61 Comments - walker - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 10:28 am: House of cards will fall hard. - Sir Reel - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 10:30 am: $10 billion. That’s federal level money. I can’t wait to see what “solution” our fearless leaders come up with. - Wordslinger - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 10:40 am: Plus, billions for social services and higher ed are still out in the cold. After years of whittling down the deficit under Quinn, this is a definite turnaround. - UIC Guy - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 10:46 am: Well said, Word. As I think I’ve remarked before: Quinn is looking better and better. I had to hold my nose while voting for him ten months ago, but would be enthusiastic about doing so if we were to have a do-over (could we? please?). - Austin Blvd - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 10:46 am: So, Bruce Rauner now has two major victories under his belt. 1) Under his leadership, he successfully convinced the legislature to let the temporary tax increase expire. 2) he successfully fought off legislation gutting his negotiating position with AFSCME. With this track record of leadership, we are all awaiting his strategy to eliminate a $5.3 billion backlog. Everything from unpaid medical bills to state fair vendors. The state anxiously awaits your leadership, Bruce. - Honeybear - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 10:47 am: Castles made of Sand slip into the sea, eventually. - Precinct Captain - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 10:48 am: The Rauner Math - Casual observer - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 10:51 am: Slinger said a few months ago something along the lines of; if the state doesn’t have a budget, it doesn’t have spending authority and therefore shouldn’t have the authority to accept revenue. I would modify that thought to say that without a budget all revenue goes into escrow and it can’t be touched without a complete, balanced budget in place. That is what I call leverage. - Norseman - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 10:53 am: I too give Word a Well said. - Anonymous - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 10:57 am: Only in Illinois. If the average voter would read CapFax, we would have an uproar against all Illinois politicians and rightfully so! - chiagr - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 10:58 am: Can’t wait to see how Rauner fixes this??? There is not very many social programs left for him to cut-maybe time for a new income tax in Illinois??? Maybe one based on earning levels instead of our outdated flat tax!! Now he has to govern!!! - anon - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 10:59 am: $10 billion is federal level money??? Hilarious. Try Trillion and try about 19 trillion bucks!! - Wordslinger - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 11:00 am: CO, well, the judges running the show now have different ideas, lol. It’s still astounding to me that any governor anywhere would willingly abdicate budgetary powers to the judiciary. A governor still has to manage the mess that’s created. - JS Mill - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 11:00 am: A problem long in the making and only getting worse. This will take some…..revenue to fix. - The Dude Abides - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 11:02 am: Word nailed it. We’re 7 months in with the new Governor and no one can dispute that we’re worse off today. With each day that we don’t have a new budget in place, the amount of revenue eventually needed increases. Everyone here, including the Rauner supporters, need to ask themselves if holding the budget hostage over the turnaround agenda, which to a large extent is reducing people’s salaries, worth it. Right now with each passing day we’re incurring more debt and only one man can stop it. - unclesam - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 11:02 am: Rich, I don’t know if he’d want it posted, but Rep. David Harris made a “spot on” speech during Wednesday’s House session pleading for common sense to prevail and for all sides to stop wasting taxpayer time/money and come together to solve the budget. That is what is needed now more than ever…more sensible minds to come together and solve issues. - Casual observer - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 11:03 am: I still agree with your premise, word. If that question had gone before the courts 1st the others wold have been moot. Hence, the leverage. If, if, if only. Sigh. - Reluctant Taxpayer - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 11:09 am: Billions in the hole. As Honeybear mentioned, Madigan’s Sand Castle is slipping away. How many decades have the Chicago Democrats run this state? - Downstate - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 11:09 am: WOW!! Amazing how Bruce Rauner was able to generate a $10 billion deficit in just a few months in office. Clearly he is THE problem! - Ducky LaMoore - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 11:11 am: ===Billions in the hole. As Honeybear mentioned, Madigan’s Sand Castle is slipping away. How many decades have the Chicago Democrats run this state?