St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 3

NOV 20 1980 iUi 5 illinoisthursday Nov. 20, 1980 3A ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH Warns Of Potential State Fiscal Crisis son fhomp rjvn -Hp IP 1 jll tf 1 if -M-iin rm Iiii'fi I Pfk. -mm I -it's: "JZtiZZJz LXXt Tltf A i SPRINGFIELD, 111. (UPI) Gov.

James R. Thompson says the recession is pinching the state's pocketbook and any extra spending through legislative overrides of his budget vetoes may rtjean higher taxes or bankruptcy. In an unusual joint session speech just before lawmakers were scheduled to seriously start considering veto overrides, Thompson told legislators Wednesday that the state is not in a fiscal crisis yet but could be with continued spending. Despite Illinois' problems, he said the state is in a better economic pbsitioh than many of its neighbors, including Missouri, Minnesota, Kentucky, Iowa, Indiana and Michigan, where major budget cuts have been i "We are today hi the relatively calm eye of a fiscal storm that is sweeping over state goverments throughout the nation." he told lawmakers. "We are meeting today not in a crisis, but at a crossroads." The Republican governor warned that a wholesale override of his spending vetoes would add $425 million to the budget this year and next year arid would mean major trouble.

"In new math or old math, it spells bankruptcy or higher taxes. And there are no alternatives," he said. Legislative leaders said they generally agreed with Thompson's warnings, saying unchecked spending would eat the state's surplus or lead to tax increases. But Rep. Woods Bowman, D-Chicago, blamed Thompson for the drop in the state's treasury surplus, saying the governor's own budget director pleaded with lawmakers to add money to the budget in certain areas earlier this year.

In what might be a preview of the coming fiscal 1982 budget, Thompson also announced that his budget experts are predicting that only about $400 million will be available for new spending then. He said he hopes that igure will climb by early next year. The state in this fiscal year had some $848 million available for new spending, he said. Police Bear CHICAGO (AP) Beginning this week, policemen in Illinois began carrying a small card that could have a big Impact on victims of violent crimes. The cards advise the victims of crimes that they may be entitled to as much as $15,000 in compensation under the Illinois Crime Victims Compensation Program.

The cards Later, in his office, Thompson said that in percentage terms, this year's increase was about 11 percent compared with an expected 5 percent increase for next year. He also said there "is going to be a lot of blood" spilled in next year's budget process if revenue projections don't pick up, with lawmakers and special interests groups fighting to get their share of the budget pie. Thompson laid most of the economic blame at the feet of the national economy, citing a longer-than-expected recession, the cutoff of $113 million in federal revenue sharing and high tax relief costs. In the latter category, his budget experts said last week they underestimated the cost of one business machinery tax relief program by $53 million for the current fiscal year. "The chill winds of recession are still blowing cold over our state's economy," he said.

"And Washington has indeed made good on its threats to exact painful cuts in the federal funds that underwrite fully one-fourth of our budget. And we can expect still more cuts in the months to come." He said his budget director's quarterly report has confirmed that recession, inflation and tax relief measures have combined to push general revenue fund spending to as much as $116 million more than current fiscal year income. Asked later if a third cent could be taken off the state sales tax on food and medicine next year in light of the "grim" fiscal state of affairs, the governor said he hopes so. It would cost about $40 million for fiscal 1982, he said, and he won't know until next year whether the state will be able to afford it. Thompson's speech also reviewed many of the same belt-tightening steps he outlined last week in a news conference.

In addition to asking lawmakers to hold the line on spending, he told them of his latest 60-day hiring freeze and orders to his agency directors to set aside 2 percent of their fiscal year spending and hold down their budgets for next year. Cards With have been sent to the 25,801 law enforcement officers in the state, said Patricia Goldman, director of the program. "Most people don't know about this program," Ms. Goldman said. "But if you're unfortunate enough to be a crime victim, there is help." A person must be the victim of with lenders for the municipal building funds.

