SPRINGFIELD – In a closed-door meeting with Illinois Senate Democrats, Gov. Pat Quinn Wednesday took questions about state budget cuts and the way some of them have been managed.

"We've just got a lump sum of money and we've got to allocate that to the needs of the people," Quinn said after the hourlong session in the office of Senate President John Cullerton. "What we did last week (after first announcing major cuts to substance abuse agencies) is we were able to rebalance."

Some Democratic senators were miffed about the way the substance abuse program cuts were handled by the administration. Some agencies, after being informed of the cuts, immediately closed programs and laid off employees, only to reverse themselves four days later when about half of the cuts were rescinded. The administration still hasn't revealed the exact size of the mid-year cuts.

"I told everybody that it'll probably be a weekly exercise as we go through the rest of this fiscal year, to make sure that we have adequate investment in everything that's important," the governor said. "Though there will be economies. That's just the way it is. When you have less money to spend you can't just spend like you did in the past."

Quinn also defended his new effort to consolidate school districts.

"It's just do we need so much of a layer of administration?" Quinn said. "I think I saw somewhere where there are 270-some school superintendents who make more money than the governor. I'm not so sure we need so many of them. Some of these school superintendents are supervising one school."

He said he has assigned Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon to work on the consolidation issue.

"She's from downstate Illinois and is sensitive to the importance of maintaining our schools, but not necessarily having more school districts than you can shake a stick at," Quinn said. "Sometimes you have a grade school district and a high school district in the same place. And all these buildings and all these administrators and all these people who work for the administrators. We don't need as many folks at the top level. We need folks on the front line."

Regarding the bill sitting on his desk that would abolish the death penalty, Quinn said he was close to a decision.

"I've heard from many, many people of good faith and good conscience on both sides of the issue," the governor said. "I'm trying to be very meticulous in writing down notes and studying those notes. People have sent books and e-mails. They've really spoken from the heart."