100 Accomplishments of 2003

 

Led the Fight to Pass Tough Ethics Laws.  On December 9^th, Governor Blagojevich signed ethics reforms into law, which gives Illinois real, meaningful ethics reform for the first time. This legislation is the toughest, most comprehensive reform package in the history of the state. After a year of hard work, two bills, and co-operation from all four legislative caucuses, and from virtually every part of the Executive Branch of government, Blagojevich passed an ethics package that creates an independent ethics commission, creates Inspectors General with subpoena powers, puts an end to the practice of politicians appearing in taxpayer funded public service announcements, closes the revolving door that allowed state officials to regulate companies one day and go work for them the next, and places limits on how much lobbyists can spend on food, drink and golf to peddle their influence. In addition, the bill mandates ethics training for state employees, prohibits lobbyists or their spouses from serving on boards or commissions, and provides new protections for whistleblowers, among other reforms. 

 

Created the Office of the Inspector General.  Governor Blagojevich signed an executive order creating the first Office of the Inspector General for all state agencies and employees of his office. The order also bans retaliation against whistleblowers and created the state's first Ethics Hotline. 

 

Produced a 20-Year Low State Headcount.  By ordering a hiring freeze on all non-frontline employees after taking office, Governor Blagojevich has trimmed the state workforce to its lowest headcount since 1983. In the Governor's first Executive Order, he required that all hiring and promotion be frozen in order to control unrestrained hiring and to initiate the streamlining of state government.

 

Created the Rainy Day Fund.  Governor Blagojevich helped create a permanent Rainy Day Fund, which can be used in the event of any fiscal challenges facing the state. Even while facing the largest budget deficit in state history, the Governor committed an initial $50 million for this fund, and will continue to dedicate additional state revenues to the fund annually.

 

Balanced the Budget.  Governor Blagojevich addressed an unprecedented $5 billion budget deficit while keeping his promise not to raise the income or sales tax, and still investing nearly $1 billion in new spending in health care, education and public safety.  Over $1.5 billion in wasteful spending was cut to help balance the budget. 

 

Streamlined and Consolidated State Agencies and Functions.  As part of an ongoing effort to streamline state government and improve efficiency, Governor Blagojevich signed executive orders to consolidate or transfer operations of 14 existing state agencies and five major functions that will initially save approximately $40 million in the next fiscal year.

 

Ordered Across-the-board Administrative Cuts.  Governor Blagojevich directed all state agencies to reduce their administrative budget by an average of 10 percent.  He cut his own budget by 15 percent.

 

Created the Tax Amnesty Program.  In response to a broad outreach and marketing effort, the Governor's tax amnesty program attracted more than 70,000 participants, including both large and small businesses, minority businesses and individuals, which generated almost $500 million. It is the second largest tax amnesty program in American history, and possibly the most successful state amnesty program ever on a per capita basis.

Founded Team Illinois.  Team Illinois is an unprecedented effort to help some of the state's lowest income communities by pooling and focusing state resources to help promote the area's economic development and improve the local infrastructure. Never before has virtually every state agency worked together to focus specifically on the issues and challenges of individual communities. The initial phase of Team Illinois will focus on the communities of Pembroke Township, Aurora, Savanna, and Cairo.

Ordered Vehicle Fleet Management.  On January 14^th, Governor Blagojevich issued Executive Order #2, requiring the state's Central Management Services (CMS) to analyze and recommend changes in the management of the state's 13,635-vehicle fleet. Since then, the fleet has been reduced by 1724 vehicles, and new policies on how state vehicles can be used have been issued and enforced.  Excess vehicles are sold at auction. 

 

Centralized State Procurement.  Governor Blagojevich ordered CMS to centralize the state's procurement of goods and services, leading to an estimated $109 million in savings in FY04, and more than twice that in the preceding two fiscal years. 

 

Implemented Comprehensive Toll Authority Reform.  Governor Blagojevich implemented sweeping reforms at the Illinois Toll Highway Authority, including creating an independent inspector general's office to investigate allegations of waste, fraud and mismanagement.

 

Consolidated State Facilities Management. Governor Blagojevich has ordered CMS to centralize and consolidate the management and operation of all functions in all state facilities under the Governor's jurisdiction; from overseeing janitorial services to negotiating leases and analyzing space needs to negotiating statewide multi-million dollar energy contracts. The consolidation of all facilities management in one agency will result in the rationalization of space allocations, lower costs per square foot of state leased and owned space, and significantly reduced cost for in the various categories of state facility expenditure.

 

Consolidated Legal Contracting.  Governor Blagojevich has also ordered the consolidation of the state's legal contracting. Already, this consolidation has resulted in $650,000 in annualized savings. In addition, all legal headcount associated with functions central to CMS (e.g. procurement, personnel, facilities management) is being consolidated, making CMS the central focal point for all legal decisions in these areas of expertise.

 

Created the First-Ever Statewide Internal Audit Entity.  Illinois now has a single state Internal Audit organization, responsible only to the Governor and focused only on the most critical and statewide risks. On October 1^st, just over 100 internal auditors were consolidated into CMS. This involved a reduction of 47 internal audit positions, including 17 management positions at a substantial savings to the state. Being a statewide entity also means that 20 agencies that previously did not have internal audit capacity will be included in any statewide risk assessment.

 

Consolidated Informational Technology and Telecommunications.  Governor Blagojevich ordered the consolidation of the state's IT services in CMS, tasking the agency with rationalizing and improving this system.

 

Created the I-BID On-line Auction System.  Governor Blagojevich launched the state's first on-line auction system that provides access to citizens across the state to bid on surplus property. I-BID was launched at the 2003 Illinois State Fair. In the first 90 days since opening bids on-line, I-BID has generated more than $76,000 is surplus sales for 313 items, which is twice the value the state would have generated in the conventional bid process.

