SPRINGFIELD — Two more issues generally of interest to Downstate legislators and constituents fell short in roll call votes in the Legislature Thursday.

On Wednesday, it was the effort to override Gov. Pat Quinn's veto of legislation that would have extended Urbana-based Health Alliance's state health insurance contract for two years that fell short.

On Thursday, a measure to pay the state's 44 regional superintendents of education with proceeds from the personal property replacement tax fell short of passage, as did a controversial plan to finance the long-debated Tenaska clean coal power plant in Taylorville.

The proposal to pay the regional superintendents — many of whom have worked without pay since July 1 — received just 59 of 71 required votes. The bill's sponsor, Rep. Frank Mautino, D-Spring Valley, put the bill on "postponed consideration," meaning it could be called again in November.

Many of the regional superintendents, including Jane Quinlan of the Champaign-Ford region, were in the House gallery for the vote.

Among area lawmakers, Reps. Naomi Jakobsson, D-Urbana; Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, Chad Hays, R-Catlin; and Roger Eddy, R-Hutsonville, voted for the plan (HB 3828) that would have taken about $12 million from the $1.2 billion replacement tax fund to pay the superintendents.

But a number of legislators, including state Rep. Jason Barickman, R-Champaign, voted against the measure because they were opposed to further disbursements from the fund that helps finance more than 6,000 local taxing districts in Illinois.

"I'm certainly supportive of those who are serving in the offices and the functions they are performing," Barickman said, "but as you interact with mayors and members of county boards they tell me over and over that they are extremely frustrated with Springfield costing them more money at the local level. This was just another example where I wasn't comfortable shifting that cost to them."

Barickman said he hoped for a compromise on the issue before the Legislature returns to Springfield on Nov. 8.

"There's been discussion of some amendments that would make it more appealing," he said.

One idea, he said, would be to pay the superintendents out of the fund this year but not on a permanent basis.

"I'm very concerned that this just opens to the door to more shifting to our local governments," he said.

Rep. David Harris, R-Arlington Heights, also called the maneuver "a bad trend and we should not turn to this fund whenever we need some dollars for some sort of a contingency." But he said he supported the bill.

Other lawmakers said they preferred to override Gov. Quinn's veto of the bill and to continue to pay the regional superintendents out of general revenues.

But Eddy, who is superintendent of the Hutsonville school district, said there was no other option.

"This is not the best way to solve this problem, ladies and gentlemen. The best way is an override of the veto," he said. "But today it's the only option that we have. And I will stand here and say, shame on you, governor, for putting these people in this situation. Shame on you for putting families and children in the way of your public policy."

On the Tenaska bill, the Senate came five votes short of approving legislation (SB 678) that would have required Illinois utilities to buy power from the plant for the next 30 years. Among area senators, Champaign Democrat Mike Frerichs voted yes, while Republicans Shane Cultra of Onarga, Bill Brady of Bloomington and Dale Righter of Mattoon voted no.

Righter said Illinois' comparatively low electric rates are one of the few attractions the state has to offer business.

"This bill by itself isn't going to drive up rates astronomically," he said, "but this is going to incrementally raise those rates. But the bigger danger is that we are going to start going down the road where, before, we said, 'we're going to stay out of this, we're going to let these people compete.' But now we're going to start picking winners and losers."

He called the Tenaska proposal "a huge leap away from a system that attracts investment to Illinois."