of “present” kept the bill from passing even without Republican votes.
Manar said that two decades ago, former Gov. Jim Edgar, a moderate Republican, pushed a similar bill in the legislature, but Sen. Christine Radogno cast the deciding vote against it. Now Radogno is Senate Republican leader.
“Twenty years later, she’s still casting the same votes to preserve the status quo,” Manar said. “I think she truly wants to solve the state’s problems, but she and the Republicans can’t find it in themselves to break away from Gov. Rauner.”
A spokeswoman for Radogno did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.
Despite the defeat, Manar said he will ask Senate President John Cullerton to call the bill for another vote. Manar said he’s open to making further changes to the bill to earn a supermajority.
“This presents good public policy for the state,” Manar said. “This bill addresses things the state has been struggling with for decades.”
Contact Patrick Yeagle at [email protected].
