* Didn’t Dan Hynes suggest something like this during the campaign?…
The Quinn administration plans a massive review of more than 250 government contracts made under former Gov. Rod Blagojevich to see if they need to be reduced or rebid.
The plan, which Gov. Quinn will announce Wednesday in his budget address, is to examine all contracts of more than $1 million each issued before January 2009.
This includes a variety of goods and services purchased by the state, from health care for state employees to food for prisoners, according to David Vaught, budget director for the governor’s Office of Management and Budget.
This should’ve been done right after Quinn took office last year. Better late than never, I suppose.
* Quinn will need to do a lot more than that to justify some of his proposed budget cuts, including a $32 million reduction to the Illinois State Police. Plus…
Gov. Pat Quinn’s plan to fill the biggest deficit in Illinois history includes cuts so severe that 17,000 teachers could lose their jobs, thousands of poor families would get less help with child care and fewer state troopers would patrol the roads, a top Quinn aide said Saturday. […]
General education spending would fall by about $1.4 billion, he said, an 11 percent decrease. The “foundation level” of state support for each child would fall from $6,119 now to about $5,600 next year. […]
Quinn also will propose $150 million in cuts to human services, Vaught said. That means, among other things, less money for local organizations that provide child-care services for the working poor.
Vaught estimated 6,000 children would be affected by the reduced hours and tighter eligibility standards likely to result from the cutbacks. Many of their parents would suffer an economic blow, he said.
“If you take away their child care, you’re also taking away their job because they can’t work,” Vaught said.
Vaught claims that state employee headcount fell by 1,000 last year alone, which is something the governor is sure to highlight in his budget address on Wednesday. Quinn will also outline cuts in aid to local governments…
David Vaught, Quinn’s budget director, said [Friday] that municipalities across Illinois must “share the pain” by giving up a portion of income tax revenues the state typically shares. Instead of getting 10 percent, which amounts to about $1 billion a year, municipalities would receive 7 percent under Quinn’s plan. That’s about a $300 million cut.
And the governor will propose slicing the state’s pension payment by $300 million…
Vaught also said the Quinn administration does not plan to make the full $4.1 billion employee pension payment this year because the governor is confident proposed reforms will pass the General Assembly that will ultimately save the state money. Instead, the state will pay $3.8 billion, $300 million less than required.
According to the AP, Quinn will propose borrowing billions to pay off overdue bills. The cuts and borrowing will still leave a $5 billion hole to fill with a tax hike.
* Keep in mind that it’ll be tough for Sen. Bill Brady to respond to the magnitude of these cuts because he has already proposed a ten percent across the board reduction to everything - including federal funds. That 10 percent cut has already been criticized by his GOP running mate, and now at least one House Republican candidate backed by GOP leadership has come out in opposition…
[101st Illinois House District candidate Adam Brown] said he disagrees with the spending plan proposed by state Sen. Bill Brady of Bloomington, the presumptive Republican candidate for governor. Brady proposes a 10 percent across-the-board cut to all state agencies.
“I don’t think 10 percent across the board is going to be effective,” Brown said. “I think we’ve got to look through the budget line item by line item and determine where our priorities are.”
* Related…
* State Senator Jones Advice to Schools: Plan to Cut Teachers
* No easy solutions expected in budget address
* Geneva officials explain proposed cuts
* Painful school cuts loom for districts
* CPS students plan protests against sports cuts
* Local counties feel state budget’s crunch: The state owes Union County about $300,000 and another $70,000 of back pay for money the county has paid the state attorney’s office….Franklin County is owed nearly $640,000 with the salary reimbursement at the center totaling almost $500,000.
* Illinois budget woes leaves circuit clerks with zero stipend
* Possible tax hike doesn’t worry product expo vendors
* News-Sun: Spending, taxing choices
* H-R: Blazing a trail to solvency
* New questions on state nursing home deal
* Blame state lawmakers for pension debacle, critic says
* Pension shortfall near $6,000 for every Chicago resident
* Safety is issue as state budget cuts free prisoners
LIVE session coverage...
