How ‘Bout Them Cuts?
The Illinois House of Representatives fails to pass significant spending reforms.
The House passed a $3.7 billion pension borrowing scheme last night (no thanks to retiring Representatives Bill Black of Danville and Bob Biggins of Elmhurst, who gave the Democrats enough votes to pass the bill), demonstrating once again that the state’s leadership prefers kicking the can down the road to real solutions.
To their credit, a group of House Democrats had been pursuing up to $1.3 billion in spending reductions. Let’s see how far those ideas made it.
From CapitolFax:
The House did pass a $200 million Medicaid cut pushed by the group, which House Majority Leader Barb Currie referred to as “the only real savings” the House approved yesterday.
But a proposal to make state retirees pay health insurance premiums failed. A measure to cut the budgets of constitutional officers fell short. The $400 million in education cuts (K-12 and higher ed) were overwhelmingly rejected in committee. Reducing state mileage reimbursements to 39 cents per mile from 50 cents failed. Eliminating state paid stipends for some local elected officials died.
From the State Journal-Register:
Retiree health insurance
A House committee shot down the idea of retired state employees paying premiums for their health-care coverage.Medicaid cuts
A House committee approved a $200 million cut in Medicaid spending, one of the suggestions of a group of Democratic lawmakers. Exactly where those cuts will take place is unknown.Education
Proposals to cut K-12 education funding failed to make it out of committees.Cuts for lawmakers
Legislators were reluctant to embrace cuts affecting their own pocketbooks.Nine amendments affecting lawmakers and other government officials were considered in committee, and most were rejected.
The House Executive Committee did approve a proposal to cut lawmakers’ daily expense money from $139 to $111 next year.
While Illinois leaders fiddle, New Jersey’s budget is being whipped into shape. The Garden State is dealing with its tough choices now, and they’ll be far better off in the long run for doing so.
No one should be surprised when Illinois’s Fiscal Year 2012 budget deficit comes back bigger than this year’s shortfall.
**Update**So how much is actually being cut from the state budget? Let’s just consider basic state general appropriations (ignoring the pension payment, borrowing costs, transfers, etc.). According to the SJ-R:
Currie said the [state budget] bill calls for $26.2 billion in general fund spending, the part of the budget over which the state has the most control. She said that is about $400 million less than the current budget, reflecting a 5 percent across-the-board cut in spending for operations.
Fiscal Year 2010 spending: $26.6 billion
Fiscal Year 2011 spending: $26.2 billion
cuts = $400 million
A measly 1.5 percent reduction from last year’s spending levels is a far, far cry from the bold steps needed to balance this budget and prevent future structural deficits from piling up.