State legislators address spending, education concerns at Grundy economic development breakfast

State representatives from Grundy and neighboring counties were in Morris answering questions on a wide range of topics regarding state and federal government programs from an audience made up of local business leaders on Monday.

Over 230 people filled Jennifer’s Garden Center for the annual Grundy Economic Development Council Legislative Breakfast.

Legislators attending include U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Dunlap, State Sen.Sue Rezin, R-Morris, State Sen. Patrick Joyce, D-Essex, State Sen. Chris Balkema, R-Channahon, State Rep. Jason Bunting, R-Dwight, State Rep. Jackie Haas, R-Kankakee, and State Rep. Jed Davis, R-Yorkville.

Nancy Norton, the president and CEO of the Grundy Economic Development Council, led the conversation by asking questions collected from members of her organization.

Budget

Norton reintroduced Balkema, who was the president of the Grundy County Board before deciding to run for senator, and asked him a question that she said was within his wheelhouse: “What, specifically, do you think and would you advocate for to cut from the budget under the discretionary budget line items going forward?”

Balkema, who works on the Illinois Senate pension committee, said the staff work is bipartisan and has been great.

“This budget is $55 billion, and yeah, it’s complex, but it’s not too complex,” Balkema said. “We have a lot of work to do to dig through everything. I had my team print out every budget and policy staff letter that dissects the $55 billion. There’s a lot of opportunities to cut, but it’s going to take hard work.”

Balkema specified that the area he wants to cut are higher education appropriations while the Illinois Board of Higher Education is seeking a 3% increase.

“I look at the last, you know, four years, and there’s already been a 4% or 5% increase year over year,” Balkema said. “I met in detail with a couple of colleges on Friday and I don’t think they were prepared for the questions, because we started asking about labor contracts, which are necessary capital expenditures, and how you bond.”

He said it was the same thing he did in Grundy County, where the county was perpetually selling bonds because it was the normal thing to do at higher interest rates as opposed to avoiding expenditures to move forward without debt.

Townships

Norton asked Bunting about proposals that would eliminate some of Illinois’ 9,000 units of government, which is the most of any other state. Bunting was a township board member before running for his position in the Illinois State House of Representatives.

“I am all for less units of government, and I’m going to honest with you when I say I don’t believe that townships are where we need to be looking,” Bunting said.

Bunting said he works part-time as a snow plow operator for his uncle, a road commissioner. There, he gets paid $15 an hour between 60 and 70 hours out of the winter, depending on how much snow fell. If Union Township were to get eliminated, that job would go to a full-time county employee that gets paid more than that, who will also get retirement and healthcare.

“There’s no cost savings in that,” Bunting said. “And to be honest, where I live in Livingston County, I’m about 25 miles away from that highway department. Are we going to be timely enough in getting folks just in the winter time, to get our constituents where they need to be in a timely fashion?”

He said rural townships face different issues than urban townships.

“In urban areas, they’ve got the needy fund and a lot of things that run through the township to take care of the residents there,” Bunting said. “Instead of going with the population, we should go with the number of miles served. If you get up into Cook and the collar counties, there’s not too many miles served that you are in charge of maintaining.”

Four-year degrees at junior colleges

Haas said she favors community and junior colleges offering four-year degrees, and she’s introduced a bill in the past that would have made that possible.

She said to offer baccalaureate degrees, the colleges would have to demonstrate with a few conditions that offering those degrees would fill an unmet need. She’s filed a bill in the past that would have allowed community colleges to offer a four-year degree opportunity for those going into early childhood education.

“I’m going to file it again this year,” Haas said. “We held off because the governor’s initiative was for this to go through. I’m hopeful that it will continue to go through. If it doesn’t, I will probably free file my bill.”