Governor Blagojevich approved the $59 billion state budget last week, cutting $500 million in what he considers to be unnecessary spending and redirecting it to healthcare.
The move, which has been met with criticism, ended a deadlock in what was a record-setting overtime session of the General Assembly.
“In short, I am cutting pork and special-interest spending and in its place I’m using the legal authority that I have to expand health care to more than 500,000 people,” said Blagojevich.
The approval came after the state had been operating without a budget for more than three weeks.
Blagojevich and state legislatures came under heavy criticism when a week after the August 1 budget deadline, Illinois State Comptroller, Daniel W. Hynes said that he would not cut checks for the nearly $170 million dollars in state aid payments to schools and state employee checks.
According to Hynes office, the state constitution bars the comptrollers’ office from dispensing funds with out a budget.
A ruling by Christian County Judge Ronald Spears brought forth a temporary agreement allowing for state employees to be paid for the month of August, avoiding a further escalation of the crisis.
Addressing the budget crisis in an emailed statement, University President, Sharon K. Hahs assured students and university employees that in the event of a continued budget impasse, the university would continue on as normal.
“Let me assure you that the University will continue normal operations while the budget talks continue and University employees will continue to be paid. All students should continue to attend summer classes and register for fall classes,” said Hahs.
When asked how the university would pay its employees, Hahs said Northeastern has access to other funding from sources like tuition and fees and would not be immediately affected by the budget crisis.
“Until the state budget is finalized, Northeastern and all other Illinois public universities will be paying our employees from local income funds, but these funds are limited.”
Though an agreement between legislators and the Blagojevich has been reached, the changes made to the state budget still must be approved or overridden before they take effect.