Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Question of the day

Posted in:

Illinois

How would you fund a multi-billion dollar capital construction bill? Gaming expansion? Asset sales/lease (like the Lottery)? Tax hike? Something else? Explain fully.

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 9:13 am

Comments

Maybe it’s time Illinois moves to a progressive income tax structure. Which would require that those who earn more pay a higher percentage of income tax.

Comment by Rolling Meadows Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 9:23 am
All those people who stood up last summer and said they would support the lottery lease if it went to something like Capital must be biting their tongues right now.

Comment by j Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 9:28 am
If I were Gov. B, I would propose leasing the state parks to rich people as private estates or some other wacky scheme that will catch everyone off guard.

I’m not Gov B., so here goes.

FIRST: I think it makes sense to raise the income tax to pay for current activities and pay off recurring debt. We need to fix the “structural” deficit before we can justify paying for capital projects. In addition, some money that should be used for capital is being diverted to plug holes in operations. Ideally, I would propose a constitutional amendment allowing a graduated tax.

SECOND: I would expand the sales tax to cover services and use that money to pay for construction bonds. In the future, keep that money dedicated to capital projects/bond retirement. Capital projects need a steady source of revenue; it’s not like we’re going to stop building roads & buildings & fixing what we have.

THIRD: I would dedicate one-time revenues to paying off old debt (pension funds & overdue bills).

Unfortunately, this probably won’t happen, because it involves telling the people of Illinois that everything the State does costs money and if they want something, they have to expect to pay for it. Over the past few decades, Republicans & Democrats have led voters to believe this is not so.

Comment by Pot calling kettle Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 9:30 am
Since I never go to any of the gaming establishments in Illinois, I say that.

True to Illinois form, I believe the best money spent is someone else’s….

Comment by Leroy Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 9:31 am
Fund it with gaming. No one wants income or sales tax increases. Big Business says they’ll leave the state, cut back or pass on additional taxes to consumers. The problem is, gaming must be done immediately, and should have been done long ago. With racinos in Iowa, casinos in Wisconsin, boats in Indiana, and a constitutional proposal before the voters in Kentucky to allow casinos, the market value of our ‘new’ casino-boat licenses can’t be worth close to the value last few years. Pass it now, while there’s still demand-supply value.

Comment by DE Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 9:33 am
pass HB1 then worry bout funding sources

Comment by Z Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 9:36 am
I agree with Rolling Meadows, but I’d like to see all seniors, disabled, and veterans put in the lowest bracket.

Comment by Johnny USA Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 9:38 am
I suppose that I don’t have a problem with taxing casino revenues. In fact I’d turn Illinois into another version of Nevada, with no restrictions on gambling. No need for casino licenses at all!

Oh and I wonder if you can find money in certain areas by making some cuts here and there.

Comment by Levois Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 9:39 am
I forgot. We will keep gaming as is (the cat’s out of the bag). But it will not be expanded. It’s not a golden goose and is likely to dry up at an inopportune time.

Comment by Pot calling kettle Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 9:43 am
This might sound really crazy, but how about cutting the budget and spending less?

Or are you folks unable to consider doing with less of this “fabulous” government of ours?

Comment by VanillaMan Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 9:49 am
Impeach the governor…nothing can be done until he’s gone. Then cut all the new spending and programs from the last six years, work with the General Assembly for a change to determine the true priorities of the state and then fund them, and then cut programs that serve only a handful of special interests. That should provide a revenue stream to pay a bond authorization.

Comment by Commonsense in Illinois Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 9:53 am
Since the lottery was supposed to fund education, I wouldn’t touch it for a capital bill. Since Milorod won’t support income/sales tax hike, and the ‘user fees’ of Ryan’s Build Illinois have already been used (license plate, title, liquor and real estate transfer), that counts them out. Giving Chicago a casino (or two) is about the only way to make it go. Down here by St. Louis, we also contend with casinos in Missouri who allow you to smoke while playing! Casino licenses still has all if not more value…video poker machines in Cornbread, Iowa, will not matter to whoever gets the right to build a gambling (oops, GAMING) shrine on the shores of Lake Michigan. Let’s just cut the ‘riverboat’ crap out of it and let them build on dry land. I rode the Alton Belle once when it actually sailed and I think it caused me to lose at the roulette wheel! Give Chicago casinos, let them play slots at the horsetracks (maybe black them out during actual lvie races) and we can sit back and admire billions of dollars worth of new roads and schools. But, Gov. uses his amendatory veto to require each building to have his portrait, each road to have a sign with his name, and seniors get to use all of them free!

