Ain’t so easy, is it?
Friday, Jul 1, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Remember in 2014 when the Democrats passed what was essentially a six-month budget, kinda like the one they just passed yesterday and was immediately signed into law? In case you don’t, this is from the May 31, 2014 edition of the Chicago Tribune…
In the short term, however, the just-concluded spring session plays right into Rauner’s campaign message that taxpayers are the victims of a dysfunctional Springfield. Democrats couldn’t coalesce around a comprehensive budget to fund state government for a full 12 months, and House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton spent some time Friday settling old scores with Quinn, their party’s governor.
Rauner called the legislature’s spending plan a “phony budget.”
“The politicians in charge of Springfield again refused to make the structural reforms needed to fix state government. Instead, they passed the same type of broken, dishonest budget that career politicians in Illinois have been passing for years,” Rauner said in a statement.
But his campaign did not provide any specifics on what Rauner would have done differently, despite the candidate’s vow for months that he was developing plans on tax and budget policy that he has said will come “in due time.”
“In due time” never really has come.
* And here are a few dot points from Reboot at the time…
The state is more than $5 billion behind in paying its bills.
It has the worst credit rating of any state.
It has the worst unfunded pension liability of any state.
There was not enough support for raising taxes, nor was their enough support for a doomsday budget. Still, lawmakers approved a $35.7 billion budget.
Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton acknowledge that this budget borrows $650 million from special funds that will drive up the bills taxpayers ultimately must fund.
This budget postpones paying $380 million state worker health insurance bills that taxpayers ultimately must fund.
This budget diverts $650 million in funds that had been going to pay down unpaid bills that taxpayers ultimately must fund.
They couldn’t get it done back then, just like they couldn’t get it done this year. And that 2014 list looks eerily similar to the stopgap which just passed, and the state of the state is, in several respects, worse off (or no better) than it was back then.
- Handle Bar Mustache - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 9:13 am:
Crains:
By nearly every measure, the state is worse off since Rauner took office. Pension liabilities now top $110 billion and are rising by the minute. The stack of unpaid bills is ballooning, turning Illinois into a notorious deadbeat. Vital social service agencies are being cut. Students are abandoning the state’s universities. Illinois’ credit rating hovers just above junk-bond range.
- slow down - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 9:16 am:
It’s always easy to criticize from the outside. It’s a lot more difficult to actually govern when you have to make tough choices and compromises. Actual governance requires more than just press releases, TV commercials and snarky soundbites.
- Anon221 - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 9:18 am:
But to Rauner, this isn’t budget- it’s a bridge! So, I guess that means he still has time to hand his “homework” in.
Meanwhile, social service providers are still unsure exactly what this “bridge” means for them:
http://dewittdailynews.com/local-news/261336
http://www.rrstar.com/news/20160630/confusion-for-nonprofits-in-wake-of-illinois-stopgap-budget-agreement
- Anonymous - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 9:19 am:
A tissue paper life raft designed to give the appearance of our pol’s finally “doing something” to help.
- wordslinger - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 9:23 am:
This half-baked loaf is grossly irresponsible and inadequate by any standard except the one that has been set since Rauner’s inauguration.
By that standard, it’s a big improvement.
I’d like to see GOMB produce some hard numbers: total projected spending and revenues through the first six months. That should include all consent-decree spending and all liabilities INCURRED during the first six months (no laying off that as spending for the second half).
That way, we know what the mess is for the second half.
For social services, I’d also like to know who will decide who gets paid what and when.
Are all contracts equal? Or are we looking at squeeze the beast by another method?
- A Citizen - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 9:24 am:
Rich Thanks for the great coverage and on a personal note no deletions or bite mes !
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 9:26 am:
Shaking up Springfield evolved after obliterating many social service groups into a “Back to the Future” retread that, honestly, was held up to either leverage or inflict pain. Pain was inflicted, leverage, that’s debatable, given the 2014 similarities.
Let us not forget Ron Sandack…
@RonSandack: I’m frustrated 2, but taking steps towards reforming IL more important than short term budget stalemate. - Ron Sandack, 9/28/15
In the end? The Owl’s frustration has to be the mirrored 2014 movements at the end after making Social Services hurt for “reforms” yet to be seen.
Just a shame
- Anon221 - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 9:26 am:
Proud Eastern Missourian-
http://tinyurl.com/hsysrgu
- Earnest - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 9:31 am:
One difference from 2014: Quinn gave a real budget proposal based on revenue if the tax increase expired. Rauner has never provided a budget based either on actual projected revenue or with proposed revenue to pay for expenditures. Instead of being the outsider/businessman people voted for they got someone to whom politics and personal agenda were far more important than hard numbers. This is not to excuse Quinn for signing a horrible budget in 2014 nor to encourage him to return to an office in which he was terrible.
- Formerly Known as Frenchie M - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 9:31 am:
The real question — and it’s something I’m genuinely curious about — is why this wasn’t done in the first place. What prompted Rauner to suddenly shelve the Turnaround Agenda?
I know the coordinated editorials were a part of it — but I wonder what else was at work behind the scenes.
And the real question — something I’m genuinely angry about now — is why did Rauner have to destroy higher education and decimate the social service network in order to get … nothing?
What a waste. A total, total waste.
- Chicago_Downstater - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 9:31 am:
So essentially we went through all of that pain to find ourselves in the exact same situation as before except somehow worse? Great.