- Corduroy Bob - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 9:37 am:
Yes, that is what Hynes proposed. And also, remember that crazy Hynes idea for a progressive income tax that Quinn said would take too long to implement? Well, if the leaders get the 6-month budget they want, it looks like any revenue plan Quinn has will take just as long to put in place.
- Cal Skinner - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 9:46 am:
What if teachers took the 19 furlough days being taken by Dept of Aging employees? Start with the days they don’t teach (like Institute Days) and the wasted last day of school when kids attend locally 2 hours just to get their report cards.
How much would be saved by replacing the teachers with substitutes for that close to 10% of the days teachers are at school?
Quinn proposes reducing the foundation level by 8.4%. Most of school costs go to salaries.
Of course, this line of thinking would have administrators do the same.
- Montrose - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 9:51 am:
++Yes, that is what Hynes proposed. And also, remember that crazy Hynes idea for a progressive income tax that Quinn said would take too long to implement? Well, if the leaders get the 6-month budget they want, it looks like any revenue plan Quinn has will take just as long to put in place._++Yes, that is what Hynes proposed. And also, remember that crazy Hynes idea for a progressive income tax that Quinn said would take too long to implement? Well, if the leaders get the 6-month budget they want, it looks like any revenue plan Quinn has will take just as long to put in place.++
I am all for a progressive income tax, but there are a lot more hurdles to getting it in place than your post implies. The legislature needs to approve the constitutional amendment needed via a super majority and the public needs to approve via ballot in November.
If both of those massive barriers were overcome, then yes, it could be part of the conversation after the election.
- Retired Myself - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 9:52 am:
20 years ago ISP had 2300 sworn officers , today it is close to 1800 and if 500 more go it will be 1300, big changes will then have to be made, troopers only on interstates, no investigations, county will have to handle all else, but most do now anyway, how about $25 of every moving violation ticket charged if you are given a ticket for the moving violation , don’t like it then drive within the traffic laws we now have and you have nothing to worry about, and if you have an accident then you or your insurance company gets charged a service fee for police response, many fire depts charge now for their response to accidents.
- George - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 9:56 am:
They should just eliminate the corruption tax. Then they wouldn’t have to make all these cuts.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 10:02 am:
George, was that snark?
- George - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 10:09 am:
NoooOOOOoooooo
- wordslinger - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 10:13 am:
Now we’re talking cuts that get people’s attention at the PTO and school board level. No stimulus money to patch things over this time.
- Montrose - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 10:18 am:
I have to say, I think having the preliminary budget online and generating lots of media about the proposed cuts, including education, has done as good of job as anything for laying the ground work for the call for new revenue in his budget address.
The cuts have had the spotlight, which is something they were sorely missing during last year’s budget mess.
- Chicago Cynic - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 10:21 am:
Nobody is going to out-corruption tax me, but after we cut that billion or so, what are we going to do for the other 12?
26
22
13
Those are the most important numbers in the budget debate. Everything else is secondary.
- George - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 10:39 am:
Chicago Cynic - the real answers lie with these numbers:
4 8 15 16 23 42
- Team Sleep - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 10:45 am:
Although the standard GOP line is to iterate that we have a spending problem and that we need to make necessary cuts, I expect to see a lot more candidates echo Adam Brown’s concerns. In a district such as Decatur, any state rep or senate candidates have to square away the independent AND Democrat votes in hopes of winning. Advocating massive cuts (such as 10% across the board) won’t play well in the 101st House District.
- Chicago Cynic - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 10:46 am:
Sorry George, I don’t think winning the lotto is going to help, even if we take the lump sum.
And for those that didn’t understand my numbers:
$26 billion discretionary spending
$22 billion of that is in education and health care
$13 is the size of the deficit.