He said amending the previous authorization was quicker than arranging an alternative kind of loan. "We had the vehicle and we used it," he said. "We need the money now." The $300,000 is nearly equal to the city's biweekly payroll for municipal ii i Mmmr "in hi, iimiiwMUl Gov James Thompson being applauded by House and Senate leaders after speaking to a joint session of the Illinois General a i ciiQM w.HnocHou Waitinn tn ThomDson's Senate president Philip Rock, House Speaker William A. Redmond, Senate Republican Leader David C. Shapiro, and House Republican Leader George H.

Ryan. The unusual session was held on the ttodcniuiy hi dmyiiciw hand is Lt. Gov. Dave Neal. benma tne governor urom itmj are inianai uanMcumyua Crime-Victim Message Most U.S.

Heat-Wave Aid Unused In Southern Illinois St. Louis Will Borrow To only about a third of its $159,550 allocation from the federal emergency Heat Assistance Program, the reports show. The Shawnee Development Council spent only about a quarter of its allocation, and the Western Egyptian Economic Opportunity Council spent about half of its total allocation for three counties, said the reports. The complaints are the same at every agency. "The heat wave had already broken by the time we got our money," explained Rob Schroeder, Western Egyptian energy coordinator.

"The program is really penalizing people who paid their electric bills and did without some other things," Mrs. Ferguson said. Mrs. Ferguson's complaints to U.S. Rep.

Paul Simon, D-Carbondale, about the limitations of the heat assistance program are being studied, Simon's press secretary said. Steve Tackette-Hull said that Simon agreed that such assistance should be directed toward other expenses besides utility bills. By the Associated Press Only a fraction of the federal dollars distributed to Southern Illinois to provide low-income households aid for utility costs during the long, hot summer actually was spent, according to reports under preparation at several area community action agencies. Several of the agencies said they didn't receive authorization to spend any money until late August or early September, and the money didn't arrive until four to five weeks later. By then, agency spokesmen said, several people who might have been eligible for assistance already had paid their utility bills the only expense eligible for assistance and had gone without other items such as food or medication.

The federal government "advertises that all this aid is going to be available, and then it limits our ways of helping people," said Eleanor Ferguson, director of Volunteer Services which serves Williamson, Franklin and Jefferson counties. Volunteer Services has spent Police Find Suspect Faces Other Charges East St. Louis will borrow $300,000 using its uncompleted municipal building as collateral to meet an anticipated deficit in the current fiscal year. The City Council Wednesday approved the borrowing arrangement. It took the form of an amendment to a previous authorization for city officials to borrow $500,000 to landscape and furnish the $4.7 million building.

'A group of out-of-town lenders will provide the entire $800,000, all of it secured by the building, said Samuel Ross, city corporate counsel. tThe structure, begun in 1977 with Jederal anti-recession funds, is as yet unoccupied, and cannot be until the $500,000 is expended, city officials say. They said that inflation and cost over-xuns account for the $500,000 shortage. Ross said that the city discovered the anticipated deficit while negotiating Life For Arkansas Killing 3.77 59 Uncertainty Uor State Legislators violent crime or the relative of a slain victim in order to qualify for the program. In addition, Ms.

Goldman said, the crime must be reported within 72 hours after it occurred and the victim must cooperate with authorities. "People are often reluctant to testify, and we want to make sure the victims testify," she added. Meet Deficit employees. Ross said it is the only such borrowing that will be necessary. The city's fiscal year is the same as the calendar year.

Ross said that the lenders who have already agreed to the $800,000 loan are "not local," but said he was not free to identify them. Highway 51 south of Du Quoin on Wednesday on suspicion of taking money from coin machines a short time before in an Elkville laundry. A police spokesman said a computer check found that Smithey was wanted in Marshal County, for robbery and in Ogle County for armed robbery and home invasion. Bond had been set in Ogle County for $2 million. A gun was found in the suspects' car.

Gasification Plant Funds Approved A House-Senate conference committee has approved an appropriation of about $50 million to finance design and initial construction of a coal gasification plant near Pinckneyville, 111., says a spokesman for Rep. Paul Simon, D-IU. The funds were approved late Wednesday, along with funds for a similar project in Noble County, Ohio. Last month, the Senate voted to approve funds for only one of the two plants, but the House had approved funds earlier to continue engineering for both plants. Simon's office said that the amount specified for each plant was not immediately available, but that the range is from $42 million to $55 million.

