Quinn 2011 Budget: “I am the Building Governor”
Government is not a sustainable source for long-term job growth.
In his budget transmittal letter, Governor Quinn highlights his government-centric approach to job creation:
I am the Building Governor and I know this state will recover from this fiscal crisis by putting people back to work. At 11.3 percent, our unemployment rate is unacceptable. The $31 billion capital plan – Illinois Jobs Now! – is a job-generating, capital improvement program that is reviving the state’s ailing economy by creating and retaining more than 439,000 Illinois jobs.
Building only gets you so far when you can’t operate or maintain what you’ve already got.
It’s interesting that Governor Quinn is sticking with the “creating and retaining” mantra even after the Obama White House dropped it because of counting methodology problems.
Also, is he implying that his spending plan will create and retain 439,000 jobs? Probably should have put an “and/or” in there. Regardless, we have reason to be suspicious of these job numbers — they are usually vastly oversold. Remember how U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky’s (D-IL) touted that 148,000 Illinois jobs were to be “saved” or “created” by the stimulus when the bill passed? Well,Recovery.gov lists 11,000 “recipient reported jobs” for the last part of 2009. How long will those jobs be retained once the government’s borrow-and-spend spigot stops?
It’s time to stop thinking that government is always the solution. An economic turnaround is not going to come from government; it will come from the small business owners, entrepreneurs, and “can do-ers” in the private sector that stand as the bedrock of America’s prosperity. Government should be asking itself what it can do to
lower barriers to businesses and therefore job creation.