Leatherneck Nation

From Rich Miller's "Capitol Fax":

The Governor’s stopgap funding plan will serve as a bridge to a comprehensive balanced budget for fiscal year 2017. This plan does not count on enactment of a tax hike or reforms. This plan provides a full year of funding for elementary and secondary education, road construction, federal programs, and other non-GRF programs. It also provides funding to support 6 months of critical operations for higher education, state-operated facilities including prisons and veterans’ homes, fuel for the State Police to patrol our roads, and other core operations and programs for public safety, health and welfare. Funds are available under current law for all components of this bridge plan. The plan is contained in two bills: one bill which has K-12 education funding, and a second bill which has all other funding.

o Higher education funding of $1.0 billion. This is on top of $600 million already approved in FY16. The new funding is from the Education Assistance Fund, at $680 million (which is the amount of money expected to be available in that fund in the first six months of FY17), $200 million from the Fund for the Advancement of Education, $20 million from GRF, and approximately $100 million from the Personal Property Tax Replacement Fund for community colleges.

▪ This plan should ensure that universities are able to open on time and complete the full fall semester.
▪ Community colleges are funded at $114 million, plus funding for adult and career tech and other grants.
▪ Includes $151 million in funding for MAP for spring semester 2016. This goes to public and private colleges, for all students who were awarded MAP grants for the spring semester
▪ Funds the Illinois Math and Science Academy, East St. Louis and Lake County centers and some higher education and community college board operations.

From Rich Miller's "Capitol Fax":

The Illinois House and Senate on Thursday approved a stopgap budget that would keep state government afloat for six months, ensure schools open this fall and provide help to struggling Chicago Public Schools after Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democrats who control the General Assembly struck a deal amid intense political pressure with the November election looming.

For Higher Education:

$1 billion in funding for universities, community colleges, MAP Grants, adult education, career & technical education, and Illinois Math & Science academy operations with about $655 million going to the nine state universities, $114 million going to community colleges, including City Colleges of Chicago, and $151 million to cover tuition grants for low-income students that were promised last year but never paid. Covers FY ‘16 & first half of FY ‘17.

Just after the stopgap state budget was approved, Moody's downgrades NIU, SIU, EIU, Governor's State, & NEIU.

This six-month stopgap budget will allow Illinois to keep the "lights on" until December 31.

What comes after that is unknown at this time. That will be determined by the incoming General Assembly in January 2017.

It appears like Illinois will be spending a year's worth of money in the first six months of FY17. So the cupboard could be bare when we get to January.

A re-structuring of the state universities system may be a possibility as the state moves forward into 2017. Perhaps Western's viability would be more secure with a single-operational state university system--like the one in Wisconsin.

Western Continues Furlough Program.

From Tri-States Public Radio WIUM-FM:
http://tspr.org/post/western-continues- ... =#stream/0

This was dated, June 27th. Will things change with the passage of the bail-out budget? jc

Neckfansince71 wrote:Will things change with the passage of the bail-out budget?

That's a good question.

While the local K-12 school districts received funding for a complete 2016-2017 school year, the state universities only received funding for the fall semester. Western's portion of this bridge funding is $31.4 million, plus an additional $5.1 million for MAP grants.

The funding for the spring semester is to be determined at a later time.

Neckfansince71 wrote:Will things change with the passage of the bail-out budget?

We have an answer.

In an article in today's McDonough County Voice, budget director Matt Bierman said that the furlough program will continue into the 2017 fiscal year which started on July 1. The university's furlough program saved $1.5 million for the 2016 fiscal year.

Sometime within the next 30 days, the university will announce its staffing needs for the fall semester. The university has given 105 layoff notices to non-faculty employees and about 45 notices to faculty. A few non-faculty employees have been brought back due to retirements.

Bierman said the university is still short $30 million over the 18 months (July 1, 2015-December 31, 2016) covered by the April stopgap and the June 30th stopgap. Bierman said that the university will still have to conserve financial resources.

**This article has not yet been posted to the Voice's website. So I am not able to post a link for it at this time.

Here is that article from the McDonough County Voice:

WIU, local districts eye stopgap funding.
http://www.mcdonoughvoice.com/news/2016 ... ap-funding

State Representative Norine Hammond discusses the six-month stopgap.

Finding what works: Representatives discuss the stopgap negotiation process.

From Saturday's McDonough County Voice:
http://www.mcdonoughvoice.com/news/2016 ... on-process

Stopgap Means That Western Can Avoid Technical Default.

From Rich Miller's "Capitol Fax":

* But only if the money arrives in time….

The stopgap budget will prevent Western from having to dip into restricted Auxiliary Facilities Systems funds to meet operational expenses — if the state comptroller sends payments out in the next 20 days, Bierman noted.

The university was scheduled to begin using restricted AFS funds, which are collected through residence hall revenue and student fees to support campus facilities built with and maintained by funds from the selling of tax-exempt bonds. Using AFS funds would have been a technical default on the university’s bond payments, and dipping into the AFS pot requires the university to notify bond holders within 10 days.

The decisions Western has made during the state’s fiscal crisis will not change, according to Bierman. Amid the crisis, the university has initiated layoffs and mandatory furloughs for non-negotiated employees. The university has given 105 layoff notices to non-faculty employees and about 45 notices to faculty.

A few non-faculty employees have been brought back due to retirements, Bierman said.

* WIU isn’t the only entity hoping for a quick payment schedule, but folks shouldn’t get their hopes up. There’s still not nearly enough revenue to go around…