State Rep. Norine Hammond (R-Macomb) is focusing on an important issue in her re-election campaign in District 93: formulating plans for a fiscal budget for higher education in 2017.
According to Hammond, the state of Illinois is facing serious issues and one of them is its budget.
Hammond told the Western Courier that it was during regular meetings with a budget working group consisting of three Senate Democrats, three Senate Republicans, three House Republicans and seven House Democrats, that they realized they were not going to meet their budget deadline as the end of the fiscal year approached.
“So that’s how this stopgap budget came about, and there are a lot of things that are good about it, but there are certainly a lot of areas that need to be addressed in stopgap and going forward," she said.
Hammond, however, has said that there are concerns with the process. At the moment, education for grades K through 12 receives funding for the whole year, but other higher education and agencies are only funded through Jan. 2.
“Right now, a lot of my focus is with talking with people on some of their input on what they would like to see be part of the complete package because we are going to have to come up with something because I am hopeful that we don’t wait until November to do that,” she said.
Hammond said it’s difficult for human service providers, universities, and community colleges to plan and budget if they don’t know where they will be.
The budget group Hammond is working with can continue to find a solution before the veto session in November stalls their progress.
Aside from working on school budget concerns, Hammond is also helping to reinstate vehicle registration reminders in the state of Illinois.
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