By Benjamin Yount | Illinois Statehouse News

 

SPRINGFIELD —  After a hearing where the judge asked a question with a "plfftt" of his tongue, serious constitutional issues are expected to decide if Illinois' regional superintendents will be paid soon.

Sangamon County Circuit Judge John Schmidt used the raspberry to punctuate a question about his power to order Gov. Pat Quinn to spend state money.

 

"What if I issue an order, and the governor says, 'Plfftt'?," Schmidt pondered in court Thursday.

 

Illinois' 44 regional school superintendents are asking Schmidt to issue a temporary restraining order that would force Quinn to pay them. The superintendents have not been paid since July 1, when Quinn zeroed out $11 million from the state budget that was supposed to pay their salaries.

 

Schmidt is expected to render a decision Friday.

 

The question before the judge is whether the governor has the power to use his veto pen to eliminate the superintendents, Dawn Clarke Netsch said. Netsch served as a state senator and comptroller as well as ran unsuccessfully for governor on the Democratic ticket in 1994. She's a law professor at Northwestern University.

 

But her work on the 1970 Illinois Constitution, specifically her backing of the amendatory veto, has her interested in this case. The state constitution gives the governor strong power to shape the state budget, but he cannot increase it. He only can cut or amend, under the amendatory veto power.

 

"I think this is pushing the power of the veto beyond what it was meant to be," Netsch said. "Can he effectively eliminate a statutorily created office by using his fiscal veto to wipe out its appropriation? That's quite a substantial question.”

 

Charles Schmadeke, lawyer for the regional superintendents, said the governor does not have the power to create the state government that he desires.

 

"As long as there is very clear legislative direction to pay certain amounts of money, that suffices for the issuance of state checks," Schmadeke said.

 

But attorneys for the state say the issue is about the constitutional right of the power to spend, not how a governor uses that power.

 

"Just because the power may be abused doesn't mean the power does not exist," Assistant Attorney General Terence Corrigan said Thursday in court.

 

Netsch said Quinn should have tried to frame paying the superintendents as a policy issue.

 

"Are the regional superintendents worth the money given the state's economic woes?" Netsch asked.

 

But she is quick to say that Quinn "should have gone through the Legislature."

 

Sangamon County Regional Superintendent Jeff Vose said that if his office is eliminated, by legislative order or lack of pay, someone is going to have to do the work.

 

"I was legally placed in this office by the voters," said Vose. "We’re mandated by law, by school code."

 

Illinois' regional superintendents all earn about $100,000 a year. They are tasked with a number of jobs that fall somewhere between the State Board of Education and local school districts. Regional superintendents, for example, must oversee new teacher certification, GED testing, and truancy programs. Vose and the others are quick to say they are often stuck enforcing state mandates created by the Legislature.

 

Quinn has said repeatedly that he wants to see the superintendents paid, but the money should come from local taxpayers, not the state.

 

The General Assembly is expected to either act on Quinn's pay shifting proposal or his veto in the fall veto session in October.