Opinion
Legislation targets late bills, special ed
By GARY FORBY
Illinois State Senate
Last week was a busy time for lawmakers and our staffs as we worked to file numerous legislative measures before Thursday in order to beat a deadline for the introduction of Senate bills.
Many lawmakers were busy meeting with constituents and other groups to be most aware of their concerns and better promote the interests of their community.
With all the activity going on at the capitol, I was able to file some pieces of legislation that promote education funding and public safety among other things.
With the state nearly two months behind in paying its bills, many schools are feeling the brunt of their late payments and are facing dire consequences. A lot of universities and community colleges in our district are being forced to drastically reduce their services because of a lack of state funds.
This is leaving our children unprepared by not giving them the tools that are vital for their future success.
In order to make up for the state's untimely payments, I filed Senate Bill 2615, which gives community colleges more options to alleviate their cash-flow concerns and allows them to stay open until the state makes its payments.
One option that this bill offers is to allow community colleges to bond up to 150 percent, instead of 75 percent, against their local property tax revenues to get money to pay for maintenance, operations and other expenses to keep running until the state pays these community colleges what is already owed to them.
Another option allows community college boards to establish a line of credit to help meet short-term financial needs without going through that bonding process. This was offered in case some banks are unwilling to allow a line of credit because community colleges were not specifically granted this authority.
Local school districts (K-12), for example, already have this authority.
I have said it all along — the state needs to pay its bills on time, but because timely payments are not currently being made, community colleges are being forced to look at other options to stay open. The proposal currently waits in the Senate Higher Education Committee and will hopefully be called next week.
Another bill I filed last week, Senate Bill 2519, would ensure funding for the Children Requiring Special Education Services (formerly known as Special Education-Extraordinary) program.
Last year, the state gave the State Board of Education a lump sum of money to use. However, because ISBE chose not to fund this program, many special education schools did not receive the same amount of funding they received in the previous year.
This piece of legislation would appropriate money to ensure that these children receive the proper amount of funding. Education will remain a top priority this session as we continue to push for a responsible budget solution to get out of this fiscal hole.
Although there are many unresolved issues facing our state, I will remain committed to sitting down with other lawmakers and the people in our district to ensure the state pays its bills on time, that we come up with solutions to create jobs to boost our economy and find solutions to our most critical problems.
• Gary Forby is an Illinois state senator in the 59th District, which includes part of Hamilton County.
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