CHICAGO—Gov. James Thompson said Tuesday the education community is responsible for sending its own message of low funding and the need for a tax increase to state legislators.

Thompson, who spoke at a joint meeting of the Illinois State Board of Education and the Illinois Board of Higher Education in Chicago, said, “My fiscal year 1989 budget recommendation will not include an increase in appropriations for education.”

“If Illinois is to continue to make substantial improvements in education, you’re going to have to have more dollars to pay for it from kindergarten through post-graduate school. But you’re not going to get the money without fighting for it,” Thompson said.

“You will have to present those legislators with the difficult choices … and explain in stark and in certain terms what the impact will be in your community of a budget that does not include any additional money for education. They will have to know that if they make that difficult but correct choice of voting for a modest tax increase that the public will support them,” he said.

Thompson said he would recommend $1.3 billion in state revenues for higher education, which is the same amount of funding that was allocated for the FY88 budget.

“Elementary and secondary education is receiving about $2.7 billion in the current fiscal year, and that will be my recommendation for next year. Higher education received nearly $1.3 billion this year, and that will be my recommendation for next year,” Thompson said.

Board of Regents Chancellor Roderick Groves said Thompson’s speech “came as no great surprise. I wish he could have been more optimistic, but he has made a commitment to support higher education … and that’s what we wanted.”

Groves said Thompson’s strategy for FY89 is not to propose a tax increase as he did in FY88. “Last year he tried one strategy, and this year he is going to try another … the important thing is not his strategy, rather it’s his commitment to better funding,” Groves said.

Ted Sanders, state superintendent of education said, “My preference would be to have the governor out in front working for a tax increase, but that didn’t work last year.”

Thompson said, “I said last year that we needed a modest tax hike. … I have not changed my mind, but we still must persuade a majority of the members of the General Assembly.”

Thompson said his recommendations for the education budget was part of a preview of the 1989 state budget he will present to the General Assembly on Feb. 25.

Sen. Patrick Welch, D_Peru, said the fact that 85 percent of the people in Illinois are now employed helped the state collect “a natural tax increase” that could amount to about $400 million.

Thompson said the state anticipates some normal growth from current revenue sources, but the increase will be allocated to fund as many programs as possible. This will maintain a multi-year financial plan to stabilize the state’s imbalance of spending more than it receives, a press release stated.