Local legislators deride governor’s budget plan
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| Gov. Pat Quinn delivers his budget address Wednesday to a joint session of the General Assembly on the House floor at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield. (AP photo) |
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SPRINGFIELD – Gov. Pat Quinn proposed a 33 percent income tax increase Wednesday that he said would prevent deep cuts to education funding, part of a budget plan that would depend mostly on borrowing money and letting unpaid bills pile up for another year.
He presented legislators with a stark choice: Cut support for schools by $1.3 billion or approve a tax increase. But even with a tax increase and spending cuts, Quinn’s budget would depend on letting about $6 billion in bills simply go unpaid in the coming year.
That could be disastrous for people who need help with child care, job training, services to the elderly, drug counseling and more. The local organizations the state hires to provide those services, already struggling to survive, could go under if they don’t get their money.
For local legislators, a tax increase is unpopular and will be hard to pass.
“I hate it,” said State Sen. Pam Althoff, R-McHenry. “There was no mention of reforms, no fiscally responsible cuts ... Instead what I heard was ‘give me more money.’”
The Democratic governor’s proposal amounted to the opening bid in election-year negotiations over how to handle a $13 billion deficit, the largest in Illinois history. Quinn began the bartering by formally proposing to slash school spending and then immediately offering higher taxes as a better choice.
“I am challenging you today to consider a wise and responsible alternative to damaging cuts in education funding,” he told legislators in a 21-minute speech.
State Rep. Jack Franks, D-Woodstock, wasn’t impressed with what he heard on Wednesday.
“I can’t believe we waited three weeks for that,” Franks said. “... It looked like he gave the speech by consulting a Magic 8-Ball.”
Franks said he wanted to hear more on pension and Medicaid reform and was disappointed that he didn’t discuss how to solve the rest of the budget deficit.
“He didn’t have to cut education,” Franks said. “He’s refusing to make hard decisions on reform.”
State Rep. Mike Tryon, R-Crystal Lake said the state needed to focus on Medicaid reform by undoing the expansion that occurred under the Blagojevich administration.
Balancing the budget can’t be done in one year, Tryon said. “You don’t balance a budget with a credit card.”
“We need a strategic approach for financial security for the next five years,” Tryon said.
Tryon said he was against a tax increase. “I don’t know how you raise taxes in this economy.”
State Rep. Mark Beaubien, R-Barrington Hills, said he wouldn’t support a tax increase. Quinn’s speech didn’t offer any real solutions to the state’s fiscal problems, Beaubien said.
Putting off payments and further borrowing is not the right thing to do, Beaubien said. “Borrowing, that’s not a budget solution.”
State Rep. Dan Duffy, R-Lake Barrington, said the state needed to control spending. “We need to stop spending money unless we have it first.”
Letting more bills pile up could be disastrous for those who need help with child care, job training, services to the elderly, drug counseling and more. The local organizations the state hires to provide those services, which already are struggling to survive, could go under if they don’t get paid.
Quinn did little to lay out the potential impact of his proposed budget or to explain why he was retreating from his past proposals for a larger income tax increase. Quinn did, however, refer to the difficulty of raising taxes in an election year.
“I’m still an optimist, but I’m also a realist,” Quinn said.
Key lawmakers showed little interest in Quinn’s tax proposal.
House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, praised Quinn’s bravery in proposing an election-year tax increase. “That doesn’t mean he’s going to get it,” Madigan quickly added.
Republican leaders flatly rejected the tax increase. Until Democrats agree to overhaul big-ticket items like Medicaid spending and government pensions, they said, Republicans won’t even talk about a tax increase.
“And we’re not going to be bullied into it,” said Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont.
Quinn’s budget assumed about $500 million in reduced Medicaid and pension costs, his aides said.
The Republican candidate for governor, state Sen. Bill Brady of Bloomington, called the Quinn budget plan “a disaster” but said he was willing to work with Quinn solve the problem without a tax increase.
“I really don’t want to be governor and be saddled with the albatross that he’s created in this fiscal mess,” Brady said.
An Illinois family paying $900 in taxes this year would pay $1,200 under Quinn’s proposed increase.
When Quinn proposed an increase last year, he wanted to ease the blow to poor and working class families by increasing the amount of income exempt from taxes. That idea has been abandoned under the new proposal.
Total spending for the budget year starting in July will be about $55 billion, Quinn said, but much of that is federal money or special funds where the state has little control. The section where the state has broad freedom to tackle the deficit through cuts or delays amounts to roughly $32 billion.
Quinn rejected calls for across-the-board budget cuts, something Brady favors.
“That approach is both heartless and naive. Taking a chain saw to our state budget ... is just plain wrong,” Quinn said.
Lawmakers last year rejected Quinn’s proposal to raise income taxes by 50 percent. Now, in an election year, lawmakers aren’t any more eager to consider the idea.
Lawmakers could pass a temporary budget and postpone any politically touchy decisions until after the November election. At that point, legislators would be safe from voter backlash and Quinn will either have won a full term or have been beaten by Brady, who opposes any increase.
Between bills left over from the current year and the projected gap next year, the total deficit will top $13 billion, Quinn said.
Quinn’s proposal would “balance” the budget by cutting expenses $2 billion, borrowing $4.7 billion to pay overdue bills and simply letting about $6.3 billion in bills go unpaid until the next fiscal year.
If Quinn gets a tax increase, the $1.3 billion in education cuts would be abandoned. That would mean the total spending cuts would amount to only about $700 million. Quinn aides said the governor already cut about $2 billion in bureaucratic spending.