The two plants have been in competition for 50 percent federal financing for construction and operation costs estimated at $450 million. But in March, Energy Secretary Charles W. Duncan told a gathering of industry leaders in Carbondale, that both designs looked so good that eventual financing for both was likely. The Pinckneyville project is being designed by a consortium of five Illinois utilities called the Illinois Coal Gasification Group. It would convert 2,200 tons of coal a day into enough pipeline-quality gas to heat 400,000 homes.

The consortium has done $43 million in preliminary engineering work. This year, the maximum compensation a victim may receive was increased to $15,000 from $10,000. The compensation has a $200 deductible clause, covers medical expenses, lost earnings, funeral and burial costs and support to dependants of deceased victims. Since the program was started in 1973, it has awarded nearly $8 million to crime victims, Ms. Goldman said, adding that 2,168 people received compensation during the last fiscal year.

The awards are made by the state Court of Claims based on investigative reports by the program's staff. Ms. Goldman estimated that her office would award $2 million in fiscal year 1980. Ms. Goldman said the crime-victims program has several limitations.

She said there is no compensation for "pain and suffering" as there is in suits. Hit-and-run victims are not eligible because the injury resulted from what is deemed to be an accident and the program does not cover accidents, Ms. Goldman said. She said her office attempts to give special help to senior citizens because "it seems that the older the victim, the more brutal the assault." Ms. Goldman said that with police officers carrying the new cards, every crime victim should know his rights under the program.

"And there's no way you can miss finding out," she said. Youth Gets LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (UPI) -Sixteen-year-old Edward Eugene Little of Springfield, 111., was sentenced Wednesday night to life in prison without parole for the capital murder of a police detective in May. The jury deliberated for five hours Wednesday before returning the verdict. Little, stoic throughout his three-day trial, showed no emotion when Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Lowber Hendricks read the sentence.

The jury Tuesday convicted Little of fatally shooting Little Rock Detective Noel Don McGuire, 23. Little also was sentenced to 50 years for aggravated robbery and 20 years for first-degree battery. He had faced the possibility of death by electrocution. Dixon Names 2 SPRINGFIELD, 111. (UPI) -Secretary of State Alan J.

Dixon, who will start his term as U.S. senator in January, has appointed Assistant Secretary of State Eugene Callahan of Springfield to direct Dixon's Washington office. Dixon also Wednesday named his campaign press secretary Wade Work To Begin Soon The Illinois Department of Transpor tation expects to hire soon a firm to begin engineering work on a new four-lane Clark Bridge that would replace the existing narrow two-lane bridge that carries U.S. Highway 67 traffic over the Mississippi River between downtown Alton and St. Charles County.

The department has sent this word to the East-West Gateway Coordinating Council. Gateway's executive advisory committee r. ommended Monday that DU QUOIN, III. (UPI) A routine computer check by Illinois State Police has revealed that one of three suspects arrested in the robbery of a self-service laundry in Elkville already is facing robbery charges in Ogle County, where bond had been set at $2 million. Warrants were being sought here today against the three suspects, Leonard Spears, 43, Peoria, his 21-year-old wife, Shirley, and Ollie Smithey, 44, Rockford.

They were arrested U.S. whether the General Assembly would be able to finish the job, leaving it to the Illinois Supreme Court. Another problem is that Republicans for the first time since 1974 have captured control of the House, while Democrats kept control of the Senate. With no single party dominating the Legislature, the prospect of reaching a redistricting compromise is even dimmer. Lawmakers are not only eyeing each other warily, some are even talking about moving to different districts to try to help their chances for re-election.

"If the map doesn't favor any particular member's re-election, I am sure many will consider moving to a nearby district that does," said Rep. John W. Hallock, R-Rockford. Those most in danger are the minority party representatives from each district. That's because those members are no longer guaranteed a seat, as they were under the old cumulative voting system of electing state representatives.

That system was eliminated under the cutback. Under cumulative voting, each of the two parties nominated two candidates and the top three vote-getters won seats. "They're scared to death," Rep. Calvin Skinner, R-Crystal Lake said of the minority representatives. "All sorts of people are walking around admitting to being on the endangered species list," he added.