=== To answer your question… One. And they ain’t runnin’ it now. - Downstate - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 11:17 am: In all seriousness… Okay, we need to reduce spending and increase taxes. But what do we do to make Illinois an attractive place for businesses to either expand or relocate? Because just messing with our budget isn’t enough to suddenly make Illinois appear “business friendly”. - The Dude Abides - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 11:18 am: Blaming Madigan and the Dems is getting tiresome and solves nothing. Rauner is the Governor and has been since January. He refuses to discuss the budget with the Democrats until they approve his agenda. That’s the whole of the problem. For the past 40 years the GOP has controlled the Governor’s office for the most part but some posters on here continue to blame Madigan. Both parties have a hand in this mess and the finger pointing needs to cease and the two sides need to sit down and come up with a mix of budget cuts and increased revenue to get the state back on track. Once that’s done then they can discuss some elements of the turnaround agenda. - Ducky LaMoore - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 11:22 am: ===Okay, we need to reduce spending and increase taxes. But what do we do to make Illinois an attractive place for businesses to either expand or relocate?=== Workers Comp insurance is extremely expensive in Illinois. I know a guy that is paying like 60% of payroll (so he claims and I would bet it is close to the truth). I don’t pay nearly that much, but I am just paying it for myself not any employees. I didn’t realize how much businesses pay. I just assumed people paid about as much as I do. - Juvenal - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 11:22 am: Hardly unsolvable. If the income tax hike had not lapsed, we would not only have a balanced budget, we would have eliminated the backlog of unpaid bills right about the time Rauner’s term ends. If it is a crisis, it is one of Rauner’s own making. - Fedralist - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 11:23 am: Obviously neither political side has or will seriously address this issue. The Democrats had their chance when the temporary income tax increase was passed. I said at the time that state expenditures needed to be frozen, (yes not easy but nothing in this issue is easy) and that the tax increase should have been used to pay off back bills. Then start fresh. The Democrats still have offered no solution. But Rauner wants us to believe that he has the magical cure for all of this if you just let him cut and dice the state budget as he wants. Dream on! I will repeat probably for the hundredth time. We need a true temporary tax increase for the next three years, a set % and every penny of that % of tax increase devoted to the backlog. If GRF grows in addition to that then that can be used for additional spending. And yes, programs will have to be frozen or increased very modestly. - Sir Reel - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 11:23 am: Hey anon, I didn’t say federal deficit. I said federal level, as in many federal programs are measured in billions and many federal agency budgets are billions. Whereas many State programs are millions, etc. Of course you know better. - Moby - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 11:24 am: $10 billion in overpaid state workers’ salaries and benefits, but yet they’re all driving Chevys and Fords. There must secretly be $10 billion somewhere in state worker trust funds growing exponentially in interest. The horror! The horror! - MyTwoCents - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 11:30 am: @Downstate, Charlie Wheeler has the answer to your question: http://wuis.org/post/illinois-issues-give-and-take - Rich Miller - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 11:31 am: MyTwoCents, the thing that Charlie misses is that there is currently no will. There’s always a way. I could give you dozens of scenarios, and I have in the past. But you have to possess the will to do something before it can be done. - Tha missin g - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 11:33 am: These folks appear to be quite radical, and radicals don’t often want to settle for half a loaf. -Rich Miller from another post today talking about KOCO but I think it applies to team Rauner. - Austin Blvd - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 11:46 am: Federalist, Gov. Quinn had a plan. Bills were being paid and the backlog was going down. Rauner won election while refusing to put forth a plan. Then, when he won, he pleaded with the lame duck legislature not to extend the temporary tax increase. He said “trust me.” Then, he began bashing unions and when his time came to introduce the balanced budget required by law, he introduced a budget out of balance by more than $2 billion. Then, Rauner cried fowl when the legislature reordered his budget, albeit $3-4 billion out of balance. Then, instead of using his amendatory veto pen to make cuts, he accepted the increase in education funding and vetoed the rest. Then, he went to court and asked for employees to continue to get paid so that government could continue to operate without a budget. Rauner then tried to not pay human service bills and changed the rules for many of our neediest citizens so they can no longer receive benefits. This is where we are. Rauner is holding out for the Democrats to propose a tax increase. The Democrat leaders are holding out for Rauner to do his job and to propose new revenues and new cuts through the GOP House and Senate members he now controls. What would you like the Democrats to propose? - anon - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 11:51 am: Someone please post how much Quinn “whittled down” these bills - AC - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 12:00 pm: Thank you Cullerton and Madigan for giving Rauner his first political win by not extending the tax increase. Sure, Rauner owns the mess, and he will be viewed ultimately as the arsonist he is, but they gave him the fuel and matches he needed to set fire to fiscal health. Wordslinger stated it best, Rauner really has given us quite the turnaround. - Wordslinger - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 12:07 pm: – how much Quinn whittled down those bills.