The only Talks that should be considered is with Illinois Governor

The Governor holds the Reins on the Most Important Matter and that is the MONEY. It is the only consideration that should be taken.

So many guesses are going on, and they are really Guesses, and MOU's and talks on a MOU's is just that Like Lynn Gipson (TALKING HEAD)

MOU is More of Understatement, that's all it is, another Phrase is SOS, you all know what that means, we have gotten a lot of it.

Yours in Sport
Gary Bryant...................................Dr.longshot

 

The Governor would avoid any face to face talks being as there are no answers as of now and will not be until who knows when ... The State is on Life Support from an ailment that has been created and continues due to the democrats spending habits for many years until it finally caught up to them and the entire State for that matter ... The Governor anticipates a budget in 2017, that is not an insurance policy that there will be one without major compromise , which is another thing the democrats are not very good at ... The facility (WSRC) is not even on their radar with so many thing on the agenda that has a direct effect and impact on many peoples lives that goes far beyond trapshooting and a 2 week event in Sparta, Illinois that has been and will continue to be costly to the States financial problems ... IDNR keeps saying what they want, not actually what they can provide based on lack of financial support (FUNDING) by the State for obvious reasons ... The ONLY way there will be a shoot in Sparta is if the ATA, Co Sponsors, members by donation, or someone with deep pockets ponies up with some big dollars ... The event will be a loss to any and all involved based on past performances , though the ATA has made money as the State lost over $23 million dollars ... The State has no choice but to get out and stay out of it other than being the owner of the facility ... WPT ... (YAC) ...

 

Don't give the state of Illinois any ideas

 

STATE-WORKER PENSIONS, HEALTH CARE CROWD OUT SPENDING ON EDUCATION, PUBLIC SAFETY, HUMAN SERVICES
PENSIONS / Article
February 18, 2016
Spending on state-worker pension benefits grew 586 percent between 2000 and 2015.

Illinois state government now pays more for pensions and health care for state workers than it spends on K-12 education, public safety or human services, according to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s fiscal year 2017 budget book.

It’s a maddening state of affairs in which taxpayers continue to pay more and more each year, while continuing to see smaller and smaller returns.

In other words, a quarter of Illinois’ general-fund tax dollars don’t pay for services, roads or anything that benefits taxpayers. Instead, the state pours those tax dollars into state-worker pensions and health care benefits, which cost Illinois $9.3 billion in fiscal year 2015.

The growth in spending over the last 15 years alone is incredible. In 2000, the state paid out $1.1 billion in pension benefits for state workers. By 2015, that number jumped to $7.7 billion, a 586 percent increase, according to the governor’s fiscal year 2017 budget roadmap. Spending for state-worker health care shot up to $1.6 billion in 2015 versus $589 million in 2000, a 166 percent increase.

Rauner’s plan to cut costs is to enact Senate President John Cullerton’s 2013 pension plan, which the governor said would save $1 billion a year starting in fiscal year 2018.

This is a start, but to fully fix pensions and harmonize state spending – so taxpayers aren’t forced to pay more for pensions and benefits than services – ultimately, Illinois will need toembrace 401(k)s instead of defined-benefit pension plans.

To understand just how bad the disparity between spending on benefits versus services has become, look no further than the state’s education budget. From 2009 to 2014, Illinois teacher pensions consumed 89 cents of every new dollar spent on education.



Even though state spending on K-12 education for downstate and suburban schools has grown by nearly $4 billion since 2006, funding for the classroom, the amount of money that actually finds its way to students, has stayed virtually flat. Billions of additional dollars are being pumped into education spending, but it’s all going to ballooning retirement costs.

The meteoric rise of pension and benefit spending goes a long way toward explaining the state’s budget crisis. With so much spending obligated to go toward pensions and health care for state workers, there’s not much left for anything else.



There is no relief in sight, read the above, it cannot be disputed and it will continue on .... WPT ... (YAC) ...

 

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The proposed 2017 budget includes zero dollars for the WSRC in Sparta, Ill Page 288 , 289, 290 ... Listed as Sparta and or WSRC , IDNR ...


WPT ... (YAC) ...