Comment by South of I-70 Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 9:56 am
VM: What would you cut?

Usually people don’t value services used by others. (Gov. B cutting DNR is a classic example.) So, if you cut someone else’s pet, you should propose a cut to one of your own as well.

Comment by Pot calling kettle Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 9:56 am
Reduce income tax to 2%. Double sales tax and expand to everything. Pre-bate sales tax costs up to (poverty level)*(rate).

Comment by Greg Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 9:58 am
Migrating from a flat income tax structure to a graduated/progressive income tax structure seems to be the fairest and easiest to implement. It will certainly be unpopular on its face, but may be the most equitable for the following reasons:

1) It avoids the tired and ill-conceived notion of slamming businesses, which already generate more than 80% of the state’s tax revenue. The risk of losing businesses would be far more detrimental to the tax base than the risk of losing individuals. If businesses come here, the people will follow.

2) It shifts more of the burden to the people who can most afford it; that is, upper class citizens will absorb the higher rate with more ease, and their spending habits will be unaffected relative to those with less income.

3) It avoids the political and populist backlash associated with fee increases. While fees can be a good source of consumption-driven revenue and should be considered under the right circumstances, they are frequently implemented arbitrarily and more often than not are a bastardized version of a sales tax increase.

Comment by The Doc Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 10:01 am
Fire 20-30% of the staff, stop the pension system, go to a 401k. Bust up those government unions too.

Comment by c-rock Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 10:02 am
Here are the guys with the answers:
The Governor has asked former U.S. Speaker Denny Hastert & SIU President Glen Poshard to be co-chairs promoting a Capital Bill, and they have accepted.
Hope that does not interfere with WackyJack NoNEW TAX McCain’s IL campaign

Comment by SockPuppet Express Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 10:03 am
I didn’t know c-rock was a Ron Paul supporter…

Comment by South of I-70 Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 10:04 am
Oh and I forgot what about Chairman Andy’s cut taxes and spending plank?
Will SockPuppet Tom be conflicted or just need a little darning?

Comment by SockPuppet Express Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 10:05 am
To: Pot calling kettle.

Eliminate DCEO. The return on the dollars spent there is almost nil. Plus, it is a huge dumping ground for wayyyy overpaid clueless hacks.

Comment by Dirty Bath Water Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 10:06 am
I think Pot Calling Kettle has the basis for a sensible long-term restructuring. Property taxes and education funding should probably be thrown in the mix.

However, because it is sensible and takes the long view, it’s probably unrealistic. Bonds will be backed by gambling expansion.

Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 10:12 am
If you want to increase taxes on the wealthy, define wealthy…and then ask 20 people ot do the same/

Comment by Wumpus Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 10:25 am
Progressive tax, it is clear!

Raise income tax for the people who can most afford it by 15%. Then when rich people everywhere hear about how great our roads and bridges are, they can come and live in our state, and they’ll bring their businesses. Then we can tax the new group even higher, say 15% more on top of the higher level, because they’re richer, and then we can build bigger roads and better bridges. By year 6 or 7, we’ll have all the billionaires in the world (even that Mexican guy) giving us 90% of their income.

Comment by mpkomara Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 10:25 am
Since campaigns seem to be every day, all year round enterprises these days, they should be taxed. Lisa raises 900K in 6 months when she isn’t up for reelection for 3 years? Tax tax tax. You know, since campaign finance will never be reformed in IL…

Comment by Bill S. Preston, Esq. Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 10:25 am
The transportation and infrastructure portion of a capital bill should be funded with user fees - gas tax increase, drivers’ licence hike, vehicle registration fees, etc. If people are forced to think about the true cost of driving, maybe we would take transit more often or, gasp… actually use our legs and walk like the rest of the world does.

We simply aren’t paying for our use of the roads - the last time the gas tax was raised in Illinois to fund transportation improvements was 1990, and it wasn’t indexed for inflation. Therefore, gas tax money doesn’t go very far today in maintaining or building roads.

