Our View – 2 states, 2 Different Budget Approaches
The Illinois Policy Institute was mentioned in an editorial by the Rockford Register-Star.
Compared with Illinois’ finances, Wisconsin is on easy street, but you wouldn’t know it from the approaches the governors of these states are taking.
Illinois’ money woes are the worst in the nation, according to a study by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Illinois is at least $13 billion in debt and can’t pay its bills in a timely manner. Add in the worst unfunded pension liability in the country and you get a truly bleak picture.
Wisconsin is not well off, but its hole is not nearly as deep. Yet, from the way Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn are acting, you’d expect the reverse to be true.
Walker is acting with a sense of urgency to fill a projected $3.6 billion budget hole. Wisconsin has a biennium budget process, which means the budget hole is a two-year one.
Walker is demanding concessions from unions and is expected to reduce money going to schools by $900 million to $1 billion.
You may disagree with his union-busting tactics, but you have to agree that he’s determined to right the state’s financial ship.
Quinn, meanwhile, proposed a budget that increases spending and depends on borrowing $8.7 billion to pay old bills. His budget has few real cuts and would even fill 950 state jobs that have been left open. Not much sense of urgency there.
Illinoisans who have just seen their paychecks shrink because of the recently imposed income tax increase are wondering where is the “shared sacrifice” Quinn is fond of talking about.
The Illinois Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research organization, has been offering budget solutions that Quinn should seriously consider. They include spending realignments, “right-sizing” labor costs and more pension reform.
Those ideas were floated before taxes were raised.
“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,” Rahm Emanuel said while he was President Obama’s chief of staff.
Illinois is in a serious crisis. If changes in how the state conducts business can’t be accomplished now, they probably never can be.