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Illinois Policy Institute: Hardly any waste in Illinois government

Wednesday, Oct 10, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* The folks at the Illinois Policy Institute have combed the state budget and have found “$54.2 million in wasteful spending.” They define “waste” as “spending that does not serve a legitimate purpose of government.”

Why is that encouraging news? Because the state budget is $38.5 billion. So, according to the Institute, waste accounts for just 0.14 percent of state spending. Every penny counts, but that’s a pretty darned good ratio, if you ask me.

* Predictably, that’s not how the Institute sees things…

A new report highlights waste and pork in Illinois’ budget and its author says it just highlights the slap in the face to Illinois taxpayers.

* The report claims that “$3.6 million on the development of the World Shooting Recreational Complex in Sparta, in addition to $2.6 million on operating costs” is “wasteful.” Not everyone agrees…

State Sen. Paul Schimpf, R-Waterloo, said the report is misleading.

“Any report that does not consider all of the economic benefits the shooting complex brings to the southern Illinois region is an incomplete analysis,” Schimpf said. “This report omits any such assessment. At best, it’s shortsighted; at worst, it’s misleading.”

One person’s wasteful spending is another person’s vital economic development tool.

The Institute also claims that all Illinois Arts Council spending is wasteful.

…Adding… This came in Wednesday night and I didn’t see it until Thursday morning…

Rich,

I saw your post about the Waste Watch report today. For context, this research identified nearly $100 million in wasteful spending in Illinois state and local government, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. The fiscal year 2019 state budget accounts for over $81 million of that total, including $54 million in pure waste and $27 million in pork spending, or politically-motivated favors and special projects. The report intentionally excluded the state’s overspending on government worker health insurance, duplicative administration, and inflated pension benefits, choosing to classify them as “structural overspending” though they could easily fit a broader definition of waste.

While you’re obviously right that eliminating these projects wouldn’t balance the budget, that’s no excuse for this kind of spending when the state has $8 billion in unpaid bills, the lowest credit rating in the nation, and just hiked taxes on the average Illinois family by about $730. The other big problem here is transparency. Because there was no time for public comment and debate over this year’s budget, the merits of these projects was left up to a handful of powerful legislative leaders.

Regarding the Sparta World Shooting Complex, many people are defensive of waste and pork that personally benefits them or their region. The intent here is not to say these projects have no merit, but rather that they are not essential government functions and that Illinois cannot afford them given our fiscal crisis. Indeed, if items like the Sparta World Shooting Complex are valuable, people would be willing to pay for them voluntarily and they could be run as private for profit businesses.

Any amount of waste in state government is a slap in the face to taxpayers. Every dollar the government spends comes out of a taxpayer’s pocket first. Academic research has long shown that people are more willing to pay taxes when they see valuable services in return. Meanwhile, polls show: 1) Illinoisans have the lowest level of trust in their elected officials among all 50 states; and, 2) Over half of our residents want to leave the state and taxes are the number one reason. The $100 million in wasteful spending identified in this report helps explain both these polling results.

Adam Schuster
Budget and Tax Research Director
Illinois Policy Institute

40 Comments

*** UPDATED x1 *** Rauner’s shift on illegal immigration

Wednesday, Oct 10, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* 2014 Bruce Rauner candidate op-ed published in Hoy…

President Obama has deported more immigrants that any other president, causing extremely painful family hardships and hurting our economy. When Democrats controlled Congress and held the White House in 2009-10, they had the chance to pass immigration reform, as President Obama promised he would, and yet they did nothing. The humanitarian crisis at the border today cries out for leadership that is lacking.

Unfortunately, my own Republican Party is even more to blame. Too many Republicans in Washington choose to ignore the problem. Even worse, some Republicans are downright hostile to immigrants, failing to recognize that America’s past, present, and future would not be nearly as bright and prosperous without our culture and heritage of immigration.

Not all Republicans are that way. In March, I attended a pro-immigration reform rally in Chicago along with former Illinois Governors Jim Edgar and Jim Thompson and former U.S. House Speaker from Illinois Dennis Hastert, all Republicans. Republican Illinois Senator Mark Kirk voted in favor of last year’s bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill in the U.S. Senate. […]

I will advocate changing our broken national immigration system, to secure our borders and prevent more from entering our country illegally, but also to increase the number of those who can legally come here, and to treat those who are already here in a humane way that preserves families and integrates them into the mainstream of our economy and society. After all, that is the American way.

* More from Hannah Meisel, who also dug up that old Hoy op-ed…

In 2016, Rauner signed a bill that provides cash welfare, state-funded health care and food assistance to undocumented immigrants who were victims of human trafficking, torture or “other serious crimes,” while awaiting federal visas.