– From $10 billion to $5.6 billion, while reinstating full pension payments. Try the google next time, if you’re really interested. - cover - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 12:14 pm: = Castles made of Sand slip into the sea, eventually. = Thanks for the Hendrix reference, Honeybear! Rich, could you make that the weekend playout song? - MasterPiece - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 12:24 pm: Rauner could kill AFSCME and have all state employees work for free for a few years. Done! And politix and a few others on here are satisfied. Or, commentors could realize that 90%-ish of spending is largely the result of legal obligations that no candidate can campaign himself out of, and that taxes - not wage freezes or cuts - are the only way to pay those obligations. Somebody do the math - how many years must all state emplor work for free in order to balance the budget and pay off the debts? The result of that calculation will prove the necessity of a tax hike, not a dumping on public employees and their union. - sideline watcher - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 12:35 pm: – how much Quinn whittled down those bills.– From $10 billion to $5.6 billion, while reinstating full pension payments. Try the google next time, if you’re really interested.==== Thank you Word. Oh and don’t forget the cuts. Talk to any social service agency or school district and they can talk ad nauseum about all of their cuts. Oh and then to Rich’s earlier post…the Democrats didn’t have the votes to make the stupid temporary tax increase permanent then any more than they do now all on their own. So enough with this Madigan and the politicians he controls crap. The GA will have to do this together. Period. - AC - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 12:36 pm: ==commentors could realize that 90%-ish of spending is largely the result of legal obligations that no candidate can campaign himself out of== Why let facts get in the way of a good sounding argument? - Honeybear - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 12:37 pm: -But you have to possess the will to do something before it can be done.- It’s not a faceoff? a staring contest? Which side is going to blink? Your statement scares the living crap out of me. “No will” indicates to me that no one cares if the button is pushed. Cuban missile crisis was a faceoff. How I understand you is “(f-bomb) it, pop the nuke”. Until you wrote it I was under the assumption that Rauner and Madigan cared enough to endure the pain of the battle, that too much was at stake to fold. Not having the “will” means quite something else. Have I got it wrong (once again)? - JS Mill - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 1:01 pm: =Okay, we need to reduce spending and increase taxes. But what do we do to make Illinois an attractive place for businesses to either expand or relocate? Because just messing with our budget isn’t enough to suddenly make Illinois appear “business friendly”.= I think you are on it, it isn’t just one or two things that will solve our problems. It was more than one or two things that created our issues. http://www.ctbaonline.org/ you can find some ideas here too. - steve schnorf - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 1:15 pm: Downstate, exactly the right question, and one that I think is going to have to be answered at least partially before any tax increase. juvenal, dream on. Go back and look at CTBA’s projections of budget surpluses/shortfall if the temporary increase had been kept in place. - MasterPiece - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 1:17 pm: AC - how much money is the state currently spending because of court orders and other automatic payment mechanisms? - Formerly Known As... - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 1:34 pm: How high has it gotten before? $8.5 Bill? - filmmaker Professor - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 1:36 pm: Perhaps Wordslinger answered my question, but does this mean we’re heading for a $5 billion deficit with $0 for higher ed and some social services? - AC - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 1:38 pm: MasterPiece - more money than we generate in taxes at 3.75%! - Formerly Known As... - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 1:41 pm: ==But you have to possess the will to do something before it can be done.== This is the cornerstone. It feels like everyone is just waiting around for things to collapse and see who can leverage it into a crippling win or loss. It is deranged. - Mama - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 1:47 pm: “there is currently no will.” What will it take to make them care about IL and its people? - Honeybear - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 1:56 pm: -But what do we do to make Illinois an attractive place for businesses to either expand or relocate?- I think some genuine responsiveness and earnest application of economic development strategies from DCEO. Creating a business should be one stop shopping, easy to navigate, and not expensive. Small business should be able to get real and actionable advice. Gazelles, growing medium size businesses should get tax incentives and rebates, expert advice and tons of attention. Large businesses should get play time with the bigwigs, golf outings and industry conferences, nothing more. Big industry is socking away record profits, not paying a dime in taxes and threatening/extorting our state constantly. They get luncheons with the Governor, nothing more. Gazelles get whatever the hell they want/need to get them to the next level. Build from the middle and drive growth down to the mom and pops! That is how we will grow economically, grow jobs, and improve the economic plight of more of our citizens. It’s