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* State schools superintendent Christopher Koch told a Senate appropriations committee this morning that he’s anticipating over 13,000 school-related layoffs in the upcoming fiscal year with the budget proposal he’s submitting.
Brutal.
Koch’s statement reinforces the notion that state government has become one of the biggest drags on Illinois’ economy.
…Adding… From my intern Barton Lorimor who is at the hearing…
Koch just said that 13,000 job loss figure is only based on 75% of the school districts responding to ISBE’s inquiry. Still waiting on the other 25% to report their expected losses.
* Every year, Moody’s/Economy.com prepares a report for the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability. I’m still wading through it, but let’s look at a couple quick points.
Retail sales are regaining some strength, but there’s a long way to go…
The contraction of the employment base is also weighing on retail sales in the state. Though estimated retail sales declined precipitously in the fourth quarter of 2008, the pattern of declining retail sales has halted. Estimated sales grew by 4% on an annualized basis in the third quarter but remain 9% below their year-ago level.
While the analysts expect the state’s economy to grow a tiny bit more than the nation as a whole, it won’t help the budget situation…
Moody’s Economy.com expects Illinois’ real gross state product to grow 2.5% over 2010, only a touch stronger than the 2.3% growth forecast nationally and not strong enough to turn the state’s finances around. […]
Illinois follows the U.S. business cycle closely and this time will be no exception. Moody’s Economy.com expects a strong rebound in 2011 and 2012. However, as has been the case during every recovery of the past 40 years, Illinois’ rebound in terms of employment will be slightly weaker than the U.S. rebound.
And then Moody’s practically endorses a new tax on services…
A proposal by the State of Illinois to raise taxes through a broad-based services tax would garner $3.6 billion to $7.3 billion in revenues.
The proposed tax, designed to improve the state’s revenue generating capacity, will help lift the state from its current fiscal woes, which have nearly doubled the average time the state takes to pay accounts payable and led to several rounds of downgrades for the state’s bond rating, which has in turn raised the cost of borrowing.
A services tax is aimed at drawing revenues from some of the state’s fastest-growing and most dynamic industries and relieving some of the burden from historically strong but contracting industries such as manufacturing. Fears that services taxes will push away critical industries may be misplaced; other states with strong financial and corporate headquarters industries such as South Dakota and Delaware also heavily tax services.
Passing such a tax hike is quite another matter, though. Read the whole thing.
* That same approp committee mentioned above will resume taking testimony this morning on the “Brady budget” - legislation based on Brady’s campaign pledge to slash the budget by 10 percent across the board. We already talked about this yesterday, and we’ll have more videos and reports later today, so here’s a roundup of coverage on yesterday’s hearing, which featured two university presidents…
* Senate considers cuts to this year’s budget: [Republican] Sen. Matt Murphy asked the two men if they would consider a deal that would guarantee their schools the money they are owed, with a 10 percent reduction. “It is not acceptable for me to take a 10 percent deal right now and run with it,” Poshard said to Murphy. “You folks passed legislation that guaranteed us a certain amount of appropriation, upon which we built our budget. We depended upon that. We gave a promise to thousands of students based upon that promise to us from the state legislature and the governor.”
* Legislative gamesmanship on state budget: Democrats got the twin benefits of trying to embarrass Republican standard-bearer Brady while again preparing voters for the notion that a tax increase is an inevitable part of the solution. Democrats denied that was their motivation. Brady dismissed the public hearing exercise as a time-wasting “circus” that doesn’t get the state any closer to solving its problems.
* University presidents ask legislators to avoid more cuts: University of Illinois President Stanley Ikenberry said the 10 percent cut would equal $74 million and would come on top of $86 million in cuts already made at the university. Ikenberry said appropriations to the UI have fallen by $100 million since 2002.
* Senate moves slowly on budget cut plans: “We are not trying to put anybody on the hot seat,” said State Sen. John Sullivan, D-Rushville, the committee’s chairman. “Republicans have said they want 10 percent cuts across the board to services and we wanted to highlight today what the effect of cuts would be.”
