Institute in Northwest Herald: Lawmakers headed in right direction, but still have long way to go

The Institute's Executive Vice President Kristina Rasmussen was quoted in an editorial published by the Northwest Herald which evaluated the Governor's budget in comparison to Budget Solutions 2013, an annual alternative to the Governor's state budget.

The Institute’s Executive Vice President Kristina Rasmussen was quoted in an editorial published by the Northwest Herald which evaluated the Governor’s budget in comparison to Budget Solutions 2013, an annual alternative to the Governor’s state budget.

McCaleb: An inch of progress, still miles to go

Illinois politicians have spent years digging state government into the giant fiscal hole in which it currently resides.

The state has a backlog of bills approaching $8 billion. Its public pensions are underfunded by tens of billions of dollars (I’ve seen so many different figures, I’ll stick to the generic tens of billions). And despite a balanced budget requirement in the Illinois Constitution, it’s been a decade or more since we’ve seen a budget that didn’t bleed red ink.

So it’s going to take so much more than a single balanced budget outline to get us out of it.

But the Illinois House at least seems to be heading in the right direction after a resolution vote late last week that calls for deeper cuts in spending for the budget year that begins July 1.

The outline is far from perfect. In some areas, it doesn’t cut near enough. In others, it goes too far. For example, it calls for a 14 percent cut – about $2.7 billion – in Medicaid funding.

Yes, our Medicaid program needs to be reformed, including tightening eligibility requirements. A recent report showed that 54 percent of all births in Illinois in 2009 were covered by Medicaid. Were 54 percent of new mothers and fathers living at or near the poverty level? Hardly.

That said, cutting Medicaid by $2.7 billion in a single year would cause more problems than it would solve.

State Rep. Mike Tryon, R-Crystal Lake, voted for the budget outline. State Rep. Jack Franks, D-Marengo, voted against it. Despite their opposing votes and party affiliations, they both seem to be on the same page as to where Illinois needs to go.

“I think the question that needs to be on people’s mind is, when can Illinois expect to be financially healthy?” Tryon said. “Illinois will never be financially sound if we continue to tax our citizens beyond their means. So we’re going to have to make tough cuts.”

The current year’s budget spends more than it takes in despite an obscene income-tax increase foisted on taxpayers last January.

Franks, who with Tryon voted against last year’s tax hike, said he voted against the budget resolution because the outline didn’t go far enough in identifying specific areas to cut.

“We still are not looking at the underlying programs and whether we should be funding them at all,” he said. “There was no look at consolidating state agencies. We didn’t look at the symptoms of the problems at how we put our budget together.”

The Illinois Policy Institute, a conservative, free-market think tank that has put together its own proposed state budget for years, said last week’s spending plan falls short of what is needed to turn the state’s finances around.

“What is good about the budget is that it acknowledges the overwhelming burden of Illinois’ unsustainable Medicaid program and takes steps to slow the growth of the unpaid doctor bills,” Kristina Rasmussen, IPI executive vice president, wrote in response. “But it fails to show signs of reducing state pension costs and appears to leave other opportunities for savings off the table.”

Among other cost-savings measures, IPI proposes cutting salaries for state employees by 10 percent and reforming state retiree health care and pensions.

The bottom line is, there’s so much work left to do in Springfield, last week’s progress is barely a footprint on the road to fiscal reform.

But at least it’s headed in the right direction.