 

ILLINOIS IS THE WORST STATE TO BE A TAXPAYER FOR SECOND STRAIGHT YEAR

KEVIN HOFFMAN

REBOOT STAFF
MAR 16, 2016 3764 11

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study ranks all 50 states and the District of Columbia based on the effective total state and local tax rate, which is calculated as a percentage of the national median household income of $53,889. Four types of taxation are taken into account: property tax, vehicle property tax, income tax, and sales and excise tax.

With an effective total state and local tax rate of 14.54 percent, Illinois has the highest in the nation. But when adjusted for cost of living, Illinois’ rank went from dead last to No. 43, according to WalletHub.

Illinois was the only state to have a combined tax rate greater than 14 percent, and was trailed by Nebraska at 13.85 percent; Wisconsin at 13.58 percent; Connecticut at 13.48 percent; and Rhode Island at 13.46 percent.

The five states with the lowest tax rates are Alaska (5.69 percent), Delaware (6.02 percent), Montana (6.92 percent), Wyoming (7.45 percent) and Nevada (7.72 percent).

Findings for Illinois

• Overall rank: 51
• Effective total state and local tax rates: 14.54%
• Annual state and local taxes on median U.S. household: $7,836
• Percent difference between state and national average: 35.83%
• Annual state and local taxes on median state household: $8,100
• Adjusted overall rank: 43

As for the four types of taxation WalletHub used to calculate the effective total state and local tax rate, Illinois ranked 50th for property taxes, 30th for income taxes and 27th for sales and excise taxes. (There’s no vehicle property tax in Illinois.)

The interactive chart below shows how Illinois compares to its neighboring states.


WalletHub Effective Total State & Local Tax Rates

From WalletHub on its methodology:

In order to identify the states with the highest and lowest tax rates, WalletHub’s analysts compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across four types of taxation:

1. Real-Estate Tax: To calculate this tax, we first divided the “Median Real-Estate Tax Amount Paid” by the “Median Home Price” in each state. We then applied the resulting rates to a house worth $175,700, the median value for a home in the U.S., in order to obtain the dollar amount paid as real-estate tax.
2. Vehicle Property Tax: To calculate this tax, we examined data for cities and counties collectively accounting for at least 50 percent of the state’s population and extrapolated this to the state level using weighted averages based on population size. For each state, we assumed all residents own the same car: the 2016 Toyota Camry LE four-door sedan, 2015’s highest-selling car, valued at $23,070.
3. Income Tax: To calculate this tax, we used the percentage of income (middle income rate) spent on income tax from WalletHub’s Best States to Be Rich or Poor from a Tax Perspective report. More specifically, we used the mean third quintile income amount of $53,889.
4. Sales & Excise Tax: To calculate this tax, we used the percentage of income (middle income rate) spent on sales and excise taxes from WalletHub’s Best States to Be Rich or Poor from a Tax Perspective report. More specifically, we used the mean third quintile income amount of $53,889.

It does not take a genius to figure where they are headed and why the WSRC is not included in any future Budget (2017 and beyond) proposals ... WPT ... (YAC) ...

 

RAUNER’S PROPOSED BILL WOULD GIVE THE GOVERNOR THE ABILITY TO BALANCE THE STATE’S BUDGET
BUDGET + TAX / Article
March 16, 2016
In light of the Illinois General Assembly’s refusal to pass a balanced budget, the Unbalanced Budget Response Act is a prudent measure that would temporarily allow the governor to shift funds and reduce spending to balance the state’s budget.

In his recent budget proposal, Gov. Bruce Rauner asked the Illinois General Assembly to pass the Unbalanced Budget Response Act, a bill that would temporarily allow the governor to reduce certain state spending and transfer certain state funds to balance the budget.

Perhaps some people are wary of this because they don’t like the idea of giving a governor more power. After all, the executive branch of government has already assumed a lot of power, especially at the federal level, where presidents and agencies under them have long used executive orders and regulations to effectively rewrite the law. Illinois agencies have been guilty of this, too. And of course it’s understandable that Illinoisans would be reluctant to put more trust in an office that has had past occupants who have committed felonies and gone to prison at an extraordinary rate.