* Dems zero in on Brady’s call for cuts: Brady, a Bloomington businessman, said Democrats were playing politics with the state’s “horrific” budget woes. “Ever since February 2, they’ve been politically motivated,” Brady said. “I’m not going to play the political games they are. We have got to deal with the fact that we can’t afford a tax increase.”
* And here’s your local government financial gloom and doom roundup…
* Davlin pledges monthly financial updates
* Mattoon City Council hopes land sale will help budget
* Charleston school board goes back and forth over budget cuts
* New provider could save Carbondale money
* Sweeny: Some suggestions for consolidation task force to consider
* Missing stop sign at crash site costs Winnebago County $500,000
* Mount Sterling city officials approve $90,000 transfer from sewer fund to cover payroll
* Will Co. eyes pay freeze for elected officials
* Kane debating freeze on officials’ pay
* District 60 receives budget award
* Districts 211 & 214 push through despite state education cuts
* Delavan superintendent volunteers to give up pay raise
* Related and a Statehouse roundup…
* Local officials push police, fire pension changes
* Students Taking ISAT’s, Leaders Question Test’s Worth
* Playing poker
* House bans legislative scholarships but final approval uncertain
* Illinois House votes to end awarding of tuition waivers: The bill now goes to the Illinois Senate, where its chances are uncertain.
* Illinois House votes to eliminate scholarship program
* Senate approves borrowing for universities
* Ill. Senate gives state universities borrowing power
* University Borrowing OK’d, Medicaid Borrowing Shelved
* Black expects bill for 4-day school week to clear committee
* College voting measure clears Senate panel
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 10:26 am
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Note to Sen. Brady: If you don’t like the idea of people attacking your screwy across-the-board spending cuts (in lieu of seeking needed revenue in a fair and responsible manner), you shouldn’t be running for Governor in the first place!
Comment by fedup dem Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 10:37 am
Has Quinn even offered a budget plan yet. The one from last year worked out so well.
Comment by Fed up Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 10:44 am
Note to Fed Up Dem….are you fed up with the absolute castastrohy the your Democratic lead government has created for our state? Skip the “but the Republicans won’t help” excuse. You Dems elected Blago, Quinn, Madigan, Jones, Cullerton and majorities in both houses and where has that gotten us? They have no courage to fix the problem. “Uh we can’t take a vote cause there is an election coming?” That’s leadership?
Comment by RobRoy Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 10:48 am
fed up dem, I disagree with you. I think Brady’s comments were right-on under the circumstances. the senate dems’ stunt is stupid particularly since they are proposing that Illinois kick the can down the road and make matters worse.
senator murphy ought to keep quiet. there can be no deal-making with the state’s university’s. cuts are inevitable. if quinn had been disciplined, focused enough last year and actually did his job a lot of this nonsense could have been avoided.
Comment by Will County Woman Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 10:51 am
The smoke and mirrors PQ & Co are using to screen the horrific fiscal state that is Illinois is beyond description and fedup dem claims Brady doesn’t like the idea of people attacking his plan? Look, a kitty! (So worn out, now, but so descriptive, ain’t it!)
Comment by dupage dan Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 10:51 am
“A proposal by the State of Illinois to raise taxes through a broad-based services tax would garner $3.6 billion to $7.3 billion in revenues.”
Has anyone every considered the reason that services are so prevalent in Illinois is BECAUSE they aren’t taxed?
i.e. 20 years from now are services going to be as extinct as manufacturing is in Illinois?
Comment by Leroy Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 10:52 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQsSCYkLSls&feature=email
A message for the Illinois Democratic State Central Committee by Sheila Simon.
Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 10:57 am
This is the kind of talk we need to hear. Brutally Honest Governor at 52% approval rating.
Comment by VanillaMan Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 11:00 am
Costs are scheduled to increase for service based industries. The minimum wage in Illinois is going up this year and next year.
