* The state’s Coal Develpment Fund got an ironic early Christmas present: A lump of coal in its stocking…
The governor’s recent raiding of funds has emptied the state’s Coal Development Fund and Southern Illinois legislators believe the money won’t be seen again this year.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich used $10.2 million from the coal fund as part of a $27 million bailout of the Chicago Transit Authority and the Regional Transit Authority in the Chicago area last month. Susan Hofer, spokeswoman for the governor’s office of management and budget, said the movement of funds would not impact any current projects or programs. […]
The state Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity has distributed more than $5 million in grants from the coal fund in each of the past two fiscal years, and Blagojevich set aside $17 million from the fund in June 2006 as part of an incentive program to attract the FutureGen project, a zero-emissions power plant. Two central Illinois cities, Mattoon and Tuscola, are among four finalists for the plant’s construction site against two Texas sites.
* And here’s another problem. The state collects a host of local taxes and then distributes them back to local governments (after taking a cut in most cases). But some of those checks haven’t been cut lately and that’s causing discomfort…
[The city of Bloomington] is waiting to receive more than $1 million in payments from the state for its portion of the income tax, but the checks have not been sent by Comptroller Dan Hynes’ office.
With the city’s cash reserves already strapped, city Finance Director Brian Barnes said the city will have a hard time paying its bills.
“We could run into a major cash flow problem if this keeps up,” Barnes said.
The City Council already has been struggling to cut a $3 million deficit from its $75 million proposed budget for next year.
The reason for the delay? There’s usually a cash-flow pinch in December, but it’s much worse this year, so the state is passing down its problems to the locals. Wonderful.
* You may recall that one of the items that Gov. Blagojevich vetoed from the state budget was operating cash for public television and radio. While not the sole source of WTVP Peoria’s current crisis, that veto didn’t help matters much. Bank of America is threatening to foreclose on a big loan next month and sell the station off in pieces…
Starting tonight, Peoria’s public television station wants your support like never before.
WTVP-TV Channel 47 needs $6.9 million - or enough, they hope, to satisfy Bank of America - by Jan. 15.
“They’ve indicated to us unless they’re paid they will put everything up for sale in one fell swoop or sell it in pieces, whichever is to their advantage,” WTVP president and CEO Chet Tomczyk said. “In which case, we go dark.”
*** UPDATE 1 *** From Comptroller Dan Hynes’ website comes this dire warning…
All state agencies, employees, state vendors and payees should be advised that the current delays affecting payments out of the state’s General Revenue Fund (GRF) are expected to continue and likely lengthen throughout the remainder of calendar year 2007 and into calendar year 2008.
Under optimal revenue conditions, or for payments from non-GRF funds, the Office of the Comptroller (IOC) can issue a warrant within 2-4 days after a proper voucher is presented to our office. However currently, substantially more GRF bills or vouchers have been submitted to the IOC than incoming revenues or cash on hand permits to be processed on a timely basis We do not anticipate that there will be sufficient GRF revenues to significantly reduce current payment backlogs for the near future.
Please note that while agency payrolls should not be impacted by these conditions, the majority of other payments out of the General Revenue Fund will continue to be delayed due to the lack of sufficient and/or timely revenues. At this time, these delays are in excess of 30 business days and are expected to increase over the next several months.
[Emphasis added]
*** UPDATE 2 *** And another one…
The state of Illinois is $1.6 million behind in paying the city of Springfield its cut of state income taxes, a problem that is growing statewide, according to Alan Henry, a spokesman for state Comptroller Dan Hynes.
“It’s about insufficient receipts to meet the state’s obligations,” Henry said. “Historically around now, the volume of bills exceeds revenue. That’s exacerbated by what appears to be a slowing of receipts.