* Gov. Rauner yesterday…

Chicagoans want to work. You ask someone in Lawndale, Austin, Englewood whether they want to work. They do. They’re looking for jobs. Those jobs in too many cases are being filled by illegal immigrants. That’s wrong. I support legal immigration. Legal immigration is good and America is built by legal immigrats. But illegal immigration, we have immigration laws for a reason, and Mr. Pritzker has been very clear he says there’s no one here illegally. There’s no such thing as an ‘illegal person.’ That’s just not true. And he said specifically that he supports sanctuary cities and making Illinois a sanctuary state. I do not. We have immigration laws. They should be enforced. And the lack of economic opportunity on the South Side and West Side is a major driver of the violence there and we’ve got to fix that.

*** UPDATE *** Press release…

Bruce Rauner went to Little Village to stand on stage with our community leaders and celebrate Mexican Independence Day September 16. Yesterday, he blamed Chicago crime and statewide unemployment and low wages on “the massive number of illegal immigrants.” In addition, individual leaders offered the following additional comments:

Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia: “Bruce Rauner is unfit to be Governor and a complete disgrace to our great state. He is so desperate to win re-election that he feels compelled to attack a vulnerable group of hard-working people because his administration has been a total failure. I’m going to do everything in my power to vote this Trumpian out of office.”

Illinois State Comptroller Susana A. Mendoza: “All Illinoisans should reject Governor Rauner’s attempt to jump-start his failing re-election campaign by adopting President Trump’s racist and divisive scape-goating of immigrants. Governor Rauner’s gutting of after-school programs and mental health services has far more to do with Chicago’s crime spike than immigrants do. Local and national records show immigrants - both legal and undocumented - commit far fewer crimes than other groups in our country. My immigrant parents brought nothing but a strong work ethic to this country. Governor Rauner’s “Swedish immigrant” grandparents from Wisconsin would be ashamed of him.”

U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Illinois: I never thought that Governor Rauner would shame himself by adopting Donald Trump’s dangerous and divisive lies. This is a new low for Governor Rauner who will now go down in history as a demagogue with no scruples.

26 Comments

Oops!

Wednesday, Oct 10, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* 6:05 this morning…

The time for evacuating along the coast has come and gone. First responders will not be able to come out in the middle of the storm. If you chose to stay in an evacuation zone, you must SEEK REFUGE IMMEDIATELY.

— Rick Scott (@FLGovScott) October 10, 2018

* Four hours later…

Hurricane Michael approaching landfall in Florida Panhandle. Tell friends and relatives to evacuate to avoid category 4 storm. https://t.co/ub46kktifl

— Governor Rauner (@GovRauner) October 10, 2018

* He is really catching heck for this advice on his Facebook page…

We are currently in SWFL. People in the path of the storm were told it was too late to evacuate quite some time ago. Please don’t spread advice that is ill-advised at best (and deadly at worst) to those in a state you know nothing about. You’ve done plenty to screw Illinois, don’t start on Florida.

Ouch.

…Adding… The tweet recommending evacuation has been taken down.

23 Comments

Morning Consult Poll: Rauner disapproval rating is 62 percent

Wednesday, Oct 10, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Keep in mind that this is a Morning Consult poll and their methodology is on the opaque side. Anyway, here you go…

For the seventh quarter in a row, the 10 most popular governors in the country are all Republicans.

Six of the governors who top the latest edition of Morning Consult’s Governor Approval Rankings — based on 361,607 surveys with registered voters across the country conducted July 1 through Sept. 25 — are on the ballot next month and appear to be cruising toward re-election.

* Republican Gov. Charlie Baker in Massachusetts is at the top of the national list. Gov. Rauner is the third least popular in the country…

GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner of Illinois is the least popular governor on the list up for re-election this year, with 62 percent of voters in the state disapproving of his work. In Wisconsin, where Gov. Scott Walker is seeking a third term, 50 percent of Badger State voters disapprove of him, making him the second least popular Republican on the ballot next month.

Just 25 percent approve of Gov. Rauner’s job performance. 13 percent either don’t know or have no opinion.

…Adding… Note the timing of the big slide…

Bruce Rauner's net approval rating, per @MorningConsult:

April 2017: -7
July 17: -9
October 17: -25
February 18: -24
April 18: -34
July 18: -33
October 18: -37#twill #ilgov

— Illinois Working Together (@IllinoisWorking) October 10, 2018

July of 2017 is when he vetoed the tax hike and brought in the Best Team In America™.