Politicians need to find some courage and raise the gas tax and other user fees to fix our pot-hole littered roads and deteriorating transit systems. And since the maintenance needs are astronomical - $40 billion in Illinois over the next five years- any new major roads should be paid for by tolls. Off the shelf technology - like open road tolling and GPS - is available to charge users without building a single toll booth.

Comment by Radical Moderate Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 10:28 am
How much of this broken government do you want? If it WORKED, I’d liked to see more - but our state government is broken, isn’t it? Since when do you sink more money into a losing organization?

Enron was ran better than Illinois. Would you put money into Enron? The faith you have in giving your and my money into governments is illogical. You would not support a business ran this poorly, so why are you supporting this mess? You have been brainwashed into accepting poor government performance, incredible waste, ever rising taxes, and politically driven largess at our expense.

Honestly, we can do a whole lot better. You can look at other states and see that they are doing a better job with their tax monies than we are. You can see that they don’t send governors off to prison, don’t have governors that have full-time staffers fighting with federal agents investigating the massive frauds running amok. They have a growing economy, and are giving their citizens services enough to justify needing more.

But not Illinois!

So don’t fall for this idea that our problems can be solved by giving it more money. Pouring more water into a broken vase doesn’t fill it up, and wastes water, doesn’t it?

Our state government has overgrown it’s need. Instead of trimming and cutting the excess, our politicians are just asking for more. Instead of re-prioritizing our policies to reflect the changes we have been seeing in business, our economy, and our citizens, our state has kept the sacred cows and turn to us for more money. This is wasteful, and needs to stop.

So stop sucking up to the idea that we have to come up with more money for these lazy, overpaid people! How many different ways do you want to be broke?

We have a very poor situation ahead of us in 2008 - the time to slash and cut agency budgets across the board, and rescind the wasteful Blagojevichian programs now. He gambled at our expense that our economy would grow enough to pay back the borrowing and budget overruns, but it hasn’t. Now we are worse off than before!

We are in this together. Cut across the board!

Comment by VanillaMan Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 10:35 am
Anyone know how to get a copy of the Gov’s budget address after he speaks today?

Comment by Inquiring Mind Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 10:36 am
- Radical Moderate -
NO !

Comment by A Citizen Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 10:36 am
Casinos. Just do it and find out whether they are the great panacea or a scourge. As long as they are an unused option, they are a distraction in the way of any reasonable solution.

Comment by RBD Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 10:40 am
raise my income tax…or use a progressive income tax…I’d even settle for a temporary income tax hike but make temporary 2 or 3 years.

Comment by Mongo Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 10:45 am
These are long-term bonds, so a temporary tax hike won’t do it, unless it’s huge enough to pay off the bonds in 2 or 3 years.

Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 10:51 am
Do not fund it w/expanded gambling revenues. Raisde the income tax and if possible make it graduated or some sembelence of that w/o a constitutional convention.

Doug Dobmeyer

Comment by Doug Dobmeyer Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 10:54 am
Why not just do another license plate fee increase? At last Geo Ryan had the courage to link come up with a revenue source that had some plausible connection to the bonding program. It seems to me we’re losing our ability (or chutzpah) to look people in the eye and tell them how much their government costs them.

Comment by The Elderly Republican Tomato Farmer Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 10:55 am
Definitely gaming. Besides the upfront money and the taxes collected the economic development from new constructiion would immediately help the ailing constructuion trades. The race tracks and existing casinos could break ground on multi-million dollar projects in short order. While Chicago and wherever new licenses go would start up with their projects in a year or two. Probably a couple of billion worth of development.

Comment by Been There Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 11:12 am
Pass a law saying a cut of the revenue from all traffic cameras (including speeding and red light) must be sent to Springfield as tribute. A tax on traffic cameras, if you will.

The money can then be used to improve the quality of life for all residents of Illinois, not just some.

Comment by Nice Idea Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 11:12 am
Inquiring Mind:
Just do it like the Blaggodiot….reach down and pull it out of your A&(_&)&()&

Comment by IDTYT Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 11:13 am
Stop diverting money from highway user fee accounts. GOV and GA have stolen highway money for too long. NOw we have potholes we can’t fix and we risk losing federal money becaause of a lack of a capital program.

Comment by MAL Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 11:36 am
VM is on the money.

