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We’ll always have Paris

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Illinois

* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…

I think by now you can see why Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s campaign spent so much money over the past month or so on TV and digital ads touting the state’s improved fiscal position.

Illinoisans have been (accurately) fed fiscal horror stories about their state for decades. I don’t have to tell you that Illinois is infamous for its fiscal ineptitude on a grand scale.

I wrote years ago that, collectively, we suck at governing. Huge pension debts, constantly on the verge of a junk bond rating from New York, a narrow tax base that doesn’t tap into services and upper incomes, and governors who either don’t care about the consequences of their decisions or are too inept to fix or ameliorate the problems they know exist.

So, those ads, I believe, were aired in order to prepare the ground for the governor’s budget proposal he submitted this past week.

“For the first time in more than 20 years,” a television news anchor says in one of the ads, “a bond ratings agency upgraded Illinois’ credit rating.”

“This upgrade means lower costs for taxpayers,” another anchor explains.

“J.B.’s straightening out the state’s finances, passing balanced budgets and getting bills paid on time,” a guy named Bill Hincks claims in another ad.

Team Pritzker could see the spending and revenue numbers as they came in for the past few months, and they knew the state had at least temporarily turned the corner.

But they also likely knew they needed to get the word out there before the governor laid out his new budget, which will pay down debt and temporarily cut taxes so people would be more likely to buy into it.

“For years in Illinois, they left bills unpaid, ruined our credit and racked up over a billion dollars in interest penalties,” Pritzker said in an ad that started running in early January. “As governor, I was determined to help fix the financial mess. Now, Illinois is keeping its promises by passing real balanced budgets. We’re cutting costs, paying bills on time and paying down our debt — saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. And our credit rating has been upgraded for the first time in 20 years.”

The Illinois Republican Party responded to that spot by claiming the governor was “launching a new political ad that laughably tries to convince Illinois families ‘we’re on the right track.’” Everyone pretty much believes the state is messed up, so it’s not a difficult pitch to make.

But then came last week’s budget address.

Pritzker proposed $1 billion, one-year tax cut that was widely derided by Republicans who didn’t mention that two top House Republicans had proposed an eerily similar temporary tax cut a couple of months ago.

One of those two Republicans is now Republican gubernatorial candidate Richard Irvin’s running mate. Irvin has called the tax cut a “gimmick” and an attempt to “buy off” voters. I haven’t yet had a chance to ask him about his running mate’s plan.

The governor also wants to direct an extra half billion into the state’s pension systems to pay down debt, which he says will save taxpayers $1.8 billion in the long run.

The College Illinois savings program was deeply in debt, so Pritzker wants to wipe it out with $230 million, which will save taxpayers even more money down the road.

Almost $900 million will go to pay off a health insurance debt the state has had for longer than I can remember. And $800 million will be deposited into the state’s empty rainy-day fund.

The Republicans objected, saying it was all an illusion. The budget coffers are overflowing with money because of federal stimulus programs. They’re not wrong, but those things I mentioned were all one-time expenditures.

Hey, we’ll see how long this fiscal bliss lasts. One of the reasons these tax cuts and other budgetary moves are one-year plans is because things could go south in a hurry if the federal stimulus programs really do end, and state and local governments are again left to fend for themselves.

And if we slide into recession, then Illinois could wind up right back where it started: in a very deep hole.

But if it all eventually goes to heck in a handbasket again, I can at least look back with a smile on this relatively brief window of financial pleasantness when I’m old and decrepit. It’s really quite nice. I hope we can keep it this way. But this is Illinois, after all.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Feb 7, 22 @ 9:29 am

Comments

“when I’m old and decrepit.”

Your optimism is uplifting. /s

Comment by Ducky LaMoore Monday, Feb 7, 22 @ 9:45 am
Only in Illinois could a college SAVINGS program be $230 million in debt. Poor design, mismanagement, illogical commitments, all the above?

Comment by Unstable Genius Monday, Feb 7, 22 @ 9:53 am
===Your optimism is uplifting===

Fell on the ice yesterday as I was going to the dry cleaners. Feeling very decrepit and not so optimistic today, I’m afraid.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Feb 7, 22 @ 10:01 am
Rich, Proving that your body is still stronger than ice since you are out and about this morning and the ice will soon be nothing but a melted memory. So time to let that optimism run free.

Comment by former southerner Monday, Feb 7, 22 @ 10:11 am
Only in Illinois would hundreds of millions of dollars of funds sent to pay down bills and backlogs would rouse round-about criticism from Republicans. The party of fiscal responsibility.