But there’s no reason for anyone who cares about limited government to fear Rauner’s proposal. In fact, it might be the only way to ensure the state will respect the Illinois Constitution’s limit on its spending in the near future.

Rauner’s proposed Unbalanced Budget Response Act would temporarily authorize the governor to:

• Set aside money as “contingency funds” to make sure the state can pay for core services without having to borrow more.

• Reduce rates the state pays to service providers.
• Move unspent money out of certain special funds and into the state’s general-revenue fund.
• Change or delay payments under continuing appropriations.

The Illinois Constitution provides that the state’s “[a]ppropriations for a fiscal year shall not exceed funds estimated by the General Assembly to be available during that year.” In other words, in a given year, the state may not spend any more than it expects to take in.

Springfield politicians, however, have routinely ignored or evaded the state constitution’s balanced-budget requirement by using borrowed funds and dubious accounting, and the state hasn’t actually had a balanced budget since 2001. As a result, the state is on track to spend more than takes in – to have an unbalanced budget, only without an actual budget.

And for nearly a year, the state hasn’t had a budget at all. Last June, Rauner vetoed a budget because it was unbalanced and therefore unconstitutional. The General Assembly failed to override that veto, and since then it hasn’t passed new budgets for fiscal years 2016 and 2017, even though Democrats have veto-proof supermajorities in both houses, which should allow them to enact any budget they want.

But even without a budget, the state has kept on spending. Some of that spending has been the result of “continuing appropriations” in the law, which authorize certain spending (conveniently including payment of legislators’ salaries) to automatically occur each year. Some of the spending is the result of court orders requiring the state to spend money on certain things. And some of it has come from appropriations Rauner signed to allow spending in specific areas, such as education, to continue.

The act would leave certain funds untouched, including those devoted to schools, early childhood education, and debt service.

And the governor’s ability to reduce spending in other areas would not be unlimited: He could make changes only to the extent necessary to prevent the state from spending more than the constitution allows.

No one considers this bill ideal, including Rauner, because it’s not how spending is supposed to happen. The General Assembly is supposed to make appropriations as part of a balanced budget, and the governor is then supposed to sign the budget, veto it, or reduce its appropriations using his line-item veto power (subject to override by majority votes of the Illinois House and Senate). Then the comptroller is supposed to spend the money that’s been lawfully appropriated.

But that process has broken down.

Without a budget, Rauner’s proposal might be the only viable way to prevent unconstitutional spending.

Another option would be for taxpayers to file a lawsuit asking the courts to stop the state from spending any money beyond the constitutional limit, but that could be messy. Ordering the state to suddenly stop making all payments because it had reached its annual spending limit could be disruptive and lead to additional legal fights over whether certain spending should nonetheless continue. Also, courts might not want to get involved in the state’s budget battle despite their duty to enforce the constitution. And, in any event, court proceedings could take a long time – during which the state presumably would go right on spending.

Rauner’s bill provides a simpler, more practical alternative that would allow the governor to ensure that reductions are made rationally, not arbitrarily when spending exceeds a certain amount late in the year, so key services that people rely on will remain fully funded and continue uninterrupted.

Any concerns that the act would give the governor too much power are not warranted, for several reasons.

First, they are temporary: The governor would only have his new abilities through fiscal year 2017. There is no risk that they could be abused in some unforeseeable way under different conditions in the future.

Second, the act is unlike many of the executive orders and regulations that have increased executive-branch power because it would not increase the government’s power over private citizens in any way; on the contrary, it would help make sure that the state stays within its limits. The act is also unlike an executive order or regulation because it would have to be passed by the General Assembly – so, in applying it, the governor would be following the Legislature’s directions, not usurping its powers.

Finally, Illinois lawmakers could render the act moot at any time by simply passing a balanced budget as the constitution requires.

That’s what they should do. But if they lack the political courage to fulfill their constitutional responsibilities, then members of the General Assembly should at least give the governor the tools he needs to fulfill his own duty to uphold the state constitution.

TAGS: Bruce Rauner, budget, Illinois Constitution


Then they could of with the business of opening the WSRC for a few weeks for the grand ... Whats the problem ..? The IDNR and or WSRC are not included in the Governors compromised budgets, not one red cent ... WPT ... (YAC) ...