Don’t get sucked into the way to fund what is broken. First fix the way the state is run. It has been a shell game for years.

Lottery for schools - General fund revenue for schools reduced
Illinois first - The fund became a vehicle for political payback
the list can be continued….

Pensions, property taxes, school issues all need an adult to look at and fix.

Graduated income tax? bah. Where do you draw the line? In our area 2 wage earners who are at the starting end of the school compensation ladder will gross more than 75K per year. Are they rich? After they get done with their school loans and property taxes, they need to scramble to pay a mortgage or rent. Sales taxes exceeding 10%, property transfer taxes, gas taxes (automatically indexed for inflation when a percentage) How do you propose they save for retirement or having a family?

To top things off state services stink. We here are just starting to see pavement after the last snowfall. (and that pavement is heavily damaged)

Find an adult to fix what is broken before demanding more money from the taxpayers.

Comment by plutocrat03 Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 11:37 am
Use a combination of gaming expansion and outsourcing:
A. Start dog tracks all over the state. We are going to the dogs anyway so we need the company.
B. Start pools related to local current events. When will the Gov get indicted? How long of a sentence does he get? The list is endless.
C. Lots of casinos on Lake Shore Drive. If global warming trends continue, we could rival Vegas.
D. Outsource state services to India. They work cheap and do not need a pension.
E. Hire Red Chinese Army to clear streets and roads of snow and ice.
F. Send all prisoners in the DOC to the Phillipines. It worked for Britain and Australia.
G. Lease the public universities to Korea, Japan, China and India. Our tuition looks like a bargain.
H. Lease state parks to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. They have deep pockets.

Comment by Enemy of the State Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 11:56 am
First thing to do would be to go through every program, agency and department in the state and see what areas can be trimmed, reduce or eliminated if the need be and long with that look at reforming the state pension system. I also have no problem with expanding gaming or for that matter I would be willing to accept an increase in some user fees. The main area that should be looked at is decreasing the amount of spending that the State undertakes.

Comment by RMW Stanford Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 12:28 pm
The governor’s plan is brilliant!

Borrow, borrow, borrow. It’s amazing how many different ways you can borrow money.

Comment by Pot calling kettle Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 12:48 pm
I would start by scaling back the capital construction plan. The state is a debtor with a shopping addiction. I would not advise a person who is facing a home foreclosure to purchase a yacht or travel on the Orient Express. The state should patch up the existing framework and limit its expansion plans for the time being.

Comment by Jake from Elwood Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 2:05 pm
So many think eliminating unnecessary govt spending, or reducing govt spending is all that needs to happen. Sell the Gov’s jet ( he doesn’t have one,), replace the pension system with a 401k, etc.

We elect people to represent us. Does anyone wonder why not one of our elected officials ever presents a specific plan along these simple lines, with the specific cuts that could be made to solve the problem? For better or worse, it’s because they know more than you do.

First, there’s the problem that no one will put their names on a list of cuts sufficient to solve the problem. Second, if any such list ever magically came into existence, it could never be passed by the legislature (which is a big reason why no one will put their name on it to start with), and I don’t mean just this D legislature, I mean any legislature.

I believe the problem could be somewhat addressed by holding state spending level for 2 or 3 years, but even that would require huge cuts. Even if the state does nothing new each new fiscal year, the cost of doing business goes on up because people charge the state more for things they sell us, wages go up because of agreed upon contracts and pay plans, the cost of benefits for the poor go up because hospitals and doctors have to charge us more, because they are being charged more by their suppliers, etc, etc. And, those costs go up faster than our revenues do.

So, to hold spending level, each year we would have to cut the programs that don’t grow by the amount of unavoidable spending growth in other areas.

Use this year as an example. Pension contributions have to go up by law by $750m, and not because we added any new benefits (btw, with that increase I don’t think we are quite yet paying the interest on the past underfunding, much less starting to pay off the debt). Because of increases in enrollment and other factors, we will have to increase our payments to local k-12 schools and community colleges. Premiums on health insurance will grow, as will enrollment in programs aiding the needy, probably by more than we anticipated a year ago because of the slowing of the economy, and on and on.

Add it all up and you just can’t make it happen. Do you think every legislator, every governor we’ve elected over the past 25 years is just stupid or corrupt? Then why do none of them make the very simple proposals that so many of you believe would solve the problem? Oh, and btw, why do you keep electing them?

