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Quinn to Abolish Controversial Scholarship Program
Story date: Tuesday, May 22, 2012
(With additional reporting from The Associated Press)
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn said Monday that he intends to sign a law abolishing a controversial scholarship program that allowed state legislators the ability to grant tuition waivers to students in their districts.
“Today is a good day for deserving students in financial need, and a good day for the taxpayers of Illinois,” the governor said in a statement.
The program was a target for critics of government corruption after the Chicago Sun-Times and the Better Government Association profiled cases where lawmakers awarded waivers to students living outside their legislative districts. Their investigation revealed that children of campaign donors and political allies were sometimes recipients.
“There is no place for a political scholarship program in Illinois,” Quinn said. “Scholarships, paid for by Illinois taxpayers – should be awarded only to those with merit who are in true financial need. Abolishing this program is the right thing to do.”
In a statement released Tuesday, Rep. Jack Franks (D-Marengo) said the estimates given by state agencies show that educating these students costs universities $12 to 13 million dollars per year, yet the program provides no funding.
“Our state universities face the same budget pressures as other state entities and it is unfair to continue this unfunded mandate as tuition prices skyrocket,” said Franks.
Meanwhile, bribery charges haven’t stopped an Illinois lawmaker from handing out $185,000 worth of college scholarships. Rep. Derrick Smith last week awarded the tuition waivers that every state legislator is allowed to give out.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported Tuesday that two of his waivers went to people who did not live in his district as required by law. The State Board of Education blocked both of them.
Smith was arrested in March and charged with taking a $7,000 bribe in exchange for helping a daycare center obtain a state grant. The Chicago Democrat denies the accusation.
Legislation ending the legislative scholarship program has been approved by the General Assembly and now awaits the governor’s signature.
Story categories:
education • government • Illinois • politicsUrbana Council Approves Hike in Gas Tax
Story date: Tuesday, May 22, 2012
With no discussion, the Urbana city council has raised the city’s gas tax to 4-cents a gallon, effective July 1st.
Monday night’s 5-to-2 vote means the tax will match what’s already being charged at the pump in Champaign.
Hiking Urbana’s tax from 2.4 cents to 4-cents a gallon will bring in extra funds for road repairs. Alderman Dennis Roberts changed his initial vote last week from a no to a yes after seeing a 1.4 million dollar deficit for funding road work.
“A quite a few of the roads are in my district that I’m interested in improving, like East Washington, Airport Road, and South Race Street,” he said. “I realize that the increase of just 4-tenths of a percent in the coming year, doing a stepped approach to the budget increases, there was no way that it was going to cover that deficit.”
The ‘no’ votes came from Alderwomen Diane Marlin and Heather Stevenson. Marlin says the council should have stuck with its 2010 promise of incremental increases. She says the extra 1.2 cents a gallon was one tax hike too many.
“The hotel/motel tax, the liquor tax, the new stormwater fee - the city is going to get an extra $300,000 for the (electrical) aggregation aggrement,” Marlin said. “For me at point, at some point, you say enough is enough, and for me, it was enough.”
Marlin says she wasn’t concerned about road projects getting done, noting they would just take a little longer.
But Alderman Charlie Smyth says some of the tax charged in both Champaign and Urbana will cut into profit margins of oil companies, and give it back to the local community. He also notes the price of road materials now exceed the rate of inflation.
The 4-cent gas tax will raise $736-thousand – not enough to cover a full list of road upgrades from Urbana public works totaling $2-point-2 million dollars. The department will lay out its list of priority road projects next month.
Mayor Laurel Prussing doesn’t expect the tax to make a difference in the price at the pump.
Story links:
- Gasoline Tax Not Coming to Savoy
- Champaign Council Backs 4-Cent Gax Tax
- Urbana Motor Fuel Tax Passes, Will Take Effect Oct. 1
Story categories:
government • Urbana • taxationFlatlander Donates Money Raised for Cooking Classes
Story date: Monday, May 21, 2012
An Urbana-based group that’s been working to start a community kitchen in the area is turning its attention to help support a series of regular cooking classes put on by the Common Ground Food Co-Op.
