Tribune Letter to the Editor: ‘Dreadful’ Condition

The Institute's Kristina Rasmussen has a letter to the editor featured in the Chicago Tribune. She points out how, despite being nearly bankrupt, our state government continues to grow, adding over 2 thousand employees.

Illinois’ fiscal condition is indeed "dreadful," as the Tribune’s editorial board
accurately describes it ("Splurge. Borrow. Repeat." Editorial, Jan. 3).
But, oddly, when the state government is nearly bankrupt, it somehow
manages to keep on hiring.

Even as Illinois struggled to pay
mounting bills over the past year — and as privately owned businesses
were forced to let valued employees go due to financial crunches — the
state government’s employee roster grew by 4 percent. According to a
recent report from the National Association of State Budget Officers,
Illinois added 2,300 full-time equivalent positions between fiscal 2009
and now. This translates into higher costs today for payroll and
benefits, as well as higher burdens tomorrow for generous pensions and
retiree health care.

Compare our situation with nearby Indiana,
where state government reduced its labor rolls by 2 percent over the
same time frame. There’s a reason Indiana’s budget is in far better
shape.

— Kristina Rasmussen, executive vice president, Illinois Policy Institute,