 

Created the Violation Enforcement System.  The Toll Highway Authority has instituted a new system to collect lost revenue due to unpaid tolls. Alleged toll violators are now afforded the opportunity for due process via administrative hearings conducted by impartial hearing officers.  As of November 22, 2003, the Tollway has sent 823,181 Violation Notices for 3,758,275 violations. Collections to date total $15,409,338.

 

Developed the TaxNet Online Filing System.  During the spring and summer months of 2003, the Departments of Revenue and Employment Security completed and began implementing IL TaxNet, an internet-based tax application. This system allows employers with fewer than 250 employees to electronically file their Unemployment Insurance (UI) reports, and all employers to file their withholding reports and payments for IDOR.  All employers can now file UI wage reports and payments and perform inquiries and minor file-maintenance to their UI accounts via TaxNet.  Phase 3, to be implemented early next year, permits employers to establish new UI accounts via TaxNet.

 

Required Quarterly Allotments.  State agencies now receive funding on a quarterly basis - instead of on an annual basis -- and the Governor's Office of Management and Budget (GOMB) now reviews all agency spending requests before each quarter. After each review is completed, GOMB approves, providing funding for those needs at the outset of each quarter. This gives the state the ability to keep spending in-check agency-by-agency, so that they don't spend beyond their means.

 

Ordered Monthly Spending Plans.  The Office of Management and Budget now meet every month with agency CFOs to review where they intend to spend their dollars for that month. This is another tool that allows the state to ensure that agencies are not spending beyond their means and that spending is in line with revenues.

 

Developed On-time Bill Payment.  The Department of Pubic Aid and the and the Office of Management and Budget created a cash management plan to help maximize the state's return on its federal Medicaid match and pay our bills in a timely manner.  The cash management strategy allows the state to track federal Medicaid reimbursements as they're deposited to the state's GRF. Those deposited dollars are then used for the Medicaid program, allowing us to further increase our federal match. The state's normal federal Medicaid match is 50%, but this match was increased to 53% for five quarters ending July 31^st, 2004. 

 

Banned Vacation Day "Stockpiling."  The state had previously allowed employees to rack up vacation days and cash them out when they left state employment.  This has led to individual payouts of tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars.  Under Governor Blagojevich, state employees now may only carry over a portion of their vacation days, which will realize significant cost savings to the state.

 

Reorganized the Department of Children and Family Services.  In July, DCFS announced its new management structure designed to streamline operations, allow the agency to run more efficiently, and to group services together to better serve the children and families of Illinois. The Department consolidated what had formerly been 17 divisions to 10, which helps facilitate communication between Deputy Directors, managers, and line staff. DCFS is also now focusing much more attention on finding missing children and monitoring the care children receive in residential homes.

 

 

Created Opportunity Returns. To fulfill his pledge to create jobs in Illinois, Governor Blagojevich launched a region by region economic development plan called Opportunity Returns.  The Governor's plan is the most aggressive, comprehensive jobs creation effort ever undertaken in Illinois.  The plan divides the state into ten regions and, based on the specific strengths and needs of each of these regions, the state pools its resources to match the individual needs of each region.

 

To ensure responsive communication and lasting efforts, the Governor has created regional teams, including a regional director and account manager that act as the state's liaison to local business and community leaders.  The first Opportunity Returns plan was launched in Rockford for the Northern Stateline Region on October 15^th, 2003. Subsequent plans unveiled in 2003 were in the Northwest, Southern, North Central, and Southwestern regions. The Northeast, East Central, Central, West Central, and Southeastern Regional Plans will be announced in 2004. Some highlights from the 2003 Regional Plan are:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Signed the O'Hare Modernization Program.  One of the largest challenges facing aviation in Illinois is the need for increased air capacity, and during 2003, progress towards improving that capacity was made. This summer, Governor Blagojevich signed the O'Hare Modernization Act, which fast tracks the expansion of Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. Passage of this legislation will create 195,000 new jobs in Illinois.

 

Paved the Way For Job Creation through Clean Coal.  This summer, Governor Blagojevich signed a bill that offers $300 million in new funds to revitalize Illinois' coal industry, create new jobs, and promote the use of environmentally friendly, cleaner-burning coal technology. In August, Governor Blagojevich also announced $17 million in state coal infrastructure grants to 37 companies that will leverage $128 million in federal funding.  This funding will improve production and transportation efficiencies for Illinois coal, create new markets for that coal, and make Illinois producers more competitive in the marketplace.

 

Fought for the Equal Pay Bill.  In May, Governor Blagojevich signed legislation to help ensure that women receive equal pay for equal work.  Under the law, if a man and a woman do the same job they must be paid the same. The new law expands the federal Equal Pay Act of 1963 by covering more workers, providing better enforcement mechanisms, improving public awareness and helping employers eliminate pay disparities. 

 

Championed the Minimum Wage Increase.  Governor Blagojevich championed the passage of the Minimum Wage Bill.  The minimum wage is currently $5.15 an hour, as a result of this bill it will increase to $5.50 on January 2004 and then to $6.50 January 2005. It has been estimated that the raise will directly benefit 450,000 Illinois workers, or about 6 percent of the state's workforce, half of who earn the current minimum wage.

 

Signed the Prevailing Wage Law.  This summer, Governor Blagojevich signed several changes to the Prevailing Wage Act, including tightening enforcement provisions, allowing for better enforcement by requiring posting of rates on job sites, increasing requirements for maintenance of records, and consequences when a contractor or subcontractor fails to comply, and establishing bidding requirements for construction projects.