Comment by Brennan Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 11:03 am
Leroy:
Manufacturing has declined for decades as part of a national trend, hardly unique to Illinois. Moody’s sees a service tax as a good idea. Why is the financial sector wrong?
Will Cty Woman
The Senate Dems passed HB 174 last year. They aren’t the ones “kicking the budget can” down the road.
RobRoy
Last year 68% of Democrats in the legislature voted to increase the income tax compared to 0% of Republicans. Kindly explain why the party of zero has no responsibility, while the party of 68% is totally responsible?
Comment by reformer Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 11:03 am
Am I missing something here? Why doesn’t the GOP introduce their vision of a Quinn budget, based on his statements, and have at that. Certainly Quinn has been a prolific supplier of material to criticize.
What’s wrong with analyzing competing ideas? That’s how it’s supposed to work.
Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 11:08 am
*Has anyone every considered the reason that services are so prevalent in Illinois is BECAUSE they aren’t taxed?
i.e. 20 years from now are services going to be as extinct as manufacturing is in Illinois?*
Services are much more geographically bound. A dog groomer is not picking up and moving his business to Indiana because of a new service tax.
Comment by Montrose Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 11:09 am
“Fears that services taxes will push away critical industries may be misplaced; other states with strong financial and corporate headquarters industries such as South Dakota and Delaware also heavily tax services.”
True, but they make up for that by NOT taxing other things. South Dakota has no personal income tax, and Delaware has no corporate income tax for corporations operating outside the state.
“Has anyone every considered the reason that services are so prevalent in Illinois is BECAUSE they aren’t taxed?”
Services are prevalent EVERYWHERE these days because the entire country — for that matter the entire Western world — is shifting to a service-based economy. It would take a really disproportionately high service tax in comparison to other states to kill service industries in Illinois, I would thing.
Comment by Secret Square Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 11:16 am
Leroy, go back and re-read the article. South Dakota and Delaware have huge services taxes, and Delaware on top of that has a steeply progressive income tax. Doesn’t seem to scare away the credit card companies.
As a former World Bank official told me a few years ago, the basics of making a success out of a broken tax system in a banana republic are “lower the rates, broaden the base, get the hell out of the way”. We have a 10 percent tax on goods in Chicago, a narrow base that doesn’t touch services at all, and so many regulatory kinks and idiosyncrasies it takes a legion of tax attorneys (such as Mr. Madigan himself) to figure it out. What Moody’s is talking about is fixing this mess.
Leaving it as it is will doom government in Illinois to constantly declining revenue. In the 1960s people to consumed about 60 percent goods, 40 percent services. In today’s very different world, where peoples’ homes are full of junk but no-one has time to do stuff for themselves anymore, it’s 40 percent goods, 60 percent services. That’s just 40 years of change — and the trend is continuing. A tax system like Illinois that taxes yesterday’s economy, not today’s, is doomed to fail and take essential public services down with it.
Let’s go back to that idea of lowering the rates, broadening the base and getting out of the way again. Suppose you applied it not just at the wholesale level but to the sales tax. Halving the sales tax rate but applying it to all goods and services would increase revenue because instead of 40 percent of goods-and-services transactions being taxed, 100 percent of transactions would be taxed. We’d have a 3.125 percent state tax rate, 5.125 in Chicago. Lower still if you decided to make it “revenue neutral.” Local retailers would love it. Amazon would hate it. Services wouldn’t matter because it’s a lot more difficult to bring an ongoing service in from outside than to mail order a physical product. We’d be keeping more of our tax dollars here in Illinois instead of exporting them. That’s the kind of innovative thinking we need here, and I applaud Moody’s for saying so.
Comment by Angry Chicagoan Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 11:18 am
Reformer,
Kindly explain to the group how it is that 68% of Democrats in the legislature voted to increase the income tax and the tax wasn’t implemented. 68% would beat a veto, I presume.
