ICCTA Action Alert May 29, 2002 The following legislative update was prepared by the Illinois Community College Board. ICCB Budget Update #2 Last night the Senate passed its version of the Fiscal Year 2003 budget, which was an amended version of a vehicle bill, Senate Bill 2390. The Senate Republicans introduced amendments to the bill in the Senate Appropriations Committee. The first amendment is the Governor's budget proposal as introduced by Governor Ryan on Memorial Day, about which I wrote to you yesterday. The second amendment to the bill was also introduced by the Senate Republicans in the Appropriations Committee. This second amendment modified some of the Governor's proposals. Of special concern to community colleges, the modifications in the second amendment included the elimination of Governor Ryan's proposed $10 million in "add-backs" for the community college system ($5 million for City Colleges of Chicago and $5 million for "downstate" community college) and $2 million the Governor had earmarked for the CORE Program at City Colleges. We are monitoring the process carefully, as further negotiations could restore these funds in part or in whole. The budget bill passed the Senate late last night mostly along party lines with most Republicans voting for the bill and most Democrats voting against it. The exceptions were Republican Senators Luechtefeld and O'Malley voting against the bill and Democratic Senators Cullerton and DeLeo voting "present." The bill is in the House of Representatives today, sponsored by Speaker of the House Michael Madigan and Rep. Gary Hannig. We expect that there will be further modifications of the Senate version of the bill by the House today and that more negotiations between both political parties and both chambers of the General Assembly and the Governor are likely. You may access the amendments to Senate Bill 2390 on the Internet. The link is Senate Amendment #1, which is the detail of Governor's Ryan's proposed budget. This document is very long and may take a while to download. The link to the modification to the Governor's proposed budget, introduced by the Senate Republicans, is Senate Amendment #2. Click here to read the Governor's budget address. For additional information on state legislative issues, contact 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 |