State leaders need to compromise

Is it too much to ask for the so-called leaders of state government to sit down together to hammer this thing out?

As Yogi Berra said, it's like deja vu all over again.

We can only hope that the political leaders in Springfield don't put themselves in a Groundhog Day-like scenario.

Last year, you'll recall, a state budget wasn't passed until the calendar year was almost over - many months after the fiscal year began July 1.

Here we are again. It's a week into the new fiscal year and we have a budget not approved and out of whack.

In fact, it's a fantasy-land document that adds more than a half-billion dollars for schools, health care and other expenses without any way to pay for them and still have a balanced budget.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich immediately called for slashing $1.5 billion and ordering state agencies to hold $500 million in reserve. He said money for social services, seniors and veterans, economic development and transit, the environment, education, public safety, health care and state operations should be slashed if more revenue can't be found.

But he's not going to do the dirty work. He's called the Legislature back into session this week to either make the cuts or find the money - in the way he wants the money found.

And here we are. Overtime sessions cost money.

And in Springfield, if the four legislative leaders and the governor don't agree on what to do, you've got gridlock.

The kind of gridlock that took months and months to settle last year.

Is it too much to ask for the so-called leaders to figure out the answer this week, rather than take weeks and months?

Is it too much to ask for them to sit down together to hammer this thing out?

We don't think so. In fact, we demand it. Three of the four met back in early June to no avail.

But the one person who needs to be there refused to come.

Political reality says the governor really only needs to come to agreement with one person to get this done: House Speaker Michael Madigan.

It's time for those two to put their egos and animosity aside and find common ground. We can't afford the chaos that last year's gridlock caused. We can't afford to get sidetracked by calls for impeachment of the governor, for example, while the state's finances remain in flux.

Schools and other agencies reliant on state funds are in limbo, not sure how many dollars are coming from the state.

"We're not assuming (anything) until we actually see it," Elgin Area U-46 financial officer John Prince said in a Daily Herald story last week.

That's a prudent attitude, as there has been no sign as of yet that a compromise is in the offing.

The governor wants the House to approve his revenue ideas which House leaders say are flawed. Blagojevich says they are holding out to force a tax increase, which a Madigan spokesman said is flat-out wrong.

And so it goes.

Meanwhile, all the representatives from the House and Senate will make the trek to Springfield - at taxpayers' expense - to do what? Sit around while the two Democrats continue their fight.

"Every time you think things can't get worse, they do," said state Rep. Elaine Nekritz, a Northbrook Democrat.

We certainly understand that feeling as do most of the state taxpayers'. That's why we also have called for the Legislature to reject the proposed pay raises for themselves and the governor.

That's something positive legislators can do while waiting for Blagojevich and Madigan to surprise us and the rest of the state by making things better, not worse.