- George - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 11:01 am:
And for those who didn’t understand my numbers:
4 - Locke
8 - Reyes
15 - Ford
16 - Jarrah
23 - Shephard
42 - Kwon
- siriusly - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 11:04 am:
George was making a reference to a television program, for those who don’t watch.
- Chicago Cynic - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 11:21 am:
Thanks Siriusly. I still don’t have a clue what he means. Apparently I’m culturally illiterate.
- PalosParkBob - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 11:27 am:
It’s pretty cowardly for Quinn to propose cuts to OTHER organizations without giving them the power to adjust to his cuts.
Since the vast majority of non-state expense is for salaries and benefits, he needs to give locals the power, and responsiblity, to say NO to union and other staff increases they can’t afford.
Better to give them the means to freeze ALL increases than to thow public workers on the street and cut services.
He also needs to relieve the locals of all unfunded mandates possible, such as the heinous prevailing wage mandates that add tremendous cost without adding value.
He also needs to get serious about cutting back on unnecessary Medicaid eligibility for those with incomes exceeding the poverty level. As a minimum, he has to scale it back to 2006 levels to keep the stimulus funding.
He needs to end those end of career “sweeteners” that unfairly increase new pensions by 20-25%, and end double and triple dipping allowing public employees to receive government pensions while getting another government paycheck in Illinois without pension reduction.
Of course, he should have done these things a year ago. If he had,our deficits would be considerably less.
- Mark Buerhle - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 12:37 pm:
Seems to me this is a much more effective rollout than last year’s. Last year, the tax hike leaked two days before the speech and all anyone was talking about was a 50% take hike. They owned the news cycle this year by demonstrating pain instead of “raise the rate to keep the status quo.”
- vole - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 12:51 pm:
“The cuts and borrowing will still leave a $5 billion hole to fill with a tax hike.”
Can I ask, does borrowing really fill any part of a hole or does it just deepen the hole? We have seen this budget shell game for years. The deeper hole just shows up in the next fiscal year budget. And in the mean time, rackets makes profits on our budgetary malfeasance.
I guess the take home point in all this is that if and when the tax raises do come, they will be too little and too late to ward off a tremendous amount of hurt to individuals, families and communities. Nice job IL! Some foresight might have greatly reduced this pain with some action during a past time of relatively greater prosperity. So, whose voices were advocating a way out of the mess before the mess became so critical? Be interesting to take a step back now and review those messages. Also be interesting to review which actions and votes led to this dire situation — long and multiple bipartisan tails.
- Will County Woman - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 12:52 pm:
Many munis have done what the state has not done under quinn: cut significantly. I don’t think it fair of quinn and vaught to hold munis to a higher standard than they hold their own administration. quinn touts 1000 state employee headcount cut, but how many did he hire fy10-fy11? he’s hardly saved the state or taxpayers any money with patronge hiring spree. MGT Push and the other non-secret early release prison program were supposed to save taxpayers and the state money, but didn’t because the state had to expend time and resources to round the early -released up and re-incarcerate them.
As hynes pointed out under the quinn administration the overall budget deficit increased by $3 or $4 billion, as no savings were realized. that major point alone shoots quinn’s credibility as a fiscal steward in the foot, and further highlights how he is not good as a governor.
Hynes called for spending at the 2005 or 2001 levels, I believe. the calls by the civic federation etc to go back to 2007 levels strikes me as misguided under the circumstances.
no surprise that the quinn administration is stealing hynes’ ideas, hynes was the better candidate on the dem primary side. quinn knew that, but of course couldn’t (bring himself to) admit that.
- Loop Lady - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 1:22 pm:
Welcome to another week of woulda shouda coulda sponsored by WCW…served with a large dose of finger wagging…move on already woman!!…
- cassandra - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 1:25 pm:
Not only has Quinn hired a sizeable number of his own patronage employees, but he kept on all of the Blagojevich hacks, even the ones that worked at will. I guess in Illinois each political boss gets to build up his own patronage farm, added on to the patronage farm(s) of the preceding boss. Especially if the previous boss is from the same party as the new boss. And given the size of state salaries and benefits these days, those farms are pretty expensive.