 

STATE NOT PAYING OUT ON AUTO ACCIDENT CLAIMS
BUDGET + TAX / Article
March 14, 2016
Illinois’ budget gridlock has prevented the state from making payments on some 200 auto liability claims worth $560,000.

Been in an accident with a state-owned vehicle and not at fault? Waiting for the state to pony up?

Keep waiting.

The state, which is self-insured, has about 200 claims worth about $560,000 on hold, said Meredith Krantz, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Central Management Services, or CMS.

Those claims, filed since July 1, aren’t being paid because there’s no state budget.

One Springfield lawyer said he found the situation “pathetic.”

“The way I take this: If a state employee runs into your car and damages a fender or a bumper or whatever, the state isn’t paying that now,” said attorney Jim Ackerman, whose work includes auto liability cases.

“And if they run over your mother and kill her, the state isn’t going to pay that for quite some time,” he said.

With no appropriation passed by the General Assembly and signed by the governor, CMS does not have the authority to make payments on auto accident claims.

Krantz said the $560,000 figure reflects all expenses, including reimbursement for medical costs and for claim-related services. However, she added, there also are claims still being investigated or negotiated.

CMS handles vehicle liability for all of the state’s departments, boards, commissions, universities and agencies. In all, Illinois owns about 12,500 vehicles, roughly 9,500 of which are passenger cars, Krantz said.

By not funding its self-insurance pool, Ackerman said, the state is, in a way, holding itself to a much lighter standard than it does other drivers in the state, who are required to have liability insurance.

“You can blame whatever politician you prefer, but it’s really a pathetic situation,” Ackerman said.

Rep. Jack Franks, D-Woodstock, didn’t disagree.

“This is a continuation of how inept Illinois government really is,” Franks said. “Now, we’re not paying accident victims even though we owe them.”

Franks criticized Gov. Bruce Rauner, arguing Rauner was overly aggressive in using his veto pen last spring when he vetoed nearly all appropriations, with the biggest exception being the state’s primary- and secondary-education spending plan.

The governor, Franks said, should have let stand some of those appropriations, including this liability fund and appropriations to handle health insurance payouts for those state employees covered under the state’s self-funded program.

“Someone needs to ask the governor why he vetoed this,” Franks said.

Catherine Kelly, Rauner’s press secretary, said, “Rep. Franks is all over the map when it comes to spending. He voted against the bill he now criticizes the governor for vetoing.”

But Franks also said leadership from both parties own the blame for Illinois’ failure to meet its obligations.

“Understand that the people of the state of Illinois are suffering because we have people on each side of the aisle that care more about politics than them, and (those politicians) still suffer from the delusion that it’s OK for real people to suffer as long as the other side gets blamed,” Franks said.

“If we were a company, the government would seize us and shut us down,” he said. “That’s how bad we are.”

Said Rep. Ron Sandack, R-Downers Grove, “This is just another in an almost never-ending, nonstop series of disappointments.”

Every day the General Assembly isn’t in session looking for a solution to the budget impasse “is compounding a mistake,” Sandack said.

“We ought to be in the session, and we ought to be working on a budget and actually putting votes on the board whether (the proposals) come from the governor or the speaker of the House or the Senate president,” Sandack said.

“The fact that we are not doing that is just a miscarriage of justice and a dereliction of our duties,” he continued. “And it’s shameful.”

Despite more than two-thirds of fiscal 2016 having passed, the first-term Republican governor and the Democratic supermajorities in the House and Senate have been unable to reach a budget deal.

Even without an overall budget, the state still is making payments on roughly 90 percent of the bills it covered in the previous year because it is paying for costs mandated in continuing appropriations, by court decrees, in the primary- and secondary-education budget and for its debt service.

As of March 11, the state’s unpaid bills totaled nearly $7.58 billion.

TAGS: budget


More Bad news for anyone depending on a budget ... (7.58 Billion in unpaid bills ) ... Whats happening with the WSRC..? any body know ..? WPT ... (YAC) ...