This party of zero you mention. How could they have helped what appears to be a veto proof majority pass the income tax increase? Did the democrats forget their bill signing pens? Was there a problem with the dem gov? Were the dems worried they couldn’t spread the blame for a tax increase in a recession?
If their action was so heroic will we be seeing a new statue in Springfield dedicated to the proud sacrifice of these brave legislators?
Yes, manufacturing has declined nation-wide. As my teenage son would say, “thank you Captain Obvious” for that update. What is also likely is that as you raise the cost of services (thru taxes or in other ways) purchasers of those services are likely to shop around. Increases in minimum wages and increased taxes will increae the bottom line. Let’s be careful about what businesses and industries we want to take advantage of. They employ people who pay taxes - we like that kind of thing, don’t we?
Comment by dupage dan Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 11:19 am
Re: Will Co. eyes pay freeze for elected officials
Good! these are tough times. when obama first assumed office and said that his staff would have their pay frozen, or something to that effect, i thought that was good and agreed. these are tough times all over. many people are making sacrifices, and government workers, which included elected officials, are paid by the people and work for the people.
Comment by Will County Woman Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 11:20 am
I had been working on the assumption of different types of services than are being discussed here. That has an effect on my response re the services taxes. I think that people could very well reduce their use of services in a recession which reduce revenues when, as some put it, there is more need for revenues. I wouldn’t be surprised if this tax would go thru. Think about it - we want to increase gambling opportunities to raise revenue (re my comment yesterday about the elderly and disabled being prevalant at the “boats”) and now we want to raise taxes on dog grooming which could result in more people doing it themselves. A tax increase may be inevitable but dealing with the exploding hunger of the state should come first.
Comment by dupage dan Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 11:28 am
dupage dan
Since you asked, here are the numbers on the tax votes:
There were 31 Democratic senators who voted for an income tax hike last year and 42 Democrats in the House for a total of 73, which is 68% of the 107 Democrats in the G.A. While 31 was sufficient to pass the bill in the Senate, 42 was not in the House.
Consequently, some GOP votes are needed in the House. If and when the state budget collapses, why is it totally the fault of the party of 68% with zero responsibility for the party of zero?
Comment by reformer Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 11:32 am
“lower the rates, broaden the base, get the hell out of the way”.
That confirms what I have believed all along… better to have a small tax that everyone pays, than a big tax only a few people pay. A few extra pennies on each purchase won’t kill anyone, but discovering they owe a few hundred or few thousand more bucks to the government at tax time is another story.
Comment by Secret Square Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 11:32 am
reformer please. it’s what the senate dems are doing and aren’t doing this year. this year they are all-good with kicking the can down the road!
wordslinger- brady is not the governor. he’ll present the specifics of his plan, but why are you and others worried about him when it was quinn’s job to present a budget a couple of weeks ago? you and others should be far more worried with his plan, as his plan has an impact on this state in real-time. he has shown a propensity to be derlict in his duties particularly where budget matters are concerned. be afraid. be very afraid.
Comment by Will County Woman Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 11:33 am
Again, Please explain why a 10% cut in Illinois budget is so bad. Illinois budgets have increased over 20& in the past four years so why can’t we bite the bullet as families and private enterprises have had to do. University presidents whine, yet the U Of IL only spend 21& on teaching.
I believe we still will need a tax increase to dig us out of this huge hole the inept leaders have gotten us into, but let’s cut first.
Comment by downstate hack Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 11:36 am
nice math reformer!
But the reality is that the party in power is going to get blamed by the voters for the lack of solutions. Democrats have been in charge of both chambers and the Governor’s mansion since 2003.
Your statistical analysis of the blame equation aside - Democrats are going to be blamed by the voters in November.
Comment by siriusly Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 11:38 am
Will County Woman,
Brady’s plan is not what it seems. A 10% across the board cut is, in reality, worse for most than it sounds. The bonds that have to be paid back and the interest on them cannot be cut. So, other places actually lose more than 10%. Im not saying cuts arent needed, but this was nothing more than a nice statement to use for 30 second ads. As far as the Dems go, they have been less than stellar performers in this play. Cuts are needed and adding programs now is not wise or needed. But, without a tax hike, at least a temporary one with spending freezes and cuts in place, this state is in for a financial doomesday.
