CHICAGO -- Gov. Jim Edgar of Illinois has signed two bills that state officials said will help eliminate a $1.5 billion shortfall for the fiscal year that began July 1.
One bill contained about $800 million of general funds budget cuts and $515 million of onetime savings and revenue increases. Some of the cuts, however, will be restored under the second bill signed by Gov. Edgar, which includes extra federal funding expected from a new hospital assessment plan.
Under the plan, the state will raise about $600 million from hospitals in Illinois. The federal government is then supposed to match that money, with the hospitals receiving back the original amount they were assessed plus some share of the federal matching funds.
The governor signed the two budget measures Wednesday. He also is expected to sign a bill that would increase state revenues by $157 million this year by tapping into a portion of a two-year, 10% increase in the state income tax, with local governments taking the rest.
Deputy Budget Director George Hovanec said Gov. Edgar could sign the last of the state's budget bills by the end of next week.
The governor and legislative leaders settled on a budget pact last week. Now the budget agency is reviewing dozens of appropriation bills passed in the final hours of the extended legislative session to ensure that they conform to the agreement.
Mr. Hovanec said he expected the final fiscal 1992 all funds budget to be about $27.5 billion, an increase of $1.5 billion from the budget for fiscal 1991, which ended June 30. He estimated that the finalized general funds budget -- financed primarily by state income and sales taxes -- will be about $13.4 billion, an increase of $500 million from the fiscal 1991 general funds budget.
Mr. Hovanec said state officials have provided both Standard & Poor's Corp. and Moody's Investors Service with outlines of what the final budget is expected to look like. Standard & Poor's has about $7 billion of state-related debt on CreditWatch with negative implications.
About $4.2 billion of the state's outstanding general obligation debt is rated AA-plus by Standard & Poor's and Aaa by Moody's.
