The bankruptcy of fiscal leadership must end
The Civic Federation of Chicago two weeks ago projected that Illinois still will have an $8.3 billion budget hole by next June. That, despite a personal income tax increase of 67 percent we’ve all been paying for 10 months now.
That tax increase generated about $3 billion in the last fiscal year, one of Gov. Pat Quinn’s aides told The Associated Press.
The problem is not breaking news to any elected officials nor to state union officers. Any state legislator who has been around for more than a year or two knows the score and the score is in the red.
So what is being done about it? Not much as far as we can see.
After signing off on a deal with a major union just before his election that he would not lay off any workers or close any buildings for three years in exchange for some budget savings, Quinn has spent the past several months trying to close seven state institutions and to lay off 1,900 workers in order to cut costs and not spend more than the budget that was approved by legislators last spring. Two arbitrators so far have said Quinn cannot violate the deal he made for no closures or layoffs, but he intends to waste more time and taxpayer money taking it to court.
Meanwhile, Democratic and Republican statewide officeholders are handing out significant raises to scores of their employees. Republican Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka gave 3 percent raises to 56 employees and 15 percent raises to a handful more as promotions or an “equity adjustment.” Republican Treasurer Dan Rutherford gave out 19 raises of 16 percent, according to an analysis by the Better Government Association and reported by Associated Press. The BGA and Crain’s Chicago Business also reported earlier this year that Democratic Secretary of State Jesse White gave 6 percent raises to 250 members of his executive staff.
Your bill for all of that? White’s raises cost $936,000 a year and Topinka and Rutherford’s cost $305,000 a year, for a grand total of $1.24 million.
Angry yet?
Something has got to give somewhere, somehow.
Quinn keeps talking about how legislators have created this mess by approving a budget that was $1.5 billion less than what he proposed. The implication seems to be they must fix it with more spending and borrowing.
We believe Quinn started making the mess when he made a political calculation by agreeing to no layoffs or closures. For that, he can look at the man in the mirror. Many, many legislators have contributed to the problem over the past few decades by skipping pension payments and authorizing repeated borrowing.
Shame on all of them, statewide officers and legislators. Shame on all of us for failing to hold them accountable. There’s blame aplenty. What’s not abundant now is leadership and action.
There’s a budget reform commission and a fall legislative session coming at the end of the month. But there’s no time to waste. Quinn and his fellow officeholders should sit down now with union officers and legislative leaders and start figuring a way out.
It’s time for pension changes for current state workers. It’s time to quit trying to dig out by borrowing more. It’s time to quit turning to taxpayers. It’s time to quit wasting more money on lawyers and more time in court battles. It’s time to set aside political machinations and egos and empty rhetoric. It’s time for concessions from everyone. Taxpayers gave $3 billion last fiscal year. That was the first concession. Where are the rest? It’s time.