 

ILLINOIS’ BUDGET FROM THE INSIDE: A CONVERSATION WITH STATE BUDGET DIRECTOR TIM NUDING
BUDGET + TAX / Article
January 13, 2016
Donna Arduin is an Illinois Policy Institute senior fellow and a partner at Arduin, Laffer & Moore Econometrics, a group that advises federal, state and municipal leaders, as well as political candidates and private-sector clients, on economic, fiscal and state policies.

Gov. Bruce Rauner appointed Tim Nuding director of the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget in January 2015. Before Rauner appointed him to his current role, Tim served as the chief of staff for the Illinois Senate Republicans for six years.

Tim and I made up the governor-elect’s budget transition team, and spent December and January of 2015 working with state staff to work out from underneath a multibillion-dollar budget deficit (in addition to over $4 billion in unpaid bills from prior years) to put together a balanced budget in upcoming fiscal years – no easy task.

In late 2015, Tim and I had the chance to sit down and talk about the state of Illinois’ finances. I recorded the conversation, and transcribed it so Illinoisans can get a better feel for how to move forward with solutions to Illinois’ economic and budget challenges.

DONNA: Tim, there may be no one more aware than I how serious a budget director’s responsibility is to taxpayers.

Shortly after Gov. Rauner assumed office, and over halfway through the 2015 fiscal year, you inherited a $1.6 billion budget hole, and the governor’s office worked with the Legislature to resolve that problem within the first few months of the Rauner Administration. What caused the [$1.6 billion budget hole], and how did it get resolved?

TIM: At the end of the legislative session prior to the gubernatorial election [in 2014], the Legislature had passed, and then-Gov. Pat Quinn had signed into law, a budget that they all knew was out of balance. That fact was admitted by legislators in a floor debate when they passed the budget, and was acknowledged by Gov. Quinn when he signed the budget. They had willfully underfunded critical programs like funding for state prisons and other critical areas knowing they would have to come back later in the year and increase the spending allocations. Also, borrowed funds had been counted as revenue in order to artificially inflate revenue estimates. Worse yet, as we began to work with agencies during the transition, we were appalled to learn that agencies had been directed by the prior administration to simply spend at normal rates, as though there was no deficit. No corrective action was taken. This exacerbated the problem and left fewer options to reduce spending later after Gov. Rauner took office.

Recognizing the situation, on the first day in office, Gov. Rauner issued an executive order curtailing spending in many areas of state government. He took immediate corrective action. In addition, we asked the Legislature to approve several tools to help close the deficit. After several months of good-faith bipartisan negotiations, we reached an agreement with the Legislature to cut spending in many areas, including Medicaid and state-government bureaucracy. The plan also included the reallocation of resources from other state funds into the state’s main checking account. These actions, taken together, closed the $1.6 billion hole without raising taxes. It was a credit to everyone involved, and is an example of government functioning well.

I’m pleased to report that, although the final numbers from the comptroller’s office are not official, we believe those numbers will reveal that the corrective actions we took in cooperation with the Legislature resulted in a balanced budget for fiscal year 2015.

Having said that, Illinois is still carrying a backlog of billions of dollars in unpaid bills due to prior years’ unbalanced budgets, and that issue needs to be resolved.

DONNA: Why doesn’t Illinois have a budget?

TIM: Simple. The Legislature has not passed a balanced budget. Last spring, the Legislature passed a budget plan. It was wildly out of balance, a fact admitted openly by those who voted for it.

So, in a break from the practices of some past governors, Gov. Rauner actually vetoed the unbalanced budget. Honestly, it was refreshing to see an Illinois governor veto an unbalanced budget. Illinoisans haven’t been accustomed to that. Since the governor’s veto, the Legislature has not passed an alternative budget.

DONNA: Why didn’t the governor just veto the budget down to a level that was affordable? Couldn’t he have done that?

TIM: This is a claim that a lot of Democrats that supported the unbalanced budget have made. Because of the way the budget was presented, that approach was not feasible. I’ll explain. The Legislature locks in a lot of state spending in various big-spending areas by state law – state law that can only be changed by the Legislature. So, vetoing appropriations in those areas would not have resulted in savings, because the spending is controlled by law, not by appropriation. Since those laws weren’t changed to reduce costs, simply reducing the line items would have done nothing to cut costs. It would have resulted in higher backlogs of unpaid bills. The budget would not have been balanced at all.