Comment by Vandalia Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 11:42 am
The reason it will be the Dems fault when the budget collapses is they are the ones who have been in charge the last 6 years and have passed hundreds of millions in new programs without any thought of paying for them. It was done time after time with full knowledge they were mortgageing the future of the state but it didn’t matter all that mattered was having a press confrence to announce another give away. Now the bill is Durand the GOP should refuse to raise taxs until all these unfunded programs are done away with.
Comment by Fed up Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 11:51 am
vandalia, normally i would agree with you about across-the-board cuts from a public finance/budgeting perspective. unfortuantely because quinn is late on delivering his budget address so, i cannot fully elaborate on why i am not jumping on the bandwagon to knock bill brady.
Comment by Will County Woman Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 12:04 pm
So will this be the 2nd day in a row that the Illinois Democrats can’t find a single thing in state government to cut by 10%? Boy are they inept.
Comment by TaxMeMore Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 12:11 pm
Angry Chicagoan has it right:
The best tax policy is one that spreads the tax burden fairly and broadly, rather than picking individual winners and losers.
Vandalia is also correct, but Brady’s policy of 10% cuts isn’t just worse than it sounds. Across-the-board cuts are both lazy and cowardly. Lazy because it makes it pretty obvious that even after all of his years of voting for budgets, Brady has never bothered to drill down below the top lines and isn’t going to bother himself with it as Governor.
Cowardly, because once you drill down and determining which programs are priorities and which aren’t, which programs work and which don’t, you have to go out there and tell some folks they’re getting Nada this year, instead of 90%.
Finally, it leads to horrible budget decisions, because when you cut programs by 10%, you still need most if not all of the staff to manage them. But when you eliminate an entire program because you decide “Hey, the state of Illinois just isn’t going to be in the Wine Business anymore,” you can eliminate the entire administrative staff.
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 12:17 pm
Across-the-board cuts are both lazy and cowardly. Lazy because it makes it pretty obvious that even after all of his years of voting for budgets, Brady has never bothered to drill down below the top lines and isn’t going to bother himself with it as Governor.—ydd
that’s rich ydd! and years of kicking the can down the road with stopgap after stopgap isn’t lazy and cowardly on the dems’ part? quinn included. we have a sitting governor who threw his hands up last year and said the heck with it, more concerned about his political future than anything else, who appears to be poised to do the same thing again. and ydd, you have no qualms whatsoever about cheerleading for him? are you kidding me?!?
Comment by Will County Woman Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 12:26 pm
While angry chicagoan has explained it well the problem I have is that while the base could be broadened how much faith do you have that the rates will be lowered? In this state? Really?
I am all for simplifying the tax system, removing some loopholes, and broadening the base. Worked for Reagan when he worked out the tax cuts with Sen. Bill Bradley. Could work here, too.
Drilling down and discovering which programs are priorities are all well and good until the lobbying goes on by all the targeted programs which will have ample proof of how important and vital the service they provide. The programs targeted for termination will not go gently into that good night. You think they will walk away without a fight? Do you want to be the gov who identifies that program for termination? Can you honestly say that you believe PQ would come out with such a list? Really?
Comment by dupage dan Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 12:34 pm
==The best tax policy is one that spreads the tax burden fairly and broadly, rather than picking individual winners and losers.===
You mean like the GRT?
Comment by Bill Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 12:37 pm
This state is doomed.
Comment by Moving to Oklahoma Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 12:43 pm
dupage dan, do you think anyone in this state would stand for a 10 percent across-the-board tax on services? I know it may not seem like it at times but we have one of the lowest-tax cultures in the Midwest, one of the lowest numbers of state employees per unit of population, the lowest income tax and a below-average overall tax burden. I don’t think any other Midwestern state would let a budget crisis go this far without even making a serious attempt to do something about it on the revenue side.
