A report by State Rep. Barb Wheeler on what happened in Springfield last week:

Week in Review for week of June 1, 2015

The House of Representatives met Thursday June 4 and will reconvenetomorrow, June 9.

Speaker Mike Madigan said last week that the House will remain in continuous session throughout the summer until a budget is signed.

Yet, as irresponsible as the budget the Democratic leadership has passed is, they refuse to even send it to the Governor’s desk.

Please read on for more information on the games that are being played in the Capitol while the people of the State of Illinois pay the price.

Wheeler Highlights Need for Veteran Suicide Prevention Education in Light of New Study

Rep. Wheeler is seeking to raise awareness about the alarmingly high rate of suicide among female military veterans. A recently released, multi-year study conducted in 23 states between 2000 and 2010 found that female military veterans are six-times more likely to commit suicide than non-veteran women.

“The rates are astonishing and the research shows this isn’t a new phenomenon,” said Wheeler. “This has been a reality for decades, but it has only recently been realized how much higher the suicide rate among women veterans actually is. We can no longer sit back, we need to be proactive about ensuring the public is aware of the issue and work together as a community to curb its impact.”

Wheeler has been active on the issue since she was elected. In 2013, one of her first major pieces of legislation was to expand the efforts of the Illinois Discharged Servicemember Task Force to address issues such as outreach and health care for female veterans following military service.

The data from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs showed that while suicide rates among female veterans has always been higher, young veterans are at an even more alarmingly high risk. Female veterans between 18 and 29 years old are twelve-times more likely to commit suicide than non-veterans in the same age group.

Since research into this phenomenon is still new, and primarily focused on numbers, not causes, it’s still unclear what the causes actually are. Researchers point to potential risk factors such as a disproportionate number of military personnel coming from difficult childhoods, the traumatic impact of overseas conflict, and sexual assault in the military, which has had more and more light shed on it in recent years. One thing is clear, government data clearly shows the shift to an all-volunteer military has caused overall suicide rates to increase among veterans.

While research is ongoing and seeking ways to deal with this distressing issue, Wheeler is stressing the importance of educating the public, “Suicide is an issue that is very difficult to discuss,” she said. “But we need to discuss it and make sure we don’t let it slip through the cracks and lead to more veterans needlessly taking their lives.”

To find out more about the impact of veteran suicide, visit www.va.gov. If you’d like to support efforts to help struggling veterans, or find ways to become involved, there a number of organizations: Stop Soldier Suicide, stopsoldiersuicide.org, and Disabled American Veterans, www.dav.org, are just a couple of options available.

Budget Inaction

While Democrats play budget games, Rauner Administration initiates steps to deal with Madigan-Cullerton deficit.

House Speaker Michael Madigan, Senate President John Cullerton and their caucuses passed a budget for the 2016 fiscal year beginning July 1 that is nearly $4 billion in the hole.

This latest broken Madigan-Cullerton budget comes on the heels of a Fiscal Year 2015 Madigan-Cullerton budget that was more than $1.5 billion out-of-balance when it was passed. Governor Rauner and House Republicans worked diligently to eliminate the Democrats’ $1.5 billion budget deficit without raising taxes, and the State is now projected to end the year with a balanced budget.

With the upcoming Madigan-Cullerton budget deficit more than double that of last year, a mid-year solution is not a possibility this time. The Rauner Administration must immediately begin taking steps to manage state spending. While the Administration is committed to managing the Madigan-Cullerton budget responsibly, because their budget includes no reforms, the options available to the Administration are limited.

“Speaker Madigan, President Cullerton and the politicians they control refuse to act responsibly and reform state government,” Rauner Spokesman Lance Trover said. “It is time they come to the table with Governor Rauner to turnaround Illinois.”

Please visit The Caucus Blog to review the steps the Rauner Administration is initiating in order to begin balancing the phony Madigan-Cullerton budget. Many additional steps will be announced as they are finalized.

After the majority Democrats passed budget bills for FY16 that are almost $4 billion out of balance, Speaker Madigan and Senate President Cullerton gaveled their respective chambers into recess and left town. By parliamentary maneuvers, called “motions to reconsider,” the Democrats stopped their flawed budget bills from being sent to Governor Rauner for final action. Insiders described this move as forestalling the vetoes that Governor Bruce Rauner would otherwise have issued.

House Republican Leader Jim Durkin immediately labeled the Democrats’ budget bills a fake budget that points to the need for real reform.

FY16 Budget Pressure Points

House Republicans look for path forward.

With House and Senate Democrats refusing to pass an honest, workable budget, the Illinois budget process has temporarily reached a point of impasse. Future deadlines will place ever-increasing pressure, throughout the summer, upon high-ranking policymakers to enter into serious negotiations.

The State of Illinois is currently finishing up Fiscal Year 2015, which will end on June 30, 2015. The new fiscal year begins on the following day, July 1, 2015. After the end of the month, if any money is left over within any State line item, a two-month “lapse period” within the new fiscal year is created within which remaining FY15 funds can be spent. However, there will be very little lapse-period monies available for use this summer. The State’s first payroll deadline within the new fiscal year will come on July 15, 2015, so there will be intensifying pressure to reach a budget deal prior to this date.

An additional deadline, if required, will come in mid-August. General State Aid (GSA) payments from the State to local school districts are due on August 10 and August 20, 2015. Few, if any, schools within Illinois will open for fall classes without the cash flow represented by these GSA payments.

Some items within the State budget are protected by what is called “continuing appropriation” authority. Areas of spending or money transfer that are mandated by federal law or by existing contracts and bond indentures are areas where money will continue to flow even in the absence of a year-to-year budget. Examples include bonded debt service, certified pension payments, the Teachers’ Retirement Insurance Program, the College Insurance Program, income tax payments and sales tax payments shared with local governments, the TANF welfare program, the AABD aid to the aged program, and stipends paid to parents and guardians of adopted/process-of-adoption/guardianship children by the Department of Children and Family Services.

At the same time, the City of Chicago faces a separate set of urgent budget pressures. Current law requires the City to make a $634 million “balloon” payment to the Chicago teachers’ pension fund no later than June 30, 2015. Furthermore, additional “balloon” payments to the pension funds that support retired Chicago police officers and firefighters will be due later in 2015.