Not again – Illinois lawmakers attempt to borrow their way out of debt

Lawmakers have not earned the right to borrow billions more. They were unable to pay down the state’s massive backlog of bills with a $7 billion tax hike – how does anyone think they’ll be able to do it with $2.5 billion in borrowing?

Illinois is buried in debt. The state has nearly $100 billion in pension debt, $54 billion in unfunded retiree health insurance benefits, $30 billion in general obligation bonds and $9 billion in unpaid bills.

That mess works out to more than $63,000 of debt per household.

And lawmakers in Springfield think they’ve finally found the silver bullet that will take down Illinois’ mountain of debt – borrowing billions more.

That’s right. Legislation that would authorize a $2.5 billion general obligation bond sale passed 6-4 in the Illinois House Revenue and Finance Committee yesterday. Lawmakers say they’ll use the money generated from this bond sale to begin to pay down Illinois’ more than $9 billion backlog of unpaid bills.

The plan to paper over Illinois spending problem with more money should sound a little too familiar. It’s the same argument politicians used when they passed the 2011 income tax hike. “If the state had just a few billion more in its coffers our problems would be solved,” is the popular mindset of many Illinois lawmakers.

In fact, advocates for the massive $7 billion income tax increase said the tax hike was specifically designed to pay down the state’s unpaid bills.

Here’s what they said during the lame duck session in January 2011:

“We have some temporary tax increases that are designed to pay our bills, get Illinois back on fiscal sound footing and make sure that our state has a strong economy.” – Gov. Pat Quinn

“… Remember the point of this income tax increase is not to expand programs, not to do brand new things in Illinois state government, it is only intended to pay our old bills and deal with the structural deficit. This is not about new spending. It is about trying to bring ourselves in line with the problems of old debt and of a structural deficit.” – House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie

But the tax hike failed. Lawmakers didn’t even touch the state’s bill backlog. Illinois actually has more unpaid bills now than it did when the tax hike passed in January 2011.

Instead, 80 cents of every tax-hike dollar went to pensions last year. Now lawmakers want to do what they specifically said they wouldn’t have to do if the tax hike passed – borrow more to pay down debt.

Lawmakers have not earned the right to borrow billions more. They were unable to pay down the state’s massive backlog of bills with a $7 billion tax hike – how does anyone think they’ll be able to do it with $2.5 billion in borrowing?