Institute in Chicago Tribune: Wrong-Way Quinn
The Chicago Tribune named the Illinois Policy Institute as one of the organizations that has proposed spending reforms in Springfield.
Based on the details of the state budget he’s proposing, this is the speech Gov. Pat Quinn could have delivered Wednesday:
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“Fellow Illinoisans, I’m thrilled to report that your higher income tax payments already are pouring into Springfield!
“So I want to increase spending from our operating budget — the general funds — by $1.7 billion, to $35.3 billion. That’s nearly $100 million a day, year-round, and you’ll be glad to know we need every penny! Cuts to current employees’ future pension benies, ending freebie health care for retirees, outsourcing costly internal services like janitorial and info technology, a hiring freeze — don’t worry, I propose none of that. In fact, I want to growthe state payroll by 800 heads, which is 800 more lifetime pensions. But never you mind because … Great news! Sure, our debt plus unfunded pension and retiree health obligations may total $160 billion, but if you just let me borrow another $8.75 billion, I get to pay some old bills and keep right on spending and … even spend more!!
“Now before you whine about sticking taxpayers with a little more debt they’ll have to pay on for 15 years. …”
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That would be a candid rendering of the governor’s budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1. Instead, Quinn came across Wednesday like an earnest man oblivious to the rigorous streamlining and economizing that Illinois taxpayers — individuals, families and employers — have been struggling through for years.
As a result, Quinn looks out of touch with the burdens that all of his priorities impose on citizens statewide. On one trajectory after another, he’s heading the wrong way. On Feb. 7, The Wall Street Journal’s banner headline proclaimed, “Governors Chop Spending: Politicians in Both Parties Aim to Balance State Budgets Through Cuts, Not Taxes.” Meanwhile, in Illinois, a governor who famously pledged to “cut, cut, cut” now wants to spend more, hire more — and borrow more rather than take politically unpopular steps toslash overhead costs.
There’s a cynical, and unwelcome, tone in Quinn’s response to those who want state government to be as frugal as their own households and workplaces. “If you don’t agree with our debt restructuring plan, tell us which programs you would eliminate to pay $8.7 billion in overdue bills today,” Quinn said. In case euphemisms escape you: “debt reduction plan” is Quinnspeak for “borrowing,” much as “new revenue law” is code for “my 67 percent hike in the personal income tax rate.”
The truth, though, is that Quinn’s desk should be stacked high with dramatic spending cut proposals from his own Taxpayer Action Board, the Civic Federation, the Commercial Club of Chicago, the Illinois Policy Institute, and even the proposed reductions we’ve often repeated on this page. Much of it, though, Team Quinn doesn’t want to hear. The public employee unions arguably got him elected in November, and they fiercely oppose many of these logical cuts.
Quinn might even work with cost-saving proposals from … his first two budget addresses. In 2009, he said he would ask public employees to pay more for their health care and retirement — only to flip-flop when a group of teachers protested. In 2010, he proposed cutting education funding by $1.3 billion.
But it’s easier to say you-won’t-help-me-cut-cut, so I’ll borrow more. Quinn says that would lower the late-payment interest the state pays to some of its creditors.
Except, as Tuesday wore on, much of the air came out of that argument. His top aides acknowledged in a conference call with reporters that borrowing $8.75 billion would cost the state maybe $540 million a year in interest. How much do those late-payment charges cost taxpayers? Roughly $60 million a year. “That sounds like less than $540 million,” offered a droll Greg Hinz from Crain’s Chicago Business.
Team Quinn retorted that other good things would flow from instantly paying off existing debts, and we won’t argue. The question is how to do that. We say, cut spending and deploy the tax hike revenue.
The governor’s men also spoke of consolidating school districts to one-third of today’s 868, and of pressing for future pension reforms that would apply to current public employees.
We hope they mean it. But how seriously can you take Quinn’s budget or his top aides’ statements of intent? Consider:
• Republicans who wanted nothing to do with Quinn’s borrowing will want even less to do with it when they read about the $540 million and the $60 million.
• Senate President John Cullerton, Quinn’s fellow Democrat, put out a statement saying the proposal appears to be out of balance by, um, $1.45 billion. Oops.
• And House Speaker Michael Madigan, also a Democrat, said Quinn’s plan exceeds spending limits by $720 million. Madigan said he thinks citizens expect Illinois to pay its bills out of proceeds from the income tax increase.
On that, Mr. Speaker, we agree. Now if we can just get Gov. Quinn to deliver the budget speech he should have.