And we get to pay for it all….and according to the Dems, we shouldn’t be complaining.
- lake county democrat - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 1:33 pm:
Half of President Obama’s legislative agenda is a change from his primary position to what Hillary Clinton proposed. And I say “so what?” - as you write, better late than never.
- Small Town Liberal - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 1:41 pm:
- Many munis have done what the state has not done under quinn: cut significantly -
You’re an expert on municipalities now? Maybe a couple you know about cut, but I’m guessing there are plenty that haven’t. Not to mention, if you could read perhaps, its looking like Quinn is proposing many, many cuts. So please spare us your uninformed whinefest that has become your standard mode of communication on this blog.
- PalosParkBob - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 1:59 pm:
There are actually two problems that need to be addressed; the long term and short term issues.
The long term issues need to be dealt with with structural reform of the institutions that got us into this mess, the structure that led to increases in state and state subsidized salaries, benefits, unnecessary entitlements, and pensions far exceeding the public interest and ability to pay even with revenues increasing at a rate exceeding inflation.
For example, someone has to be held accountable for CTA pay being the highest in the nation adjusted for local cost of living.
Gee, ya think that this may have contributed to the current CTA meltdown? If that’s the primary root cause, the long term solution is to prevent the CTA from giving raises exceeding natural revenue growth.
I hate to say this, but we may need an income bond repayment tax to get current on bills and fill what should be a temporary decline in revenues.
This is only acceptable provided the long term unsustainble structural spending deficits are addressed.
No long term solution, no taxpayer bailout of the crooked incompetents who sold us out to the patronage interests and got us here in the first place!
- Loop Lady - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 2:20 pm:
Cassandra: Even if what you say is true, (and it’s not) IL’s number of State employees is at historic lows…Quinn does his governing with as little padding as humanly possible…patronage hiring is a political fact of life, and every Governor is entitled to their fair share of patronage hires…additionally, just because Blago hired a patronage employee doesn’t automatically make them a hack, or no show…
as I have stated before on this blog. if every state employee was fired, IL would still own a massive deficit…Methinks that you and WCW think that if you say the same nonsensical things over and over again, you will convert others to your irrational thinking/conclusions…it aint gonna work to please cease and desist…that is all…
- Will County Woman - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 2:29 pm:
To LL & STL:
you both have reminded me….that if we factor in the interest on ALL of the borrowing that the Quinn administration has done so far, we’re probably talking $10’s of billions, if not more, in deficit spending in Quinn’s one year alone in office. SHAMEFUL!
They (the Quinn administration) have the unmitiagted gall to contiue pushing for more borrowing in fy11? What part of “no more” don’t they understand?!?!?!?!!!
- Small Town Liberal - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 2:39 pm:
WCW - Do you realize that the using more capital letters and more exclamation points does not make your ranting any less insane?
- Rich Miller - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 2:45 pm:
===if we factor in the interest on ALL of the borrowing that the Quinn administration has done so far, we’re probably talking $10’s of billions, if not more, in deficit spending in Quinn’s one year alone in office.===
Are you nuts?
- Will County Woman - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 2:58 pm:
real quick:
according to quinn the tax increase is the be-all and end-all solution.
that the quinn administration is even talking about/considering borrowing let’s me know that they aren’t serious about fixing Illinois’ budget problems.
rich, i don’t think quinn is being held to account on the fiscal issues that happened under his watch. the proposed $2billion in cuts gets us back to roughly where we started when he took over the governor’s office.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 3:03 pm:
===that the quinn administration is even talking about/considering borrowing let’s me know that they aren’t serious about fixing Illinois’ budget problems.===
Every reasonable person who has looked at this problem has concluded that borrowing has to be a component. There’s simply no way to cut and tax your way totally out of this hole.
