Springfield shell games must stop

What a fine mess Illinois is in.

In less than a month, our second consecutive governor is set to go on trial on corruption charges. Meanwhile, in Springfield, many of the elected officials remaining in office show few signs they are confronting problems or have learned anything about the need to change.

Any day now, the legislature will adjourn early, while having done little more than chipped off and reglued a few pieces on the gargantuan boulder of debt that is weighing us down.

Nothing about the process has changed for the better. Budget negotiations still are happening behind closed doors with most rank-and-file legislators getting little access to the details before they are expected to vote. When Daily Herald Staff Writer Timothy Magaw asked some of them last week what the budget for the next fiscal year would look like, he reported the responses were likely to be blank stares or laughs.

There is not a thing funny about any of this.

It's a big circular mess that's been perpetuated for far too long. Illinois has a $13 billion deficit. It has a $78 billion pension debt. Lawmakers, many of whom are running for re-election in November, do not have the spines to tell special interests or state agencies they need to deal with spending cuts nor do they have the stomachs to vote for tax increases. Why? Surveys of Illinois residents, also known as voters, show they don't support tax increases or spending cuts. It would seem our elected representatives truly are representing our own lack of conviction. And so the vicious cycle of irresponsibility continues.

As of this writing, the broad strokes of a budget deal include several elements that sound like a government version of a payday loan. Lawmakers could give Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn the ability to borrow from state bank accounts, to sell off part of a long-term cigarette company settlement for fast cash now, to collect from tax cheats and to raise cigarette taxes by 50 cents over the next two years. Officials hope that robbing-Peter-to-pay-Paul approach will be enough to avert school funding cuts.

Yes, Democrats House Speaker Michael J. Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton did push through significant pension adjustments for future state workers in one day.

That shows just how much power they possess should they choose to use it for good. But it's clear that a large part of the motivation for that was concern that their ability to borrow more money for construction at a decent interest rate might be hamstrung.

The end game among elected officials is to borrow us into oblivion to squeak enough money out now and delay any real fixes long enough to get them all through the November election.

That utter irresponsibility recurring for years is what created this debt mess.

Our lawmakers' must worry less about self preservation. They must worry more about Illinois preservation. They must make the painful choices. That's called leadership.