also how we will improve the revenue coming into our state coffers. Mainstreet not Wallstreet. Now I may be full of crap. I’m a touchy feely human services caseworker. I’ve never taken an economics class. But the fact that very few people are saying, what I think is a common sense solution, makes me believe that political ideology is totally overriding common sense. I think we need to be ALL ABOUT small and medium sized businesses. All political parties pay lip service to them and yet consistantly do nothing. DCEO currently no help, just dog and pony shows. - Niblets - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 1:57 pm: Is the Great State of Illinois trying to make the finances so bad that the “emergency” will allow them to take employees pensions? - Sue - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 2:04 pm: Remind me- wasn’t it the Democrats who controlled the entire government who legislated the sunset into the tax increase? How is the State’s near insolvency the fault of someone in office 8 months? - Wordslinger - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 2:10 pm: It’s hardly a slam dunk that Rauner’s anti-union agenda is some sort of economic development wizardry. If that were the case, Mississippi would be a powerhouse. As it is, the largest states by GSP are California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois. That’s quite a range of of state government policy. Maybe there aren’t magical thermostats in state capitals that you can adjust to heat up the economy. State policy is marginal, at best. The anti-union stuff isn’t about economic development. It’s about removing public employee unions from the political sphere. It’s a raw power play, and the state’s fiscal position is being deliberately sabotaged in service of it. - Demoralized - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 2:28 pm: Sue: Can always count on you to play the blame game. It’s not his fault. But it is his mess to deal with (at least partially). This victim crap has got to stop. - Sue - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 2:32 pm: Juvenal - you must have had some issues in math class. How come as of 12/31/14 after several years of the 5 percent tax rate we still had a backlog. The Dems promised in exchange for the tax increase they would give us balanced budgets, pay the pensions down and create a panacea. Instead they raised rates and spending and left a mess for Rauner - Sue - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 2:36 pm: Demoralized- the only victims here are the citizens of Illlinois who for decades have been scammed by Madigan et al into believing the State was being well run. Now we all are looking at increased taxes of every type and reduced public services. Rauner is the first elected official who has called everyone out on the mess which was created but no one is willing to accept the fact that absent drastic spending cuts even with the reintroduction of the 5 percent rate, the State is not able to fund govt even at reduced levels - Wordslinger - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 2:37 pm: Sue, how were you in reading comphrension and logic? Old bills were reduced by four-and-a-half billion, full pension payments were made and spending was cut. - Sue - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 2:41 pm: Word- no debate that old bills were paid but ennew ones replaced the old- the five percent was not sufficient to fund state services at the levels The Dems created while paying for the increased pension costs. I don’t know what the magic rate might be but it is higher then 5. All am saying is that had the Dems not increased spending during the pendency of the 5 percent temp tax, the old bills would have been totally paid down along with all of the new ones - Demoralized - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 2:42 pm: Sue: The pension payments were made and the bill backlog was kept down from where it would have been. Are you being purposely obtuse? - Demoralized - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 2:43 pm: ==for decades have been scammed by Madigan== Apparently you missed the Madigan isn’t all powerful post. Some of you seem to conveniently forget that there have been a whole bunch of people who have contributed to this mess. I mean, I know the hyperpartisans don’t like to admit it but I can think of plenty of people, Republicans and Democrats alike, who had a hand in this. Honesty is a good quality. Try it sometime. - Apocalypse Now - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 3:22 pm: It’s Bush’s fault! - Sue - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 3:40 pm: I will definitely concede that Jim Thompson has a huge amount of blame coming his way. Signing the three percent pension COLA law on his way out is one of the biggest drivers of the unfunded liability in all 5 pension systems. But then again JT never could refuse agreeing to anything the IEA asked for in exchange for the endorsements he got beginning in 1982.. - Juice - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 3:57 pm: Sue, what spending exactly was going up during the years that the tax rate was 5%? The state’s share of Medicaid was cut. Social service programs were cuts. Education was cut. Prisons were closed. Mental health hospitals were closed. Centers for the developmentally disabled were closed. And the backlog of bills was paid down. The pension contribution was increased to make the payments instead of kicking the can down the road like Governor Rauner had proposed to do. But beyond that, your comments are nothing other than factless, baseless talking points to make you feel better about the fact that Governor Rauner has no plan on how to actually manage government. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.