* John Kass writes again today about a forensic audit. He’s talking about Chicago, but the idea is part of Bill Brady’s gubernatorial campaign platform as well. Brady uses the proposal to deflect questions about his budget details, saying he needs to see the results of such an intense audit before he can make any decisions.

Now, I am not opposed to the idea at all, but here’s the thing: A normal Auditor General agency audit takes months to complete. A complicated and detailed forensic audit of the entire state government all at once might take years. Whatever the case, there’s just no way I can figure that Brady could launch a complete forensic audit after he’s inaugurated in January and get the results back before introducing a new state budget in March or April, or even May or June.

* Gov. Christie said yesterday that Brady was doing the right thing by not talking in any detail about his budget plans…

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a rising star in the Republican Party, says state Sen. Bill Brady should not offer too many details about how he would cut Illinois’ $13 billion budget deficit if Brady is elected governor.

Christie, who endorsed fellow Republican Brady at Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport Tuesday, said Brady shouldn’t worry about criticism that his budget plan lacks specifics.

“I heard the same things … a year ago right now,” Christie told reporters. “What I said was, ‘I am laying out for the people of New Jersey the direction that I’m going take the state. And I’m not going to sit here now and talk about each and every specific cut and how it all adds up as if I’m a CPA.’

“Candidly, I’m really happy I didn’t. Because the problem I found in New Jersey was much worse than my predecessor advertised, and anything I would have said would have had to have been thrown right in the garbage in January 2010.”

Video…

* The good news? Illinois sold a lot of bonds overseas. The bad news? We’re paying a higher interest rate than Mexico and Portugal…

Illinois capital-markets director John Sinsheimer and Citigroup Inc. bankers took a globe-girdling trip from the U.K. to China in June to persuade investors that the state’s $900 million of Build America Bonds were a bargain.

The seven-country visit worked. The state sold one-fifth of the federally subsidized securities abroad the next month, tapping investors who are the fastest-growing source of borrowed cash for U.S. municipalities. Illinois, with the lowest credit rating of any state from Moody’s Investors Service, dangled yields higher than Mexico, which defaulted on debt in 1982, and Portugal, which costs more to insure against missed payments.

* More bad news…

To retire the fiscal 2010 bills by the end of the year, [Comptroller Dan Hynes] warned that the state must complete its up to $1.75 billion tobacco bond sale because the budget relies on at least $1.2 billion from the deal. Illinois recently named a finance team for the transaction. The state also must make additional interfund transfers and collect additional revenue from a tax amnesty program.

“A significant failure of any of these sources will place remaining fiscal year 2010 obligations in jeopardy,” Hynes warned. “This would create a scenario in which unsatisfied payees could be forced to seek legal and judicial remedies to obtain payments in amounts unprecedented in the state’s history.”

The comptroller said barring any major changes, the state’s liquidity crisis will continue through the fiscal year and Illinois could end the year with an even larger bill backlog of $8 billion as additional debt service comes due. That number could rise if no action is taken to address a $3.7 billion pension payment. […]

However, Hynes warned: “The structural imbalance in the current budget, combined with higher debt service costs and the loss of federal stimulus revenues, creates the very real possibility that the governor and General Assembly will face a working deficit of $15 billion or more when the fiscal year 2012 budget is crafted early next year.”

Oof.

But, hey, I suppose if Bill Brady is elected we could just sell $50 billion in pension bonds…

Republican governor candidate Bill Brady has been blasting Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn for taxing, spending and borrowing, but Tuesday the challenger refused to rule out borrowing a record $50 billion to shore up state finances.

“All options have to be considered,” Brady said.

Yeah. That’ll be no problem, considering the inflated interest rate, the ever-worsening deficit and still-horrible revenues.

Nobody is gonna buy that many bonds from this state without a definable revenue stream. Brady has said he’d pay them off with “natural revenue growth.” As I pointed out yesterday, there is no revenue growth.

* Meanwhile…

Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration has finalized a deal with the state’s largest employee union that will prevent layoffs until 2012 despite repeated calls from Republican challenger Bill Brady for Quinn to abandon the plan.

The agreement between the state and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees was finalized on Sep. 24, and was signed by union director Henry Bayer and James Sledge, head of Illinois Central Management Services.

Under the deal, the state cannot layoff workers or close facilities until July 2012. In exchange the union says it has agreed to cut costs by at least $170 million by cutting healthcare costs, restricting overtime and other yet-to-be-identified measures. Quinn’s office hopes ongoing negotiations will push savings higher.

Too often, this governor walks right into the punches.

* And kudos to the AP for attending one of Scott Lee Cohen’s much-hyped job fairs…

Martina Love had two words to describe the job fair hosted Tuesday by Scott Lee Cohen, the independent candidate for Illinois governor: “false advertisement.”

Out of work for a year, the 23-year-old said she’s looking for a “real job” at a factory or somewhere else, not selling jewelry or enlisting in the military like recruiters at Cohen’s Rockford-area job fair were offering.

“If he’s supposed to be a governor, I would think that he would have had more things in here knowing how the economy is,” said Love, who used to work at phone customer service company.

The job fairs are a cornerstone of Cohen’s campaign for governor, but the job seekers who lined up Tuesday to talk to more than a dozen companies weren’t necessarily interested in helping him gain employment as Illinois’s chief executive.

Go read the whole thing.

* Related…

* Unemployment And The Output Gap

* New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie Endorses Bill Brady

* New Jersey governor stumps for Brady