A Volcker Alliance report on truth and integrity in state budgeting finds Illinois lacking. Debt, budget gimmicks and thin reserve funds gave the state poor marks.
The first step of passing a budget is to determine how much is available to spend. Illinois routinely misses the mark in estimating future revenues. There is a solution.
To combat above-average unemployment, Illinois state leaders discussed a possible back-to-work bonus. The state would pay cash to those who go off unemployment.
Because Illinois state lawmakers waited until the last minute to pass a budget, no one noticed multiple errors that could have halted about half of the state’s spending until a month before the fiscal year ended. Haste makes waste of taxpayer dollars.
Illinoisans on June 11 will take off their masks and breathe a sigh of relief – except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance and Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s mandates.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed Democrats’ partisan legislative and judicial redistricting plans. He had repeatedly promised to veto any maps drawn by state lawmakers for their own benefit.
The fiscal year 2022 budget includes pay hikes for members of the Illinois General Assembly, who were already among the nation’s highest-paid state lawmakers. It also boosts office allowances and leader stipends.
Illinoisans are not getting COVID-19 vaccinations at the rate they once were, so Gov. J.B. Pritzker may turn to cash prizes through a vaccine lottery to boost immunizations.
Leaders claimed the budget was balanced and included no tax hikes, but neither is true. Illinois state lawmakers for the 21st time passed a deficit budget – one that includes $655 million in new taxes and a nearly $1,200 raise for themselves.
Chicago’s $1.15 billion projected budget gap is the latest in a decades-long string of structural deficits. Making Chicago’s high taxes worse is not the solution.