We get exactly what we want.

Comment by steve schnorf Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 2:25 pm
raise my taxes a point.

Add a high income bracket (individuals over $100k, families over $200k), tax at marginal rate of 6%

Comment by jerry 101 Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 2:31 pm
“Blaggodiot” is a gratuitous insult and “reach down and pull it out of your A&(_&)&()&” is really form of profanity, or at best useless vulgarity. I hope this kind of posting is not viewed as productive discourse.

Comment by anon Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 2:33 pm
1. Cut spending by ending no bid contracts, eliminating $60,000 a year internships and stuffing money into the wallets of campaign contributors.

2. Progressive income tax (4% for those who make over 100k and tie it to inflation)

3. Reform the sales tax structure to include service’s (progressive) and lower the overall sales tax rate.

4. Focus on economic development; I agree that DCEO should be completely overhauled but not abandoned.

Comment by ahoy! Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 2:52 pm
Steve S. is on target.

Everyone wants program cuts, but never to programs from which they benefit. Thus there is rarely, if ever, real support for specific cuts. On top of that, voters buy into the no tax/tax cut promises that are incredibly irresponsible given that no spending cuts will be forthcoming.

One solution: When a candidate rails on and on about taxes, ask them, specifically, what program their constituents like that they are willing to cut. Because if they are not willing to bear some of the pain of spending cuts, they should not promote cutting revenue.

Comment by Pot calling kettle Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 2:58 pm
Pay as you go on capital; do not build anything that the bonds will outrun. No one wants to be paying 20 years from now on a project that needed fixing in 15 (IOW, capital should be exactly that-long term durable projects instead of pothole patching and leaky roof repair). An increase in the state gas tax of 5c seems reasonable, as does an increase in the state income tax to 4% for higher incomes, as yet to be defined. Do structural reforms before these measures are instituted to minimize waste and cronyism. It’s the people’s money, and they shouldn’t be the payers in “pay to play”, especially when the results are less than stellar.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 3:17 pm
c rock - May I come into your workplace and take your pension and lay you off?

The reason why our roads are falling apart is that Gov Ryan cut the gas tax for a number of years which cut the amount of dollars going into the road program and then Rod came along hand has swept it like he has swept other DEDICATED FUNDS.
WE the peons that work for the state have been asking for years that the bureaucrats stop buying and accepting nrew areas and give us the money to maintain what we have. They have not done that. the reason? You can’t cut a ribbon and get your picture for fixing plumbing. So we have lagged behind in the maintenance of our facilities for the last 20 years. Instead we have been developing areas like the World Shooting Complex and Jim Edgar Park.
One way we could save money is to get rid of CMS. Rod has allowed that agency to grow into a money sucking behemoth.
Another way to get a huge influx of money into the system would be to offer all state employees the opportunity to buy five years of service only as it relates to their retirement formula. Probably every state employee would partake of that. All the monies would have to be paid in by the end of the year. This would generate a large influx of money into the system and most of it would not be paid out for 10 to 20 years down the road. It would be like borrowing the money to fund the pension system from those that will use it.

Comment by Irish Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 4:04 pm
So Gov Ryan cut the gax tax. Interesting. I didn’t know that.

Comment by steve schnorf Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 4:38 pm
About four years ago there was a national news story with a list of the states as ranked by the bloat judged to be in the state government. IL was in the bare bones category. (Sadly I did not keep a copy of the story.)

While we have seen some exceptions to this play out in the press the one state department I am familiar with has been running on fumes since Blago took over.

Comment by RBD Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 4:47 pm
Sell the state planes, lease out the mansion & take Blagos travel allowances away for starters

Comment by annon Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 5:17 pm
Steve S-

Wasn’t that the temporary suspension of the state sales tax on gasoline when gas prices got high…and I thought it was in Edgar’s term, not Ryans. In any case, it didn’t last too long. And in any case, it was a hit on the General Fund and not infrastructure or highways, because that’s where the state sales tax on gas goes.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 5:32 pm
RBD-

IL is at, or is near, dead last in ratio of state employees per 1,000 population, if that’s what you mean.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 5:33 pm
6, yes, you’re right. Ryan never cut the gas tax. The sales tax on gasoline, which doesn’t go into the road fund, was suspended for 6 months at the insistence of the Senate Rs. We never should have agreed to it, but that’s life. I was just being sh***y by acting as if I didn’t know.

