As budget deadline looms, Illinois lawmakers push bill aimed at carnival workers

Springfield is struggling to juggle its priorities, with state lawmakers pressing up against time to pass a budget for the coming fiscal year.

While budget negotiations in Springfield have been likened to a circus, lawmakers are casting a critical eye toward carnival operators.

With less than two weeks left to send a budget to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s desk for fiscal year 2019, lawmakers in the Illinois House of Representatives voted May 21 to pass Senate Bill 3240, a bill aimed at enhancing oversight of carnival workers’ criminal records.

In contrast to budget proposals in Springfield, obstructed by sharp discord and yearslong standoffs, SB 3240 enjoyed overwhelming support in the General Assembly, sailing unanimously through both chambers, just three months after having been filed Feb. 16 by state Sen. Scott Bennett, D-Champaign. The bill has not yet been sent to the governor’s desk.

The bill would increase fines for amusement companies for failing to check the criminal history of new hires. The maximum fine for first-time offenses would spike to $5,000 from $1,000, while the maximum fine incurred for a second strike would rise to $10,000 from $5,000. The third offense would result in the state stripping one’s permit for operating carnivals, street fairs and the like.

These changes might be well intentioned. But some may question lawmakers’ priorities in a state facing enormous fiscal and economic challenges, not to mention a looming budget deadline.

With the General Assembly failing to pass a balanced budget each year since 2001, Illinois’ broken budgeting process can feel like a carnival game. This year, Senate President John Cullerton has argued that the state doesn’t even need to agree on how much money it will bring in before deciding how much to spend. And accounting gimmicks continue to hide the true size of Illinois’ budget deficits.

Unfortunately, lawmakers risk spending the session’s remaining days as carelessly as they’ve proceeded to spend taxpayer funds. State spending grew 25 percent faster than taxpayer incomes from 2005-2015, in per capita terms. This is why lawmakers from both parties have proposed a smart spending cap that anchors the rate of spending growth to the rate of Illinois’ economic growth. Lawmakers would be wise to voluntarily exercise this basic principle while drafting a budget.

Illinoisans deserve a truly balanced budget – one that reins in the growth of state spending and calms residents’ fears of future tax hikes. Instead, lawmakers risk squandering scarce time on gimmicks and sideshows.