Kotowski: Cuts “going to take some time”

A suburban state senator hopes a hearing Wednesday in Chicago will serve to remind and energize residents about new efforts to fix the state’s broken budget.

Little by little, at least.

Critics of the current budget point out that despite $7 billion in new revenue from an income tax increase passed this year, the state’s deficit actually increased under the first year of the new plan. But Kotowski, a Park Ridge Democrat, says cuts are being made in a smarter fashion.

He says there will be more savings in the years to come.

“What I’m preaching is it’s going to take some time. It took us years to this point, after decades of delaying payments, (and) rosier projections than were true. And now we have a plan. But the good news is we’re making progress,” he said.

Kotowski chairs the bipartisan spending reform commission that also includes Nobel Prize-winning economist Roger Myerson. The commission stems from legislation Kotowski sponsored reforming the way the state lays out its budget by moving to a zero-based budget model. In that model, Kotowski says, money is allocated to state agencies based on performance.

This spring, the state, for the first time in years, passed a $33.2 billion balanced budget on time in May, avoiding a special summer session filled with partisan gridlock.

The budget, while not the one preferred by Senate Democrats, including Kotowski, cuts across the board with a particular focus on operations and contractional line items.

On the second year of the state’s “Budgeting for Outcomes plan,” hearings aim to gather public feedback on what criteria to use for funding programs.

“That means getting people to move away from a cost-driven model, funding programs that were always funded, to a zero-based funding model where money is awarded based on department performance,” Kotowski said.

Wednesday’s hearing will be from 2 to 4 p.m. at the James R. Thompson Center’s concourse level auditorium, 100 W. Randolph St., Chicago.

Following the hearings, the commission plans to publish a report that will guide the upcoming budget process.

A significant test of that will be how Gov. Pat Quinn presents his annual budget address early next year, Kotowski said.

In the meantime, if the governor asks the General Assembly to borrow more money in the upcoming veto session, Kotowski said he would vote no.

“I wouldn’t support borrowing,” he said.