State budget a bust for the suburbs

If you are looking for a job that pays well and offers nice salary increases without the expectation of competence, consider being a governor or lawmaker in Illinois.

We might not begrudge Gov. Rod Blagojevich increasing his pay to $171,000 -- a nearly 12 percent increase -- or lawmakers having their base pay climb to $65,353 from $57,619 -- if these pay hikes were, in any comprehensible way, deserved. Perhaps a just reward for extraordinary work to put the state in a stronger position.

But a bumbling, bruising budget spectacle continues in Springfield, with a belated spending plan offering new programs, the financial weakening of existing vital programs, broken promises -- and a hefty pay hike for the governor and state legislators.

Ask suburban residents if they think the work being done in Springfield merits so many more of their tax dollars going toward higher compensation.

Start with commuters.

Metra, Pace and the CTA are poised to initiate deep service cuts and fare hikes, as a plan to provide desperately needed state funding for public transit languishes in Springfield.

Then ask those suburban school systems that once again are being told they are not going to get long-promised state school construction grants anytime soon. Not from this state budget. The grant money is being held back by the governor on a technicality.

We do give the governor some credit for trimming, from the budget, spending items that are pure pork. But we can hardly herald this as budget discipline.

Not when the savings from the elimination of questionable expenditures are being used to fund an expensive expansion of government health care -- and pay hikes -- instead of being diverted to meet established needs, such as providing more classroom space.

And not when things such as a new high school soccer field and solar-powered speed limit signs are spared from the pork trimming knife by the governor, while $200,000 for a new police station in Aurora, or funds to help meet construction costs of a Schaumburg-area preschool program for at-risk children, are denied.

And not when some projects are left in place, not necessarily on their merits, but as a bargaining tool. As Daily Herald State Government Editor John Patterson reported on Friday, Blagojevich left intact hundreds of projects worth millions of dollars that were sponsored by House Republicans, a move observers believe is intended to try to thwart a budget override vote in the Illinois House.

Lest we be accused of suburban parochialism, the lack of funds to firm up public transit is going to be disruptive to commuters from Chicago to Elburn. And money promised and set aside to help build classrooms for children anywhere in the state should not be withheld year after year.

But this budget is a good deal for the governor and lawmakers, with those bigger paychecks.