Comment by steve schnorf Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 6:20 pm
Six – yes; thanks. It’s a BLS figure. Of course, I’m sure we are still #1 in the number of local government entities. But that doesn’t address the state situation where cutting employees equals cancelling programs.

Comment by RBD Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 7:22 pm
I like the Doc’s progressive tax proposal, even though he dissed me recently..

No new gaming; 10th license and all renewals at market rates.

No more fund sweeps and stop the non-IDOT diversions from the Road Fund.

Cap the Section 25 carryover and stick to it.

A temporary, progressive tax on all pensions over $50,000 to help pay down the unfunded pension liability-no more debt.

Can Filan.

Use university income and auxiliary funds to pay for building repairs only until the backlog of projects is reasonably cut down. The spending on unneeded buildings at UIUC alone is obscene, given the condition of core academic buildings. (They just tore down a perfectly good rec center and built another one in addition to the other new one they built on the other side of campus.)

Privatize student housing.

Give CMS and DCEO a big enema. (Pardon the expression, but that’s all I could think of.)

Eliminate the State Board of Investment. Put the state employees’ money in some index funds and they would be well ahead of ISBI.

Don’t expect to save squat by “cutting waste, fraud, and abuse.” (except as noted above.)

Comment by Arthur Andersen Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 7:27 pm
it’s important to keep the gov from “sweeping” any funds as he hasd in the past. For instance if you are raising money for housing, then it should be spent on housing.

an issue the gov should get behind - as it’s cheap and would be very helpful to military people from Illinois serving in Iraq. The state could do screening tests for returning vets to see if they have any ill effects from the Depleted Uranium used in small arms and armor piercing ammunition. On impact the bullet or shell spews out a radioactive gas that is highly toxic. Wisconsin just passed a law on this issue that will help service people.

BTW, i think the idea of holding the line on the budget for 2 or 3 years is a good idea.

Doug Dobmeyer

Comment by Doug Dobmeyer Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 7:35 pm
Pass the hat. An extra five spot from everyone would be a start to a nice capital construction fund. How many people live in Illinois?

Comment by AJ Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 8:51 pm
Reduce the overpromising we made on pensions, perhaps with an upfront payment/buyout. If the economy plunges, we’ll have to cut them anyway.

Bring the real world to state health insurance costs by focusing on prevention and catastrophic coverage, not paying for every broken finger or flu visit. The whole point of health insurance is to keep you from going bankrupt and it’s a whole lot cheaper when the deductible is a few thousand dollars, which won’t bankrupt most people.

Fewer dollars for roads to feed our oil addiction that drains our economy when we could work much more efficiently online. Same for higher education and high schools.

As for funding, why is gambling so illegal compared to more dangerous addictions like alcohol and nicotine?

Why are nickel slots illegal? It’s not like anyone could even hope to make a living playing them.

If the mob doesn’t want competition, all the more reason to legalize more gambling.

Wasn’t our country founded on personal freedom? Bans only encourage black markets and violence. Far wiser to regulate and sin tax, not to mention better for democracy.

Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 9:10 pm
Fewer dollars for roads to feed our oil addiction that drains our economy when we could work much more efficiently online.

OK, when all the bridges crumble and we’re starving to death, I’ll look for you to send me some food online. Maybe we could grow crops online, too.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Wednesday, Feb 20, 08 @ 9:16 pm
Let us separate Capital Funding (including Improvements and Extensions) from Maintenance Funding (including Repairs and Replacements.)

The former need to be funded using Bonds whose average life does not extend beyond the average economic life of the Asset being financed.

That is truly a Capital Budget.

The latter need to be funded by an ongoing program which uses current revenues from dedicated sources, hopefully related to the asset being financed. Unfortunately in many areas repairs on items of State responsibility have been postponed. The extraordinary items need to be wedged into the budget by posponing some nice to do stuff also being funded by current revenues.

The problem is, whenever taxes are raised for any purpose, after the purpose has been saitsified the politicians find other reasons to keep it on.

Comment by Truthful James Thursday, Feb 21, 08 @ 7:47 am