In the News

Peoria Journal Star, August 23, 2007

SPRINGFIELD - Sen. Larry Bomke, R-Springfield, on Wednesday proposed legislation intended to help Rochester and 23 other school districts get $150 million in state money they have been promised, but which repeatedly eludes them.

Funds for the school construction grants were included in a supplemental spending bill that Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed into law last week. The measure also contained money to give lawmakers and other top officials, including the governor, a 10 percent pay raise.

But officials with the Blagojevich administration said a technicality would prevent Rochester and the other school districts from receiving that money. The reason, they said, is the supplemental spending plan covers the fiscal year that ended June 30, and school districts would have had to execute agreements before that date in order to get the funds.

Sen. Susan Garrett, D-Lake Forest, called the latest twist on school construction grants "a bureaucratic nightmare."

School officials "felt that we had crossed the finish line and we were ready to go until it became apparent that paperwork, in quotation marks, needed to be found, filled out, whatever," Garrett added. "I mean, it's one thing to say you didn't fill out the form, but when there's no form to fill out, it's an impossible task."

Bomke's amendment would reappropriate state funds from the fiscal year 2008 budget to pay the 24 districts.

Bomke isn't the only lawmaker seeking to make sure the schools get their promised construction-grant money.

Rep. Lisa Dugan, D-Bradley, on Tuesday filed House Bill 4130, which would re-appropriate $150 million to the Capital Development Board for school construction grants in the current fiscal year. Reps. John Bradley, D-Marion, and Daniel Beiser, D-Alton, are co-sponsors on Dugan's bill.