Illinois Editorial Roundup:
Here are excerpts of recent editorials from newspapers around Illinois.
April 19, 2020
Chicago Sun-Times
Senate President Don Harmon's foolish pitch to Washington can only hurt Illinois
For weeks now, this editorial page has beat the drum for at least one more big federal stimulus package to help all states - red ones and blue ones - recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
It's a no-brainer. The economy of every state, including Illinois, has been devastated by a virus that has rocked the world. Congress and President Donald Trump must step up with more money.
Editorials
That said, we're a newspaper. We're not the political leaders who have to sit down at the negotiating table and hammer out the details, including whether states hardest hit by COVID-19 should get more financial aid than other states. Our role has been to encourage Democrats and Republicans to work together to do what's best, understanding that the politics are delicate and difficult.
Apparently, the president of the Illinois Senate, Don Harmon - who has been in that job all of three months - doesn't quite get that. Last week, he made a politically deaf, even foolish, pitch to Washington that can only hurt our state's chances of securing additional COVID-19 relief funds.
In a letter to the members of Congress from Illinois, Harmon, D-Oak Park, outlined a request for another $41 billion in COVID-19-related stimulus aid for the state. Harmon and his fellow state Senate Democrats said they want more aid to be sent directly to cities and towns, which makes sense. They want more money for hospitals, which would be good. And they want more money to help the unemployed, which we also agree is necessary.
But here's the foolish part. Harmon has proposed that about a quarter of the new money for Illinois, $10 billion, be used to bail out our state government's cash-strapped retirement systems - a problem not even remotely related to COVID-19.
How Harmon thought to justify this 'œask'ť - let alone put it in writing to be picked up in publications including the New York Times, Forbes and our own Sun-Times - is beyond us.
Illinois' $138 billion unfunded pension liability has been years - make that decades - in the making. Springfield lawmakers since before the Beatles have been expanding employee retirement benefits without putting aside enough money to pay for them.
At best, Harmon's pension ask is politically clueless.
At worst, it will serve to explode efforts at bipartisanship in Washington as our nation struggles to recover from the pandemic. You can almost see congressional Republicans waving Harmon's letter in the air and saying: 'œSee, we told you. Blue states like Illinois are just being greedy. They want us to bail them out of problems of their own making, created over decades. Why should we help them?'ť
For his part, Harmon tried to justify the request by pointing out that legislators in Springfield have begun making the full payments into state pension systems that are required by a new state law - but that this is going to be harder to do now.
'œIn a normal year the size of those payments crowds out funding for services and programs,'ť Harmon wrote. 'œClearly this will not be a normal year and that crowding out effect will be exacerbated by significant revenue losses.'ť
Yes, Sen. Harmon, this is true. But the pension problem is still one of the state's own making.
The Illinois Republican Party on Saturday seized upon this on Twitter, accusing Democrats of 'œbrazenly using a global pandemic as an excuse to ask the (federal government) to bail them out of the fiscal disaster they manufactured.'ť For the record, both state Democrats and Republicans cast plenty of votes that put us in this pension mess over the years, but the state GOP's point is essentially the same as ours.
Asked about this on Saturday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker astutely distanced himself from Harmon's requests, saying he 'œwas not aware of the content of the letter'ť before it was sent.
'œIt's different than what I have been talking to the federal representatives about,'ť Pritzker said. 'œI really believe the states need to have some unencumbered dollars that come in that will help us with the coming year's budget - every state has this problem.'ť
The governor is right.
Money from the first federal stimulus package, the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, came with lots of restrictions. States need more flexibility to spend the money where it's needed most.
Congress also needs to provide more money to help small businesses - those under 500 employees - survive the pandemic. More than $345 billion in aid through the CARES Act's Paycheck Protection Program for these companies ran dry in less than two weeks.
There's talk of replenishing the program, but the White House, Republicans and Democrats have yet to come to terms.
As we said, the politics of all this are delicate and difficult. If another stimulus deal is to get done, congressional leaders must respond to the needs of all 50 states. But Harmon, with his ill-considered letter, has made Illinois stand out in the most selfish of ways.
Harmon has been in Springfield a long time, but he's brand new to the job of Senate president. And now he's made the kind of rookie mistake that comes back to bite, this time to the detriment of all of us.