Bill, yours is a straw man. GRT was shot down resoundingly and rightly so. It’s one thing to tax profits, net income, and liquid transactions, quite another to go and slap on top of those taxes another layer of taxes that completely ignores basics like cash flow and profits. GRT would have been disastrous for small business in this state as small businesses typically have much tighter cash flow, much less of a cushion, much smaller profit margins. Think of the difference between a publicly listed retail giant where the GRT would have been a diminution of the shareholders’ dividend, and a mom-and-pop where the “dividend” is the basic living income of the owners and a GRT would have been a direct pay cut — and I hope you’ll get the idea. GRT would have been another typical regressive Illinois tax. It’s time to get away from that Illinois approach of taxing the have-nots more than the haves.
Comment by Angry Chicagoan Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 12:52 pm
Gee, I wonder if “legal services” like those supplied by Mike Madigan’s law firm and a large number of the members of the GA will be taxed?
Comparing the “services” provided in Illinois with those in North Dakota and Delaware, sparsely populated states hardly known for “high tech”, financial, research and engineering services, truly is ludicrous.
Engineering alone adds over $1 billion to the Illinois economy every year. Low income taxes are one of the reasons so many national engineering firms locate here, as well as a large supply of quality professionals and technical education institutions.
Drive that business to Indiana, Iowa, Missouri and Wisconsin and you lose a TREMENDOUS amount of tax revenue.
We’ve driven any hope of low cost manufacturing help away by making minimum wage above the national average. We have dramatically higher Workmans comp costs, and our anti-right to work and “jackpot justice” protective legislature has ensured we will not get any manufacturing growth.
Will the last person to leave Illinois please remember to turn off the lights?
Comment by PalosParkBob Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 1:01 pm
A service tax will probably be off limits because it would impact the sacrosanct agriculture sector.
Or, I guess the ag service industries could be exempted. Anyway, you can expect them to raise a storm like they did when Blago attempted hitting ag with a sales tax. (OK, I expect someone on here will blast me for even mentioning agriculture, hehehe.)
Although the process of an independent performance audit of agencies, departments, divisions, and individuals would take more time than we have now, such a process makes a lot of sense compared with across the board tax cuts. The agencies cannot perform such an audit themselves. But every level of state government needs a thorough audit to determine their missions and how effectively and efficiently they are performed. Where has mission creep occurred? Is the mission still essential? Can private companies perform these missions more cost effectively? Which employees are pulling their weight? Which are unqualified patronage hires who filled positions that should be performed by those hired strictly by merit?
Just some examples of the tons of questions that need to be asked. I have no doubt that if done intelligently, 10% could be cut from the state budget without jeopardizing essential services. But would the political process allow such an intelligent process to proceed? My guess is that there are too many interests vested in keeping the process of governance on the low side of smart.
Comment by vole Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 1:02 pm
“Although the process of an independent performance audit of agencies, departments, divisions, and individuals would take more time than we have now, such a process makes a lot of sense compared with across the board tax cuts.”
I meant across the board budget cuts.
Comment by vole Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 1:08 pm
I think people are fiddling with the edges of the problem here without getting to the core. When you have a 50 percent budget deficit, NOTHING should be off the table. Maybe something, somewhere, that has already endured a disproportionate share of cuts or is already disproportionately taxed or is disproportionately necessary can escape further pain — but you can’t rule out anything. A ten percent budget cut is not a panacea — you’ve still got another 40 percent to worry about. Shredding the safety net to Deep South levels won’t single-handedly solve the problems either. Nor will privatizing the universities, or doubling the income tax, or statewide tolls on interstates, or abolishing revenue sharing, or making a 401k out of the pension system for new hires, or leveling out sales and services taxes and broadening the base. Several of these things have to be done in combination.
