Robbing Peter to pay Paul

What are our Illinois elected officials smoking now? While us taxpayers are shifting our attention from Springfield to area malls this holiday season, our elected representatives are busy gambling with our money and our credit cards.

To pay off almost $8 billion in bills from last year by the end of December, state officials are having a $1.46 billion tobacco bond sale using our credit cards and drawing on $6.4 billion of this year's taxes so they can pay last year's bills.

More than 20 percent of this year's state revenue will be used to pay last year's bills by Dec. 31, 2010, or vendors will file claims against the state pushing the state toward insolvency.

The tobacco bonds are expected to be paid using settlements from four tobacco companies' projected cigarette sales. The problem is cigarette sales have been trending less than projected due in part to higher taxes on cigarettes and the public's growing awareness of the health risks (cancer and high blood pressure.) The Wall Street Journal noted that Illinois' tobacco bond sale is the first of its kind in over 2½ years. In other words, the tobacco bond sale is a risky bet.

Our elected officials are gambling that cigarette consumption will reach projected levels so there will be sufficient tobacco company proceeds in the future to pay off the bonds principal and interest when due. They are using our credit and we will have to pay if the bond offering or cigarette consumption falls short.

Rather than make the politically unpopular decisions to reduce state spending at least $1.46 billion, our governor and elected officials took the easy way out again. They are borrowing from Peter (this year's revenue) to pay Paul (last year's bills) and pulled out our credit card to pay the balance.

Mike Tennis

Sleepy Hollow