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A year since the tax hike, state is slowly digging its way out

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* The impact of a budget impasse lasting two and a half years cannot be instantly cured. It’s going to take a while longer...

The Illinois State Dental Society said as of last week, the state still owed dental practices $50 million.

In November 2017, they said the state was $150 million behind in payments.

Dr. Albert Capati said the state payments are coming in more regularly now compared to this time last year. […]

“During the impasse, the state was about 15 months behind in paying,” Capati said. “Prior to the impasse, it took about three months to get paid and now we’re at about six months.”

* And this is will be a problem for perhaps years to come…

“We’re happy to have a state budget but what many people don’t realize is that the budget impasse effects continue to be felt,” said Andrea Durbin, CEO of the Illinois Collaboration on Youth. “This year’s budget didn’t address the backlog of bills.”

* From Fitch…

Illinois’ lingering structural issues include a lack of progress in addressing its sizable accounts payable backlog and questions around $400 million in unpaid step-pay increases. Nonetheless, “enacting an on-time budget with bipartisan support allows Illinois to enter the new year with a clear fiscal plan and clarity for the state’s key fiscal partners,” said Porter.

* AP…

A year after Illinois lawmakers ended a historic state budget impasse, social service agencies and other providers hardest hit by funding cuts say they’re just starting to recover.

The providers say some rate increases approved in fiscal 2018 and 2019 isn’t enough to undo all the damage.

Judith Gethner is executive director of Chicago-based Illinois Partners for Human Service. She says the impasse led to layoffs and those positions haven’t been filled.

Gethner says the crisis has made it a challenge for many nonprofits to recruit qualified professionals willing to work in such an environment.

…Adding… DGA’s Sam Salustro…

Good afternoon reporters –

Today, as Governor Bruce Rauner visits WINGS Program, a non-profit serving victim of domestic violence, Rauner has yet to answer for the damage his policies have done to the state’s domestic violence programs. Due to Bruce Rauner’s budget crisis, payments to domestic violence shelters were delayed or cut, resulting in many agencies reducing staff hours, laying people off, and taking out lines of credit. One advocacy group reported that 7,800 people seeking shelter were turned away in 2016.

Did the failed governor ask providers how they felt about the fact that he vetoed all funding for their programs twice?

Thank you,

Sam

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Jul 10, 18 @ 12:03 pm

Comments

–The impact of a budget impasse lasting two and a half years cannot be instantly cured. –

Yeah, a governor can do some real damage when he sets his mind to sabotage.

Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Jul 10, 18 @ 12:06 pm
The “balanced budget” relied upon excessively optimistic assumptions on revenues and costs.
We are still in a hole and digging away. Just with a smaller shovel.

Comment by Last Bull Moose Tuesday, Jul 10, 18 @ 12:14 pm
This is why the 99th GA Raunerites, who purposely chose to hurt Illinois, be it higher education (some mind-boggingly so since they had districts with higher education institutions in them) social services, and the increasing of debt because… taking steps to reform Illinois is more important than a short term budget stalemate.

But, here we are.

Right, Mr. Rose? Right Mr. Barickman?

Right every 99th GA Raunerite?

Exactly right.

The phony Raunerites now, some of whom I do admire and respect and think as people they’re good but as owned Raunerites hurt Illinois, how dare they think these issues aren’t on them too.

They are.

They know who they are, we can look them up too.

The 99th GA Raunerites.

You “helped”. Congratulations.

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Jul 10, 18 @ 12:16 pm
The state may be catching up with payments to dentists, but the state is delaying insurance reimbursements to state employees by up to 105 weeks according to the Delta Dental web site yesterday. I’m personally owed more than $1,000 for more than a year. No one is advocating for us, and there is no plan for catching up as far as I can see.

Comment by Jibba Tuesday, Jul 10, 18 @ 12:30 pm
Rep. McSweeney thinks we should cut taxes. He’s a brilliant mathematician that guy.

Comment by Demoralized Tuesday, Jul 10, 18 @ 12:31 pm
== We are still in a hole and digging away. Just with a smaller shovel. ==

More like using a tablespoon after the last couple of years.

The GA knows the right medicine, a progressive income tax and/or expanding the services taxed to better reflect the actual Illinous economy.

Comment by RNUG Tuesday, Jul 10, 18 @ 12:32 pm
Also, don’t forget the State’s oldest bill - the $63 million 2011 State Employee backpay - is still owed, even though it was included in the current FY 2019 budget signed by the Governor.

This is because Rauner has not ordered the five state agencies that owe this money to send the vouchers to the Comptroller.

Comment by Me Again Tuesday, Jul 10, 18 @ 12:41 pm
One of the scary parts of all of this is that they aren’t really catching up. Sure, they are slowly catching up on the day to day bills they were massively behind on. And that is a good thing. But the only way they “balanced” the budget was to play their usual pension games and kick the can further down the road. Along with their usual antics of counting the next 40 years of savings on various ideas all in year one. Don’t be fooled. The state is falling further behind by the minute. And like it or not, new taxes and tax increases are coming soon. They HAVE to in order to pay down all of the existing debt for pensions and health insurance for retired employees.

Comment by Smalls Tuesday, Jul 10, 18 @ 12:43 pm
“…social service agencies and other providers hardest hit by funding cuts say they’re just starting to recover.”

Um, no. The hardest hit are gone, probably for good.

Comment by Cubs in '16 Tuesday, Jul 10, 18 @ 12:47 pm
===The hardest hit are gone, probably for good.===

This is probably most true.

Also, you close a university, it’s not coming back. It’s not a “Halloween pop-up store”, it closes, for good.

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Jul 10, 18 @ 12:52 pm
–Um, no. The hardest hit are gone, probably for good.–

Nothing like reneging on contracts and planning to take delivery of services and not pay for them, to advance the old Social Darwinism, aka squeeze-the-beast.

