Balanced Budgets vs. Mass Layoffs
by Kristina Rasmussen Two headlines caught my attention this morning. Headline #1: Wood County [Wisconsin] budget starts with surplus For the first time in 10 years, Wood County will enter the budget process with a surplus. The state’s budget repair bill enacted this year requires public employee contributions of 5.8 percent to retirement plans. … Looks like...
Two headlines caught my attention this morning.
Headline #1: Wood County [Wisconsin] budget starts with surplus
For the first time in 10 years, Wood County will enter the budget process with a surplus.
The state’s budget repair bill enacted this year requires public employee contributions of 5.8 percent to retirement plans. …
Looks like Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s budget reform initiatives are working as intended at the state and local level — budgets are balanced, taxpayers are protected, core services are funded and public employees retain sought-after jobs.
Nice. Now try this on for size…
Headline #2: Quinn plans layoffs, facility closings
Gov. Pat Quinn plans to issue layoff notices to thousands of state workers this week as he deals with a budget shortfall he pegs in the hundreds of millions of dollars, a state government source with knowledge of the situation told the Tribune.
The governor also intends to announce the closing of several state facilities, including a prison, juvenile detention center and homes for the mentally ill and developmentally disabled, sources confirmed. Without action, Quinn’s budget office says, several agencies would run out of money by the spring. …
For the past three years here in Illinois, Governor Pat Quinn has signed into law a budget that most everyone knew spent more than we could afford. The January 2011 tax hike just fed the overspending problem. Now things are getting tight, and Governor Quinn is threatening to shut down unspecified state-run facilities. Hopefully, he’s finally realized that spending reforms must take place (certain facility closures were recommended by his own Taxpayer Action Board, you’ll recall). But, if he’s attempting to scare lawmakers into spending more money — money that we don’t have — they should call his bluff.
Remember that this is the same governor who could find hardly any spending to cut earlier this year when the budget was on his desk. He didn’t veto low-priority spending then — like free college courses for unionized state employees, aid to art organizations, fair funding or paid government internships. It’s also worth noting that Quinn has been silent on some of the biggest drivers of Illinois’s budget growth, like unsustainable pensions and Medicaid expansion mandates.
After losing an average of $1,500 to the governor’s 67 percent income tax hike, Illinois families are tapped out. Spending reforms must take place, and done right, they can be done in a sensible, thoughtful way.