The Flatlander Food Foundry raised $30,000 to launch a kitchen open to the public that could be used as a business incubator. But Flatlander President Mary Ellen Farrell said the group has instead decided to donate that money to support cooking classes housed at Urbana’s Common Ground Food Co-Op.
“The fact that there were other groups in the region that were pursuing similar kinds of goals, we thought why re-invent the wheel?” Farrell said. “How can we work more effectively locally?”
The classes would start in the fall in a kitchen that will be included as part of a larger expansion to the Co-op. That money will be used to purchase supplies for the kitchen, such as ovens, refrigerators, and cabinets.
Co-Op General Manager, Jacqueline Hannah said she welcomes the decision by the group to help get the cooking classes off the ground.
“They went to talk to their board, and they felt that was a perfect solution was for them to help us put in a full certified demonstration kitchen where we could actually teach classes on how to cook and help people gain cooking skills, which we have found is a major factor in people not being able to eat healthy on an affordable budget,” Hannah said.
The cooking classes will include topics, like preparing healthy meals on a budget, canning and preserving foods, and making cheeses at home.
While the goal behind Flatlander was to set up a community kitchen that would serve as a business incubator, Hannah said there are no immediate plans to use the Co-Op in that way.
The idea behind the Flatlander’s community kitchen concept is the brainchild of local chocolate-maker Daniel Schreiber, who died in 2010. Farrell said once Common Ground Food Co-Op’s cooking classes begin, the Flatlander Food Foundry will be disbanded.
Story links:
- Communities Come Together in the Kitchen (Related)
- Local Group Seeks Community Kitchen for C-U (Related)
Story categories:
business • healthIll. Board of Education Chair Worries About Funding
Story date: Monday, May 21, 2012
The chairman of the Illinois State Board of Education says lawmakers need to be more “forward thinking” when it comes to funding education.
Gery Chico said $650 million in funding has already been cut from school districts since 2009. He said the Illinois House is considering a plan to cut support for education by nearly $260 million.
However, he said proposed cuts to education could be as high as $750 million if the Illinois House votes down Gov. Pat Quinn’s proposal to eliminate $2.7 billion in Medicaid support.
“There’s alternative ways to cope with our financial crisis,” he said. “They’re on the table. The governor has proposed them. The senate is with that program, and so is my state board of education. We need the house chamber to really get behind supporting education funding.”
Urbana Schools Superintendent Preston Williams said his school district could lose roughly a million dollars in state support if lawmakers don’t agree to cut Medicaid funding based on Gov. Quinn’s budget recommendations.
“Eighty-five percent of our budget is personnel,” Williams said. “So, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out if you’re going to get a million dollars, you got to cut personnel.”
State officials have explored different plans to trim education costs, such as closing nearly a quarter of the state’s Regional Offices of Education and consolidating school districts.
Last month, the state comptroller’s office reported that the backlog of unpaid bills topped $5.5 billion dollars.
Story links:
- Illinois Public Media's Sean Powers talks with Gery Chico
- Quinn Promises to Close IL Facilities, Make Medicaid Cuts (Related)
Story categories:
economy • education • government • IllinoisQuinn Dismisses Gambling as ‘Shiny’ Distraction
Story date: Monday, May 21, 2012
Gov. Pat Quinn says Illinois can’t afford to have lawmakers distracted from crucial issues by more talk of gambling expansion.
The Chicago Democrat said leaders at the state Capitol sometimes “get distracted by shiny objects.’’
He says that can’t happen now, when government pensions and health care both need major overhauls.
Quinn is pushing plans to cut retirement benefits for government employees, reduce Medicaid services and raise the state cigarette tax.
But some officials think a gambling expansion could ease the state’s budget crisis. They want to add several casinos and install slot machines at horseracing tracks.
Senate President John Cullerton also wants to explore Internet gambling, like online poker.