That makes you a “fiscal conservative” in circles that like to torture the language.

Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Jul 10, 18 @ 12:55 pm
So - we all suffered for no reason at all.
If Rauner was a conservative he wouldn’t have deliberately sabotaged our state government to save it. Instead, he would have implemented conservative governing policies to get us back on track naturally.

Bruce Rauner protected taxpayers like he protected the unborn.

Rauner - worst Illinois governor in 200 years.

Comment by VanillaMan Tuesday, Jul 10, 18 @ 12:57 pm
How can you write an article like this and not include the negative effects of the tax hike on the economy?

Judging by the perspectives shared here you’d think the only metric that matters is how much money the government has and spends. Why is more money for the government an assumed good?

Comment by Phil King Tuesday, Jul 10, 18 @ 12:58 pm
From a recent AFSCME email to state employees:

“Doesn’t the governor of the state have anything better to do?

We can think of some things—like getting his administration’s act together to pay employees the back pay they’ve been owed since 2011. It’s already been more than a month since the General Assembly gave him the money, and the Comptroller’s Office has requested the vouchers needed to issue the checks, but Rauner’s agency heads haven’t provided them.”

Comment by Me Again Tuesday, Jul 10, 18 @ 1:00 pm
Phil:

The only metric that matters right now is the state paying its pile of unpaid bills. How about we worry about that for now instead of engaging in theoretical “tax policy” debates.

Comment by Demoralized Tuesday, Jul 10, 18 @ 1:03 pm
Phil is right. Rich should start each article at the beginning of time, and not leave out any tangents whatsoever. /s.

Comment by JIbba Tuesday, Jul 10, 18 @ 1:04 pm
Can’t wait until JB is elected and raises taxes.The state economy will be rockin and rollin, people will return to the state for jobs and college kids will attend state schools and stick around for work after graduation.

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Jul 10, 18 @ 1:42 pm
=Why is more money for the government an assumed good?=

Because the money is assumed to address the people’s unpaid bills, the debt accrues interest, equaling more debt against the people in the medium and long term.

If there is any evidence that the increased tax revenues aren’t used to pay down bills, or the bills aren’t legitimate, please provide evidence.

Comment by Deadbeat Conservative Tuesday, Jul 10, 18 @ 1:51 pm
The mathematicians on the Belleville News Democrat editorial page can’t figure out why we still have a deficit. One year of “permanent state income tax hike” hasn’t helped one bit according to them.

Comment by Highland, IL Tuesday, Jul 10, 18 @ 1:55 pm
It’s not a tangent. It’s the central issue.

The affect of taxation on taxpayers and the private economy is infinitely more important than the state’s back log of bills. There’s nothing theoretical about a 34 percent drop in the rate of jobs creation since the tax hike. Nothing theoretical about 4 straight years of population loss driven primarily by prime working age adults.

Comment by Phil King Tuesday, Jul 10, 18 @ 2:35 pm
===4 straight years of population loss===

Um, the tax hike has only been in effect for one of those years.

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Jul 10, 18 @ 2:37 pm
Speaking of population loss. If this heat and humidity persist much longer, old Blue is headed for cooler pastures….

Comment by BlueDogDem Tuesday, Jul 10, 18 @ 2:54 pm
–Why is more money for the government an assumed good?–

It’s not, my simple little strawman-maker.

But in some circles, it’s an “assumed bad” to sign contracts you have no intention of honoring and then running up $12.5 billion of unpaid bills in just 2.5 years.

Plus, gut public universities and zero out community colleges, which is like making moonshine out of your seed corn.

Any time you want to show $8 billion or so in annual cuts to live under the former tax rates, cowboy up.

Until then, it’s all gas.

Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Jul 10, 18 @ 2:57 pm
–The affect of taxation on taxpayers and the private economy is infinitely more important than the state’s back log of bills. –

LOL, unless you’re one of those taxpayers in the private economy holding the bag on some of those unpaid bills.

You should write a book on your economic theories. Call it “The Wealth of Deadbeats.” So conservative.

Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Jul 10, 18 @ 3:01 pm
I wonder, Phil King, what are you suggesting? Don’t pay the backlog? Paying your bills is a back burner? Will the banks you own stock in accept that arguement from me?

Comment by wondering Tuesday, Jul 10, 18 @ 3:02 pm
Suggesting paying the backlog of bills in a sustainable way that doesn’t cripple the economy and make the long term fiscal imbalance harder to solve.

In other words, set your level of taxation based on what the economy can afford —not based on why you’d like to spend— and then plan all of your spending (including debt payments) within the amount of revenue raised by that level of taxation.

Comment by Phil King Tuesday, Jul 10, 18 @ 3:25 pm
@Rich

The economy is still recovering from the 2011 hike.

Comment by Phil King Tuesday, Jul 10, 18 @ 3:26 pm
Of course we are digging ourselves out a bit, the tax rate is higher. The slow growth and population loss ensures that we won’t be able to grow our way out of this. California’s imbalances were tempered by a red hot economy.

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Jul 10, 18 @ 3:27 pm
–The economy is still recovering from the 2011 hike.–

So no boom after it expired.

Please advise on the economic scholarship you’re drawing on, where state “economies” in the global marketplace bounce to marginal policy changes in state capitals.

Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Jul 10, 18 @ 4:12 pm
I’m still getting checks for dental work my family had done during the impasse (out-of-network dentist so I paid him, and then the state paid me some percent of that back), and the interest I get on it is RIDICULOUS. I kind-of wish I’d put ALL my money into dental work because it’s outcompeting my state retirement fund!

Comment by Suburban Mom Tuesday, Jul 10, 18 @ 10:17 pm