ICCTA Action Alert June 12, 2002 The following legislative update was prepared by Joseph Cipfl, president/CEO of the Illinois Community College Board. After a long session, finishing about 9:00 p.m. last night, the Senate completed its voting on motions to override each of the line item vetoes and the reduction vetoes that Governor Ryan presented to the Senate on June 10 and that I reported to you previously. Out of 234 items, the Senate voted to override only one line item veto and 21 reduction vetoes. Only those items overridden by the Senate were then sent to the House for its consideration. The House voted to concur with all of the Senate overrides by 10:00 p.m. Both chambers have now adjourned. In the final analysis, those reduction vetoes to the Illinois Community College System Base Operating and Equalization grants and the line item vetoes – the Special Populations Grant, the Special Initiatives Grant, and the Leadership and Core Values Grant – reported to you earlier were sustained. However, the System did retain the add-ons for educational programs by the Governor of $5 million to “downstate” community colleges and $5 million to City Colleges of Chicago, and the $2 million for the Core program at the City Colleges. All the capital projects for community colleges in the budget also were maintained. Other than those line item and reduction vetoes reported to you previously, there were cuts and reductions to other state agencies that may affect some of our community colleges. Line Items Eliminated: Illinois Board of Higher Education HECA Teaching, Learning & Quality grant – $2,750,000 Illinois Board of Higher Education HECA Workforce & Economic Development grant – $2,550,000 Prairie State 2000 “ITAP” tuition and educational vouchers for individuals – $1,210,000 Prairie State 2000 “ETAP” training grants and loans to eligible employers – $2,250,000 Line Items Reduced: Illinois Student Assistance Commission grant awards reduced by $3,328,500 (in addition to the $35 million in line items for MAP grants already eliminated) Department of Commerce and Community Affairs Industrial Training Program reduced by $3.5 million Public universities suffered reductions totaling more than $42.8 million I want to thank each of you for all your efforts in helping to keep the budgetary hardship for our community colleges to a minimum. In this extraordinarily tough economic climate, community colleges are needed more than ever to re-train and re-skill individuals increasingly confronting job elimination and dislocation. Thanks to you, our community colleges continue to be in a position to meet challenges head-on. 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 |