Reasonable, Not Radical, Budget Solutions
The Illinois Policy Institute
The Illinois Policy Institute’s Budget Solutions 2011 offers an alternative spending blueprint that addresses our state’s immediate problems rather than kicking the can further down the road.
Here are the facts about Budget Solutions 2011 and its recommendations.
Myth: You can’t make reductions like these without random, slash-and-burn cuts.
Fact: The spending recommendations in Budget Solutions 2011 are based on the careful application of guiding principles. We seek to allocate scarce resources where they’re needed most.
Budget Solutions 2011 is modeled on the official budget proposal from Governor Pat Quinn, and its detailed department-by-department tables include information on 2009 actual spending, 2010 estimated spending, Governor Quinn’s 2011 proposed spending, as well as the Illinois Policy Institute’s allocations for 2011, 2012, and 2013.
Our spending recommendations were based on the following four principles:
- Setting Priorities: Every budget is an exercise in setting priorities because there is never enough money to pay for every program desired. When revenues fall, as they inevitably do every business cycle, the need to prioritize spending becomes even more acute.
- Transparency and Accountability: State government must accept its responsibilities, use taxpayers’ money in full sunlight, and hold programs accountable for results. This budget proposal directs funds to make the workings of government transparent to the public, legislators, and managers in executive agencies.
- Spending Fairness: Government expenditures are to improve the public welfare, not the welfare of specific groups. When the state tries to pick economic winners and losers, every other taxpayer bears the burden.
- Last In, First Out: Over the last decade, the state has created or expanded a variety of programs. The state needs to focus on core services, and our budget prioritizes accordingly.
Myth: This budget outlines an unreasonable “doomsday” scenario.
Fact: Budget Solutions 2011 offers a reasonable spending plan that tracks historical spending levels.
Budget Solutions 2011 would limit Fiscal Year 2011 general appropriations to $21.3 billion. Including the state pension payment and transfers out, total spending would amount to $27 billion, which equals outlays of $2,089 per resident. Compare this to Fiscal Year 2003—a year similar to 2011 in the market cycle. On an inflation-adjusted basis, Illinois state government spent $2,302 per person in Fiscal Year 2003. This is hardly a “doomsday” scenario.
Myth: This budget’s suggestions are impossible to implement.
Fact: Budget Solutions 2011 offers recommendations that are already being pursued in other states.
Taking a “business as usual” approach to the state’s budget problems won’t work anymore. Budget Solutions 2011 readers are asked to avoid the trap of reverting back to a “we’ve never done it this way before; it can’t be done” mindset. Illinois’s leaders need to seek out innovative changes—both in their spending allocations and their approach to how government operates—in order to put the state back on the path to fiscal sustainability.
Many of the ideas outlined in Budget Solutions 2011 are already being pursued in other states. For example, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is reducing transit funding, cutting low- priority boards and commissions, and tackling public employee retirement benefit costs. In Virginia, Governor Bob McDonnell is reducing state employee pay, cutting Medicaid payments, and reducing aid to school districts. Governor Christie and Governor McDonnell are working to tackle their deficits without tax hikes—so should Illinois.
Myth: This budget only cuts spending.
Fact: Budget Solutions 2011 makes spending increase recommendations where appropriate.
Budget Solutions 2011 increases funding for the Department of Veterans’ Affairs operation of the LaSalle Expansion, which will help make more beds available at the LaSalle veterans’ home. Within the Department of State Police, funding for the Statewide Sexual Assault Evidence Collection Program is increased. In the Department of Human Rights, funding for reducing the number of open equal employment opportunity cases is increased. In many cases, the program and grant allocations made in Budget Solutions 2011 are the exact same as Governor Quinn’s requests.