Daily Egyptian Reporter 27

As the 1998 elections loom, Republicans in the General Assembly are scrambling to forge their education portfolios through passage of the school funding bill, one state senatorial candidate says. However, Republicans argue that the legislation offers significant reform for Illinois’ deteriorating schools.

Barb Brown, an SIUC lecturer in political science and a Democrat candidate for State Senate, contends that the pending education bill, the fate of which will be decided today, constitutes a poor attempt on the part of GOP leaders to cure an ailing education system.

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This is a short-term fix to get them through the 1998 election, Brown said. This particular bill is loaded with problems.

Brown said House Bill 452 is unstable and unsavory because it utilizes increased cigarette and casino taxes to fund Illinois’ poorest schools. She points to recent declines in tobacco and casino revenues as evidence of the bill’s unstable financial foundation.

It’s a haphazard, unstable form of funding, she said. We don’t know where these industries are going to be in the future.

We need that money very, very badly, and it’s unfair to the children to say, this is the best we can do it’s not the best we can do.

Sen. Dave Luechtefeld, R-Okawville, voted for the bill during its early days in the Senate. Luechtefeld admits that the bill is not perfect, but says its passage is crucial for downstate schools.

This bill is our best opportunity for now to bring the bottom schools up and give schools help from the state to build the buildings that are needed, he said.

Luechtefeld said raising cigarette and casino taxes to fund schools will provide the necessary revenue to sustain adequate educations for downstate pupils. He said the instability argument is bogus because there is an inherent uncertainty with all taxes.

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Any tax is somewhat unpredictable, Luechtefeld said. The income tax is susceptible to a recession.

The debate over school funding in Illinois began last spring when Gov. Jim Edgar proposed a plan that would have increased income taxes by 25 percent to fund $900 million in property tax relief and $614 million for the state’s poorest schools.

The plan won the support of all but five of 60 Democratic House members and seven House Republicans. It ultimately passed the House in May, but stalled in the Senate as James Pate Philip, R-Woodhaven, refused to call it for a vote, fearing voter hostility about income tax increases.

Brown, an ardent supporter of the old proposal, argues that it is the only fair school funding plan because it is based on income taxes rather than property taxes. Because property values are lower in Southern Illinois, area schools are receiving less money than in northern districts where values are higher.

This plan would have given needed property relief for Southern Illinois, she said. The new revenue would have come from the highest income areas. Seventy-three percent of the money for schools would have come from Cook County, and the collar counties and, 43 percent of the money would have gone to downstate schools. This would have benefited us dramatically.

Determined to pass an education package, Edgar and Philip crafted alternative legislation that, if passed, would provide $485 million for the state’s neediest schools through a 14-cents per cigarette pack tax increase, a graduated gambling tax based on casino revenues, a 5-percent deadbeat tax penalty and a 2-percent telecommunications tax increase.

The bill stipulates a new school aid foundation level of $4,225 in 1998, $4,325 in 1999 and $4,425 in 2000. It also provides for $1.4 billion in school construction bonds and $35 million to retire construction bond debt amassed from referendums passed primarily in northern Illinois. The debt payoffs are thought to have been included in an attempt to placate northern legislators who say the bill ignores overcrowding in suburban districts.

Jack Roeser, president of the Family Taxpayers Network, said the bill’s debt restructuring is wrong in that it will set a precedent for school’s to take out loans and rely on the taxpayer to them back.

They’re playing with someone else’s money, he said. Other schools will get up and say, let’s get up and get some.’

It’s going to encourage unrealistic improvement plans in other areas.

Roeser says the bill, in its entirety, is a sham and was thrown together in haste. He also said Edgar was wrong in resurrecting the legislation.

It’s a lousy bill that was not properly prepared, he said. They never even intended to pass it.

The governor made a mistake by calling session.

Apart from its financial provisions, the bill includes several education reforms. It would rework administrators’ contracts so that they are performance-based, make it harder for educators to renew their teaching certificates and lengthen the probationary period for tenure.

Brown rejects these reforms, saying that Republicans tacked them on to the bill without seriously considering their merits.

This is typical Republican posturing, she said. They piggyback these kind of complex issues onto legislation like this without knowing what their consequences are.

These reforms deserve attention and debate.

The bill, though it passed the Senate, was defeated by four votes in the House. Edgar has called for a special session to convene today, in an attempt to pass the embattled bill.

Brown predicts HB 452 will pass the General Assembly. If it does, she plans to hammer Luechtefeld, her 1998 opponent, for supporting the bill, reminding voters that they could have had better.