The next time the Administration and the GA drag us through this merry dance can we at least get something done about increasing revenue? Jeeze.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 9:33 am:
===I know the coordinated editorials were a part of it ===
And you know that how?
C’mon. The editorials were published after they made progress.
- Earnest - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 9:37 am:
>And the real question — something I’m genuinely angry about now — is why did Rauner have to destroy higher education and decimate the social service network in order to get … nothing?
He didn’t have to destroy them–he chose to do so with intention, to starve the beast and complete the shakeout. What did he get? That, just what he wanted.
- thunderspirit - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 9:39 am:
== And the real question — something I’m genuinely angry about now — is why did Rauner have to destroy higher education and decimate the social service network in order to get…nothing? ==
Governor Rauner didn’t get “nothing.”
Mr. “No Social Agenda” got to hobble higher education and social services for his troubles. Which has been part of his plan all along.
- Moby - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 9:41 am:
Heckuva job, Rauney!
- Norseman - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 9:47 am:
=== What prompted Rauner to suddenly shelve the Turnaround Agenda? ===
He knew that a deal could not be had with TA. TA has been held out as the price to pay for a tax hike. It’s clear that no tax hike vote could/would be taken before the election. Neither side of the aisle was prepared to take such a vote.
Rauner needed a deal for K-12 and for at least a partial deal for a lot of operational issues that couldn’t be dealt with by IOUs anymore, i.e. prison food etc. Thus the temporary abandonment of TA.
- Winnin' - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 9:57 am:
Heh.
- @MisterJayEm - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 9:59 am:
And the sweeping consequences of Sandack’s “short term budget stalemate” have hardly even begun.
The big news is that when social service agencies go out of business in the next few weeks and months, the Raunerbots will be able to pretend that the destruction is something other than the inevitable result of the year-long Turn-Around Agenda hostage crisis.
– MrJM
- Triple fat - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 10:00 am:
The Governor is slow walking the Great Date of Illinois to financial collapse. Rubber bands and band aids, given enough time, worsens the State’s ability to recover. Illinois is being sucked into a black hole. Reaching the event horizon will open up a lot of opportunities for private equity and hedge funds to buy up state bonds, at bargain basement prices… then sue for payment since constitutionally they are first in line to be paid. Please see Puerto Rico!
- Last Bull Moose - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 10:01 am:
From my perspective, the state is in much worse shape; special funds and rainy day funds have been drained-there are no hidden reserves left, providers have been stretched to the limit-again no reserves left, the world and national economies are now more likely to contract than expand-state revenues seem particularly vulnerable to recessions, and there is no real chance of a change in the major players. If Madigan and/or Cullerton lose seats, they will still have a majority instead of a non-working super-majority. Madiagan, Cullerton, and Rauner each have the ability to block legislation, especially revenue increases.
There are ways forward, but they require creative thinking so that we are not fighting exactly the same battle again. I am not sure that the environment will permit creative thought.
- Delimma - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 10:01 am:
Hey Rich,
Do you think the editorials were published after progress had been made so they could claim credit? Is that too cynical?
- Triple fat - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 10:02 am:
State
- Triple fat - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 10:03 am:
Good one, Rich.
- Ghost - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 10:09 am:
they need a serious foscussion anout revenue generation. we are essentially heading into 2 years with inadequate revenue and debt piling up.
they can keep ignorng the need for more inc. as all habe seen, and despit the gov rhetoric, there is not enough to slash unless tou elminate every loved bovine; and no one, including Rauner is for that. so stop ignoring the elephant in the room and get some added revenue
- Big T - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 10:13 am:
The coordinated editorials exposed a hypocritical, self-serving arrogance on the part of special interests. Where were these moral superiors for the last 18 months. They were fanning the flames of ideologues. How dare they intimate speaking for citizens!
- Triple fat - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 10:20 am:
The Governor’s actions suggests an elaborate money making scheme to convert public taxpayer money into private equity shareholer’s equity. I hope the Federal Government will step in and assist Illinois in restructuring our debt whenever the vulture capitalists demand payment for the bonds they purchased for pennies on the dollar. If they can do it for Puerto Rico, they should do it for us.
- Anonymous - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 10:21 am:
Editorial writers see bad things when they need to bolster their opinions. For the Trib and News Gazette, it’s not bad when Rauner does it, only when Quinn or other Dems do it. This week makes that clear.
- Daniel Plainview - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 10:25 am:
More than two years in and our Bidnessman Governor’s most significant accomplishment is a “budget” that’s as bad as Quinn’s worst. What a leader.
- Anon221 - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 10:30 am:
Triple fat- The outcome of the National election may help focus that Federal spotilight on Illinois. It was stated yesterday that the time of reckoning (Audits, for example) is approaching, and some things that may have been tweaked around that shouldn’t have been may see the light. And, a national figure may feel that he is more free to tell others in Illinois to “sit down”.
- Markus - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 10:36 am:
=Ain’t so easy, is it?=
Ain’t so hard to pretty much do nothing for 18 months and then just empty the couch cushions to get by for a few months.
- VanillaMan - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 12:42 pm:
Rauner has many reasons for his failure. He doesn’t know what he doesn’t know, too arrogant to listen, and too rich to remember how to earn something he can’t buy.
- illinoised - Friday, Jul 1, 16 @ 1:00 pm:
Ah, how I long for it to be pre-election 2014 again.