"Some of the Republicans aren't talking to their district mates," he added. Skinner said that he was surprised that lawmakers weren't plotting against the vengeful voters who overwhelmingly approved the cutback proposal. "I'm amazed there's not a strong push for a salary increase," he said. prosecution's star witness, with a state corrections official who gave a graphic description of what happens to a human body during electrocution. They also called Little's foster father, Willis McAlister, to the stand during the penalty hearing.

He told the jury in a choked voice that Little never caused the family any problems but ran away from home early this year and left behind a note that said, "I don't know how to cope with people who care about me." In their closing arguments, defense attorneys urged the jury not to send a 16-year-old youth to his death. But deputy prosecutor Chris Piazza told jurors that only one person could atone for McGuire's killing and he pointed to Little. Senate Office since 1973. He previously served as an aide to Lt. Gov.

Paul Simon, now a U.S. representative, and Govs. Samuel Shapiro and Otto Kerner. Callahan was also a reporter and columnist for the Illinois State Register in Springfield. Callahan is a native of Milford, 111., and a graduate of Illinois College in Jacksonville.

Nelson was a reporter for the Baltimore Sun, U.S. Oil Week in Washington, the Chicago Daily News, the Aurora, 111., Beacon-News and City News Bureau of Chicago before joining Dixon's senate campaign. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri and did graduate work at Northwestern University. Lottery Number The winning number drawn Wednesday in the Illinois Lottery's Daily Game was 237. Little and David Russell Butler, 16, of Bloomin0ton, 111., were charged with robbing a convenience store in Missouri on May 14, wounding its clerk and then killing McGuire with four shots from a .357 Magnum after McGuire stopped them in Arkansas, thinking they were runaways.

The two youths fled to Oklahoma and were arrested hours later near McAlester. Butler is to be tried separately. The jury Wednesday heard Janet Arnold, a convenience store clerk in Missouri, testify that Little and Butler robbed her store and shot her in the stomach just 10 hours before they showed up in Little Rock. Defense attorneys Charles Hicks and Richard O'Brien countered the testimony of Ms. Arnold, the Aides To Posts In Nelson, 33, of River Forest as his Senate press secretary.

Dixon said the two will serve as his transition team in Washington, as permitted under Senate rules. Nelson will start immediately and Callahan on Dec. 1. Dixon will be swom in Jan. 5.

Callahan, 47, has worked for Dixon On Bridge Project the council support the department's plans. The Gateway staff told the committee that the bridge is expected to cost $75 million, with the federal government paying $60 million; Illinois, $10 million; and Missouri $4.5 million. It would be situated somewhere between the existing Alton lock and dam and the new bridge being constructed two miles to the south. The staff said the Illinois department has not estimated when construction would begin. SPRINGFIELD, III.

(AP) Some ire scared to death. Others eye each other warily. There are those who even talk about moving to the other side of -These aren't criminals, just Illinois members after voters approved the legislative cutback 'amendment. There are 177 state representatives, with three elected from each of 59 0istricts. But in the next election there will; be only 118 representatives with one elected from each of 118 districts.

Ifs a case of legislative odd man out- Each district will be split into smaller areas, and lawmakers will face tough head-to-head battles to get elected. Today's friendly district mates Tndst likely will be 1982's opponents and hated foes. The scenario is snarled even further hy task lawmakers face next of trying to draw new legislative and congressional district boundaries for Illinois based on the 1980 $ensus. That's hard enough to do when the involves only interparty squabbles, with each side trying to Jraw; map that will benefit its own Oiembers. But legislative leaders are shudder lit thg thought of trying to draw a map -that will also involve intraparty battles, jrith House members fighting one 'another regardless of party to see I whether the boundaries can be shaped lb fit their own re-election needs.

It's going to be every man for himself when it comes to redistricting, -Says Democratic House Speaker 'William A. Redmond, D-Bensenville, himself a 22-year House veteran. 1- fight and they'll jockey, and they 'll see whether they can carve out the st districts for thijmselves," said RedmonU He added that he doubted 1.