- Scooby - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 3:09 pm:
Quinn is the only one who has a plan that doesn’t rely on Magic Beans, it just hurts like ****. It’s too bad the GA won’t give his plan the time of day, because at least he’s being responsible.
And George, you’re killing it today. Well played.
- Arthur Andersen - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 3:17 pm:
AA thinks WCW used to figure the “efficiency savings” for the Blagoofers.
- PalosParkBob - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 3:38 pm:
Loop Lady, don’t fooled by the difference between direct and indirect employees of the state.
It’s true that direct employment is at, or close to, an all time low.
I suspect that a lot of the services that were at one time done in house were outsourced, just as is the case in Chicago.
For example, at one time not too long ago the Chicago Public schools did all their school design with direct CPS Architects and Engineers.
They fired just about all of them, then many were rehired by consulting firms which had them perform the same services they previously provided.
Technically, CPS had “cut” employment, but indirectly they were really on the same payroll, but now the politically connected firm owners were able to mark up their labor costs (and profits) and make the big contributions to the party from providing the service.
This solved quite a few sticky “Shakman” problems.
No longer did pols have to bully city employees to buy those 10-20 $100 fundraiser tickets.
Now they just get a big check from the business owner who gets plenty of profits from bid and sole sourced work from the city and state.
I’ve been looking for good data on how much of the state “downsizing” was actually just shifting to indirect employment, after paying hefty severance or early retirement fees to the employees, of course.
Have you found anything on this, Rich?
It’s probably not something the state would want out on the street given their “lowest employment” gambit.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 3:45 pm:
There is no early retirement program at the moment. And there is no severance system.
- Loop Lady - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 4:16 pm:
And please remember that most of Quinn’s staff came from his LG staff…also there is no LG and therefore no staff as a consequence…many agency directors/staff under Quinn came from exisiting staff, or were hired less competitive salaries than their predecessors under Blago…some vacancies that were created are yet to be filled…many current employees such as myself are doing aspects of jobs that were previously done by a former full time employee…
- Will County Woman - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 4:25 pm:
The MAP Grant needs to be eliminated, for the time-being. I though Quinn understood at least that much when he was forced into having to hustle to make good on the 2009-2010 schol year MAP Grant obligations. But, I guess he doesn’t get it.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/2089498,CST-NWS-aid08.article
- Small Town Liberal - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 4:27 pm:
WCW - When you get called out for saying something insane does your brain just block that out and move on to a new talking point?
- Will County Woman - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 4:55 pm:
*roll eyes*
only under the quinn administration could foolishness like this happen! the fact that the current head of any state agency could think this a wise move proves all of my points about/against the quinn adminitration. when it wasn’t enough to appoint some political hack to a s. african trade do-nothing post last year (post the fy10 budget wranglings) with a six-figure salary and generous living expenses wasting taxpayer money, now we have this…
http://www.sj-r.com/breaking/x2102346663/State-department-of-aging-to-move-from-rent-free-spot-to-500K-location
and don’t tell me about quinn/stermer had no knowledge of this bone-headed decision.
- George - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 5:04 pm:
The answer, Small Town Liberal, appears to be yes.
- Will County Woman - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 6:33 pm:
hmmm… the illinois power agency… i can see reasons for keeping Pruitt and reasons for not keeping him. if he’s managed w/o a staff he can continue to do so. he definitely should not be allowed to hire! if he and his office are vital to state operations, maybe his office should be merged with some other so that he and that other office can share staff and resources?
http://www.pantagraph.com/news/state-and-regional/illinois/article_c472429e-2af0-11df-ace6-001cc4c002e0.html
- wordslinger - Monday, Mar 8, 10 @ 6:45 pm:
In these unususal times, if we can find someone to lend us a legal buck, we should take it.
We’re a going concern. We’ll have some ups and downs. I doubt there’s that much capital out there to borrow.