ICCTA Action Alert Nov. 10, 2003 Ask your Senators to restore "hold harmless" funds Last Thursday (November 6), the Illinois House of Representatives voted 115 - 0 -1 to override the Governor’s amendatory veto to the community college section of House Bill 2671 and to restore $3.7 million in "hold harmless" funding for the Illinois community college system. In order to successfully override the Governor’s veto, the Illinois Senate must now also vote to override his veto. ACTION NEEDED: Please contact your local Illinois State Senators in their district offices during the week of November 10 and encourage them to support an override of the Governor’s item reduction veto to House Bill 2671. All senators are in their home district offices this week and will return to Springfield to consider this and other issues on Tuesday, November 18. A successful vote in the Senate will restore $3.7 million to the community college budget that was reduced by the Governor after an agreement to fund a "hold harmless" appropriation affecting 30 of the 39 community colleges. To increase our chances for a positive outcome, please report the results of your conversations with your senators to the ICCTA office at 1-800-454-2282 or e-mail us at ICCTA@communitycolleges.org. Please feel free to use the talking points below to advance this issue: Gov. Blagojevich amendatorily vetoed the FY 2004 appropriation for community colleges. In a surprise move, he applied an item reduction veto to a General Assembly-negotiated "hold harmless" provision and reduced the original $7.4 million appropriation for this item to $3.7 million. The Illinois Community College Trustees Association is requesting that the General Assembly override the item reduction veto to House Bill 2671 and restore the appropriation to $7.4 million. A new funding formula was developed in direct response to leadership requests in the General Assembly. Designed in consultation with the Governor’s Office, the formula recognizes significant changes in student enrollments and student needs. We appreciate the efforts of the members of the General Assembly to fully fund the $7.4 million appropriation needed to mitigate the negative impact to many colleges. This appropriation is a critical element of the new funding formula and is designed to help community colleges adjust to the resulting new base operating grant allocations. Thirty of the 39 community colleges are negatively affected by the Governor’s item reduction veto and were to receive funding to make up the losses that occurred by moving to a new formula. The new funding formula was intended to be implemented only if the "hold harmless" were fully appropriated in FY 2004. Since the full appropriation was approved by the General Assembly, the new funding formula was approved by the General Assembly and included in the Budget Implementation Act. The negative impact funds provision was later reduced after the formula had already been approved. Report your Senators' comments to ICCTA at 1-800-454-2282 Illinois Community College Trustees Association 401 E. Capitol Ave., Suite 200 Springfield, IL 62701-1711 217-528-2858 (phone) 217-528-8662 (fax) ICCTA@communitycolleges.org (e-mail) http://www.communitycolleges.org | Home | News | Events | Links |