In May 1989, an amendment allowing $500,000 for an NIU campus in Rockford was added to a 1990 budget bill by Sen. Joyce Holmberg, D-Rockford, which the Illinois Senate passed. The House recommended the money for the campus in June 1989.

In July 1989, the money for the Rockford campus was cut when Gov. James Thompson reduced the state budget to $45.3 million, one reason being the governor wanted the Illinois Board of Higher Education to review the Rockford plans.

The Senate and House debated through October and November and overrode Thompson’s veto. Thompson agreed in March 1990 to release the money, only after the IBHE reviews the plans for the NIU Rockford-branch campus.

In May 1990, Sen. Holmberg and State Representatives John Hallock, R-Rockford, and E.J. “Zeke” Giorgi, D-Rockford, presented an amendment to save the $500,000 budget from being lost in the bureaucratic shuffle.

In June 1990, NIU President John La Tourette answered and returned a 44-page questionnaire which he thought was too extensive for the current stage of the Rockford plans. The questionnaire was compiled by the IBHE, which will review the answers later this week or next week.

If the money is not spent by the end of the 1990 fiscal year, June 30, the funds will have to be reappropriated on the FY91 budget and stalled for another year.