Comment by Angry Chicagoan Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 1:11 pm
AC,
I agree with you that few would accept the 10% tax on services. Few people in this state will accept any cuts in programs/services that the state provides and they won’t accept any tax increases either. That’s the situation this state is in. All the more reason to refrain from adding programs and services that the state doesn’t have now. People want something for nothing. Big surprise. Another Captain Obvious moment. Now what.
I saw recently where Illinois is ranked 41 in the total tax burden, including townships and forest preserve districts, etc. While that seems to mean there is room to grow, revenue-wise, good luck making that happen. There is no one in a leadership position in this state who is making the case for the hard but important decisions and changes necessary for this state. These people want us to (re)elect them to these positions when they offer no decent plan or idea on how to deal with this mess. Set aside for a moment who did what when. Ignore the past for a moment. The ruling class in this state has nothing to say to us. There is only machiavellian, partisan, book-cooking going on. This from the man who claimed to be for the people - Mr Populist. Fumigate!
I am not forgetting MJM, here. I can’t fumigate him so it’s a waste of breath. The only way he loses his exalted position as speaker of the house is if the dems lose control of it. Enough democrat members lose in nov may bring that about. A man can dream, tho, can’t he?
Comment by dupage dan Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 1:20 pm
Sorry but mos people are missing the point.
26 billion discretionary spending.
22 of that is spent on education and health care.
13 billion dollar deficit.
10% cut gets you maybe 2:25 billion. What about the other 10.75 billion?
There are no easy answers. Anybody who tells you there are (Sens. Murphy, Brady, etc.) Is LYING to you.
Comment by Chicago Cynic Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 1:34 pm
CC,
PQ’s easy answer is a tax increase. That ain’t gonna fly, either. He can’t even bring himself to fire one RB hire or cut one RB program (free rides for seniors) even with support from many quarters. He. is. not. gov. material.
Comment by dupage dan Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 1:52 pm
Doesn’t a 10% across the board cut really mean a 20% hit to the discretionary spending part of the budget? If the Budget is about $54B and operating/discretionary is $26B then $28B is untouchable bonds/investments. That means discretionary has to take a 21% hit to allow a 10% hit of the $54B total. That’ll go over well.
Comment by zatoichi Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 2:16 pm
Did the Democrats have the Chair of the Illinois Arts Council come in to testify why that budget can’t be cut by 10%? No? Horse racing subsidy testimony? 10% cuts to their legislative paychecks and expenses? Nothing they could find to cut 10%?
So for two days Illinois Democrats have been saying that nothing can be cut by 10% to prove Brady is wrong about wanting to cut everything by 10%. Which only proves they are both wrong if it proves anything at all.
The number of self identified Democrats and Republicans are declining and the number of political independents is rising for good reason in Illinois.
AIG got like $180 Billion. Is Durbin spending more time helping Alexi or finding Illinois some more federal money? They just spent $10 Billion on the unemployment extension without any thought of how to pay for it, so why not hit them up for $10 billion to Illinois? What, we’re not as important as AIG and Goldman Sachs? Illinois isn’t too big to fail?
Comment by TaxMeMore Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 2:25 pm
Here is a link to a discussion on budget from the 2006 gubernatorial campaign. The links to referenced responses still seem to work:
https://capitolfax.com/2006/08/31/2212/
Comment by Captain Flume Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 2:55 pm
I get your point Dupage Dan, but whether Pat can get a tax increase or not, the numbers are the numbers and everyone needs to come to grips with them.
26, 22, 13. Can’t balance budget on cuts alone. Civic Federation had exactly the right idea.
Comment by Chicago Cynic Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 3:52 pm
Yes, the numbers are the numbers. That is clear.
We don’t have leaders. That is clear.
Horrific. That is clear.
Comment by dupage dan Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 4:19 pm
On that DD, you and I agree 100%! I would also add shameless, irresponsible, reckless and enormously destructive. In three years we’ve wracked up a deficit of $1,000 for every man, woman and child in Illinois.
Comment by Chicago Cynic Thursday, Mar 4, 10 @ 8:50 pm