In budget battle, Illinois leaders should respect the Constitution

State leaders took an oath to uphold the Illinois Constitution. But they show deference to the document only as it suits them.

Do Illinois politicians care about what the state constitution requires?

Sometimes it seems like they do. Legislative leaders, for example, have said that the constitution prevents the General Assembly from enacting meaningful pension reforms. The Illinois Supreme Court has agreed.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan says the Illinois Constitution prohibits the state from paying its workers until a budget is enacted.

House Speaker Mike Madigan and his allies have argued that the constitution doesn’t allow Illinoisans to vote on term limits for Illinois lawmakers or end partisan redistricting.

Not everyone agrees with politicians’ interpretation of what the constitution requires on those issues, but it’s good that officials are at least looking to the constitution to determine what the government can and can’t do.

But politicians should at least be consistent in their reference checking – including now, as they determine how to address the state’s budget crisis.

On that subject, the Illinois Constitution is clear: the General Assembly’s spending in any fiscal year “shall not exceed the funds estimated by the General Assembly to be available during that year.”

The General Assembly has officially estimated how much money the state will have available in fiscal year 2016: $32.4 billion.

Yet the spending in Madigan’s budget, which the General Assembly passed and Rauner vetoed in late June, totaled $36.3 billion – nearly $4 billion more than the state will have available.

So Madigan’s budget plainly violates the constitution, which means that people who care about what the constitution requires shouldn’t support it, and lawmakers who have taken an oath to uphold the constitution shouldn’t vote for it.

If Madigan and the General Assembly were to override Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto and enact an unconstitutional budget, then State Comptroller Leslie Munger, who is responsible for distributing state funds, would be obligated to refuse to distribute money appropriated by that budget because she, too, has taken an oath to uphold the constitution above all else.

That could result in a court battle while the state’s budget problems remain unfixed.

It shouldn’t have to come to that. State lawmakers should respect their oaths of office in the first place and pass a balanced budget as the Illinois Constitution requires.