Comment by Cool Papa Bell Monday, Feb 7, 22 @ 10:14 am
“Fell on the ice yesterday”

Every year the ground is harder . . . and further down.

Comment by Out Here In The Middle Monday, Feb 7, 22 @ 10:27 am
Using a one time infusion of money to wipe out some debts (or put some damage into them at least) seems like extremely prudent fiscal decisionmaking. It is like using your tax return to pay off a high interest credit card bill you had sitting around. Why WOULDN’T you do that?

Comment by Homebody Monday, Feb 7, 22 @ 10:31 am
Ahh, Paris. As a student at SIU I spent my 18th birthday in Paris, Illinois with some friends from school who lived there. Went to Terre Haute to see Marshall Tucker and the Charlie Daniels Band. Big fun.
Hope you feel better today Rich.

Comment by Anonymous Monday, Feb 7, 22 @ 10:44 am
wait, so the debt which has been the issue for 2 decades, unless it’s the TRS which has been an issue for 4-6 decades is bad to pay down when you have some one time cash. because that cash will grow and help down the road??

At some point it would be nice for conservatives to act more like conservatives and not whatever this is.

Regarding gimmicks, that’s how we financed the debt for how long, usually to the detriment of the state’s fiscal health, now we can use gimmicks to improve the health and that’s a bad thing??

ok, we waiting for how to do it Mr. Mayor. I mean, after all he river boat is what has paid the police and fire pension in Aurora for 2 decades. maybe we need more river boats across the state to help fund pensions at the state level.

or my idea, a drive through dispensary at the first exit in Illinois by Kentucky, Indiana, Iowa, wisc, and Missouri. that should bump up state rev. maybe we can have spots book and video gaming too, if they want to stop for a bit. oh and a pizza place, that sells cool ranch Doritos. but I digress.

Comment by frustrated GOP Monday, Feb 7, 22 @ 10:49 am
==Only in Illinois could a college SAVINGS program be $230 million in debt. Poor design, mismanagement, illogical commitments, all the above?==

At least part of the problem was created by a guy who thinks he could buy his way into winning SOS.

Comment by NonAFSCMEStateEmployeeFromChatham Monday, Feb 7, 22 @ 10:56 am
It was a mantra in the old liberal/progressive blogs of the ’00s that I think Eschaton may have come up with - elect “more and better Democrats.” The Republican Party stopped governing a long time ago. DINOs can hit the Mesozoic pasture.

Comment by Lefty Lefty Monday, Feb 7, 22 @ 11:13 am
Wait, so the federal stimulus money grows on trees?

Comment by Smoke an mirrors Monday, Feb 7, 22 @ 11:15 am
I just think it’s amusing to hear Republicans complain about a tax cut. When it expires, you can expect every one of them to try framing that as a tax hike.

Comment by Give Us Barabbas Monday, Feb 7, 22 @ 11:49 am
Paris , IL
Not the French Connection
But The Pizza Connection:

In 1984, Giuseppe Vitale, owner of Joe’s Pizza and Italian Food, was charged with being part of “The Pizza Connection,” an international heroin trafficking ring that used small-town fronts to move $1.65 billion in narcotics onto the streets.

Vitale was sentenced to 5 years in 1987 after he and 18 other defendants were convicted in a New York City courtroom.

Big News Back Then

Comment by Red Ketcher Monday, Feb 7, 22 @ 12:19 pm
We were there in March of 1976. Actually in Hume, a tiny town outside of Paris.

Comment by James the Intolerant Monday, Feb 7, 22 @ 12:31 pm
“a drive through dispensary at the first exit in Illinois by Kentucky, Indiana, Iowa, wisc, and Missouri. that should bump up state rev. maybe we can have spots book and video gaming too, if they want to stop for a bit. oh and a pizza place, that sells cool ranch Doritos. but I digress.”

I like the way you think Frustrated GOP.

Red Ketcher: so Giuseppe Vitale was in Paris IL? I heard about a bunch of pizza places in South Jersey near Philly getting busted for heroin sales in 1994, 1995.

Comment by markg8 Monday, Feb 7, 22 @ 12:59 pm
“when I’m old and decrepit.”

Started to object then laughed …subjectively.

If you hit on your noggin…get checked out…head injuries are tricky.

Comment by Dotnonymous Monday, Feb 7, 22 @ 3:14 pm
Enjoy blossoming time…even briefly.

Comment by Dotnonymous Monday, Feb 7, 22 @ 3:15 pm
Paris: One of the many capitols of the Eastern Bloc.

Comment by NonAFSCMEStateEmployeeFromChatham Monday, Feb 7, 22 @ 4:58 pm