Statement on Gov. Quinn’s Budget Address

Since taking office, Gov. Quinn has avoided taking on the root causes of Illinois’s fiscal mess. Instead of reducing, restructuring and cutting spending, Gov. Quinn continues to pursue a policy of taxing, borrowing and spending at record rates.

Statement from Illinois Policy Institute CEO John Tillman 
on Gov. Quinn’s Budget Address:

Quinn’s Budget Not the Turnaround Illinois Needs

Since taking office, Gov. Quinn has avoided taking on the root causes of Illinois’s fiscal mess. Instead of reducing, restructuring and cutting spending, Gov. Quinn continues to pursue a policy of taxing, borrowing and spending at record rates. It is a failing strategy. Consider:

• Quinn’s budget is unbalanced, just as it was last year. Gov. Quinn proposes closing the gap by using approximately $1.45 billion of his proposed $8.75 billion in borrowing to fund fiscal year 2012’s operations; another $3.3 billion is allocated to other state funds. Only $4 billion of the $8.75 billion would be used to pay down past due debt during fiscal year 2011. His budget, as proposed, is out of balance by a total of at least $5.45 billion if he does not get the borrowing he seeks. He should be cutting $5.45 billion in spending now, not borrowing.

• Gov. Quinn said he has reduced spending every year, yet the fiscal year 2011 budget from the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability (COGFA) shows that total fiscal year 2011 budgeted spending is $33.502 billion. COGFA shows a budget deficit of $5.847 billion. Gov. Quinn should have been cutting spending throughout fiscal year 2011 rather than continuing spending at a record rate.

For those who say it cannot be done, please see the Institute’s “Budget Solutions 2011: A New Way Forward”. This three-year (fiscal years 2011-2013) budget plan eliminated the fiscal year 2011 deficit without borrowing, without raising taxes and made the pension payment. This was accomplished by restructuring, reducing and cutting spending by about $5 billion. Our “Budget Solutions 2012” will be released Tuesday, March 8 and once again will balance the budget without a tax hike and without borrowing.

Every dollar of state government spending has powerful special interest groups advocating for protection from cuts, reductions and restructuring. All programs must be under review for reductions, yet nowhere in Gov. Quinn’s speech today did he address the right-sizing of public employee salaries, benefits and pensions as compared to the private sector workers who pay the taxes to fund them.

Until Gov. Quinn is willing to take on the most powerful special interest in Illinois — the public employee unions — it is the working class and poor of Illinois who will pay the price in higher taxes and fewer jobs.

NEWS MEDIA: To arrange interviews or for more analysis or critique of  the budget, contact:
 Diana Rickert, Manager of Media Relations
, Diana@IllinoisPolicy.org or 312-607-4977.