Inching toward budget sanity

With the Illinois Senate’s Memorial Day vote to approve a budget, Springfield is finally inching its way toward a responsible approach to state finances.

But there are still miles to go.

The $33.4 billion budget spends as much as it takes in — a real feat in a state that’s become one of the nation’s chief financial quagmires. And lawmakers not only put the budget on Gov. Pat Quinn’s desk before the fiscal year actually begins July 1, they even got it delivered before the legislature’s scheduled close of shop at midnight Tuesday. Both laudable, considering recent history.

Another good sign: legislators managed to resist Quinn’s proposal to borrow $6.2 billion to pay down a huge backlog of unpaid bills. In a state that’s addicted to borrowing, that’s a big step toward building a mindset of government living within its means.

Unfortunately, a mindset alone isn’t going to solve the bigger financial picture for Illinois.

Massive money problems still loom, and we’re dismayed that some of the most vexing problems — in standard Springfield fashion — were pushed into the next legislative session rather than being addressed now.

Those unpaid bills, for one.

Even with the cash rescue from this year’s 2 percentage point income tax increase, state government’s debt to Illinois doctors, schools, social service providers and others adds up to roughly $8 billion.

It’s unconscionable for government to thumb its nose at creditors, yet this budget proposal sets aside no money to start whittling away at those unpaid bills.

That debt pales next to the $140 billion — that’s billion with a “b” — in unfunded pension and health care benefits for state employees.

With a push from Republican state Treasurer Dan Rutherford, who calculated the state’s current total debt amounts to $42,000 per Illinois household, the legislature fended off proposals to cover this year’s pension obligation by borrowing yet again.

But real reform to a public pension system that the state can’t afford slipped off the table over the long holiday weekend.

Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and GOP Leader Tom Cross joined in a statement calling pension reform “essential” and vowing to work toward a solution in the fall legislative session that will satisfy “both those who are members of the pension systems and those who fund them.”

Until lawmakers find the political chops to staunch that flow of red ink and figure out a way to start chipping away at our massive mountain of debt, Illinois will remain far away from the goal of true financial health.