Leadership is about thinking things through. Don Harmon will have to do better than this.
___
April 19, 2020
The (Springfield) State Journal-Register
Fiscal forecast worse than ugly
Budget analysts representing public and private sectors already have made dire forecasts about the state's economic standing as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic.
But Gov. J.B. Pritzker confirmed the previously reported horrific news last week when he released his administration's analysis of Illinois' ongoing budget disaster unleashed by the pandemic and reinforced by the state-ordered economic shutdown.
'œWe will need to make extraordinarily difficult decisions on top of the difficult decisions that we've already made,'ť Pritzker said.
Pritzker's $40 billion state budget will run its course on June 30. Rather than continue to present the deficit budget as balanced budget, the governor acknowledged that it contains a $2.7 billion shortfall thanks to revenue shortfalls.
Earlier this year, he proposed a $42 billion budget for the 2021 fiscal year that begins July 1. He claimed that proposed spending document also was balanced, but now estimates the shortfall could be as much as $6.2 billion.
Pritzker already has factored $1.2 billion in new revenue if voters approve his proposed progressive income tax hike amendment to the Illinois Constitution in the November election. If it's rejected, he said the deficit will balloon to $7.4 billion.
Illinois governors and legislators are used to spending money the state doesn't have, but not in such large numbers.
So that presents several options.
Pritzker clearly is praying for another budget bailout by Congress, which has passed three aid packages.
The latest was a $2 trillion appropriation designed to assist state and cities whose anticipated revenues have collapsed because of the economic freeze in place.
If another bailout is not forthcoming or not as generous as Pritzker would like, it means state officials will have no choice but to make cuts in proposed spending.
At the same time, Pritzker's budget forecast revealed that he will continue to rely on borrowing as a means of preserving preferred spending.
These stunning numbers substantially increase the pressure on Pritzker to bring an end to the economic freeze.
He's got to get the economy moving again, if only as a means of turning the revenue faucet back on. The longer the status quo remains in effect, the greater Illinois' financial problems will become.
Not only have state income and sales taxes collapsed in the face of the freeze, the lack of economic activity also is putting a damper on revenues raised by vices like gambling.
Trying to put on a bold front, Pritzker promised the state will have a new budget in place by July 1. But that's not really the issue - it's what's in the budget that counts.
This year it won't count for much because Illinois, like the other 49 states, is suffering from the coronavirus budget blues. Pritzker pointed that out when he noted that 'œevery state is facing terrible decisions.'ť
That is most certainly true. But Illinois is among those facing the most terrible circumstances.
Illinois' elected officials have mismanaged the state financially for roughly 20 years. Because of that self-inflicted wound, the state has no cushion to fall back on to ease the pain of its inevitable fall into further fiscal degradation.
___
April 14, 2020
(Decatur) Herald & Review
Amid crisis, don't forget census form
While our world remains numbingly 'œGroundhog Day'ť-like and we face a wildly uncertain future, there's a part of that future that requires our immediate attention.
It's the law.
The country is staying at home now. At least the ones with sense and who care about society are staying at home. While we're staying at home, we can easily follow a law and provide information that will assist us today and assist those in the future who will want to look back and learn more about us. The results of the census is what the government uses to pinpoint places that need financial or social aid.
The coronavirus stay at home orders appear to be accomplishing their goal so far and at least giving the curve a bit of a push. Spending 15 minutes filling out the census accomplishes a pair of things, particularly in Central Illinois. Your household will be counted and your duties will be discharged. Also, you'll save work when the door-to-door efforts begin.
There are any number of reasons people ignore the census. They're lazy. They find the questions too personal or too focused on race. Most people who avoid taking part are concerned the government may use the information against them in some way.
As a result, door-to-door workers will need to wear out more shoe leather going door to door for the official count.
Workers were getting prepared to do their canvassing when the required social distancing and stay at home orders slowed and then stopped the process.
The reports are due in August, and still will be pushing the Dec. 31 deadline. Changing that deadline would require a change in federal law.
This is just one of many things being made more challenging during the battle with the coronavirus.
Residents should make efforts to help ease the pressure on the system. Fill out your census now at my2020census.gov, by phone or mail.