Springfield Solution:  Dig a Deeper Financial Hole

July 10, 2009

I cannot keep track.  Last week we were on the verge of the end of western civilization if massive budget cuts and income tax increases were not moved through the General Assembly.  This was according to Governor Pat Quinn.

Today, reports are that the Chicago Democrats have proposed increasing the state's debt another $3.5 billion in a pension-borrowing scheme. As opposed to making the difficult choices about spending cuts, the Democrats' plan merely kicks the can further down the road.  Gov. Quinn said today that we do not have to consider his proposed tax hikes until the fall.

Short-term borrowing was one of the countless Band-Aid solutions previously offered.  A $2.2 billion pension-borrowing scheme was passed in the House and rejected by the Senate.  That plan would have cost Illinois taxpayers roughly $257 million in interest payments over five years.  The borrowing is little more than a back-door tax increase.

Keep in mind, Illinois already has the largest unfunded pension liability in the nation at north of $80 billion.

This borrowing scheme is the equivalent of the state paying its mortgage with a credit card.  Eventually you max out your credit and are just paying down interest. 

This approach would only exacerbate the problems we have funding the big ticket items in state government. Which why it is disheartening to hear some of my fellow GOP candidates for Governor express an openness to sinking Illinois further into the red. 

You can't solve a problem unless you recognize its true nature.  The core of our problem is this:

1. We have a structural cost basis that is too high and is growing; and

2. We have an evaporating tax base.

In other words, we have fundamental system problems.

If we don't recognize these core facts, no tinkering on the margins or short-term borrowing will help. 

Yes, we need a short-term stop gap for FY 2010 that can be achieved with substantial spending reductions and a re-purposing of federal stimulus funds.

Fundamentally, however, we need to get about the business of “un-fixing” systems that exist to finance the public-sector unions who prop up the current powers-that-be at the expense of the productive in Illinois.

On his blog today, Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn accused me of being the "most venomous of candidates.” 

So be it. 

But I'm not going to Springfield to make friends. I’m not going to facilitate the bad public policies that have saddled Illinois with our highest unemployment rate in 25 years.  I am not going to make excuses for why Illinois is 48th in the nation in economic performance over the last decade, ahead of only Ohio and Michigan.

I'm going to Springfield to eliminate wasteful spending, to overhaul state systems currently fixed to benefit the political establishment and to cut taxes to make Illinois a growth state again.

We have a spending problem in Illinois, not a revenue problem. 

Until we are prepared to reign in the profligate spending with statutory spending caps that hold both parties responsible, Illinois will not be able to pull out of its economic death spiral.

I do concede one aspect of Eric Zorn’s review of my candidacy.  There are most certainly nicer people in this race. 

Every GOP primary voter must decide who they want to send to Springfield to challenge the Chicago Democrats and their corrupt practices: A puppy dog or a pit bull?