State legislators just put lipstick on a pig

We have a gang of state legislators and other elected officials who appear to be more concerned with staying in power and not making waves than they are with the state of Illinois and its citizens.

Case in point is the cumbersome, pork laden, inefficient budget. A budget so out of whack, it needs to be dumped and redone from dollar one. But, all they do is wring their hands, point fingers, make sure their pet expenses are safe and close their minds to any reasonable suggestions that require considering new ideas. Ideas like understanding there is more than one way to cross a room. And there's also more than one way to develop a budget.

Hauling that piece of pork from one fiscal year to the next and constantly adding to it, is inefficient, ineffective, destructive, costly and begs for more money than we can afford. The only advantage is that they can avoid the difficult task of doing what's right and instead, sit around and bicker.

At some point, we taxpayers have to rise up and say enough. Start over; from scratch.

Go to zero-based budgeting and stop trying to fix something that is too broken. Putting more lipstick on that pig is not the answer. And, by the way, neither is keeping those in office who refuse to do it right.

Len Brauer

Palatine