So by leaving many spending laws intact, the Legislature effectively prevented the governor from making vetoes in those areas. What was left was a more than $4 billion out-of-balance budget that mostly protected areas such as Medicaid, state-employee pension payments, and payments to cities and counties, while leaving funding for our schools exposed to the veto pen. And be assured, the Democratic majority structured it this way by design. They knew exactly what they were doing. They were daring the new governor to veto funding for schools. It was politics.

As a result of this approach, where the Democrats protected almost every other area of the budget, the only true option the governor had with his veto pen was to slash funding for schools by billions of dollars in order to balance the budget. Because education is the governor’s top priority, that was not an approach consistent with his values or his priorities. Therefore, he signed the education-funding bill and outright vetoed the rest of the budget, asking the Legislature to send him a balanced budget. The Legislature hasn’t passed an alternative budget since.

DONNA: Previous deficits have now added up to a backlog of unpaid bills of $4-5 billion, is that correct?

TIM: The latest report my office issued reflects a backlog of unpaid bills worth over $6 billion at the end of November 2015. Over the last decade, levels of unpaid bills have fluctuated, reaching as high as approximately $10 billion several years ago. Delaying bill payments has been a budget gimmick used in Illinois for years. Instead of cutting spending or raising revenues, elected officials have simply paid bills at a slower pace in order to make budgets appear balanced. It would be like letting your monthly utility or cable bills pile up on your kitchen table because you don’t have the money to pay them in a timely manner. It’s a form of borrowing that Illinois government has used to avoid making difficult decisions in the past. And it has cost Illinois taxpayers an incredible amount of money in interest costs over the last decade and a half. Illinois law requires the state to pay its vendors up to 12 percent interest on late bills. This is called the “prompt payment interest penalty,” and the state of Illinois has spent over $1 billion in prompt-payment interest in the last 15 years.

Gov. Rauner is interested in lowering that 12 percent interest rate to something closer to market value once we pay down the existing backlog. One of the governor’s transformational goals is to work with the Legislature to pay off this backlog of bills and then remove the loopholes in state law that currently allow Illinois to delay bill payments.

DONNA: After working on several states’ budgets, I told you that I found Illinois’ fiscal practices stunning when I began to work with you during Gov. Rauner’s transition. Most states, unlike the federal government, are required to end their fiscal years in balance. Even more tragic is that Illinois taxpayers had to endure a “temporary” tax increase that did not pay off the bill backlog.

It is understandable, then, that the governor wants to get something to help our economy out of another tax increase. But the budget situation has many concerned. We are hoping you can clarify a confusing situation.

The state does not have a full, enacted budget, but the courts have ordered a great deal of spending. In addition, the state is accumulating liabilities that will eventually have to be paid. There exists a great deal of confusion about the size of the deficit that is being racked up during the budget gridlock between the governor and politicians in the House and Senate.

If the state continues on its current path for the rest of the fiscal year, how large will the budget gap be at the end of the fiscal year?

TIM: First of all, this is difficult to predict because the dynamics change every week. The fact of the matter is that in the absence of a balanced budget passed by the Legislature, the judicial branch has taken over a large part of the state’s checkbook and has mandated spending at unaffordable levels. Without a budget in place, a significant amount of spending is occurring as a result of what I refer to as the three Cs: court orders, consent decrees and continuing appropriations.

Court-ordered and consent-decree spending is mandated by the Illinois courts despite the fact that the Legislature has not provided any spending authority for these items. These orders cover items such as state-employee payroll, Medicaid spending and certain human-services programs. Continuing appropriations encompass state spending that is required by existing law regardless of whether the Legislature passes a budget. This includes items such as payments to cities and counties, state grants to local transit districts, state debt-service payments and the required huge payments to the state’s pension systems.

At this time, the budget office is estimating that the three C’s will result in spending of around $32 billion on an annual basis this year, an amount almost equivalent to the estimated revenue the state is projected to bring in this fiscal year.

In addition to the three Cs, some services are being provided in areas where appropriation authority does not currently exist. Those bills will eventually have to be paid. The largest example is the state- employee group health insurance program. At this time, the state is obligated to provide these benefits regardless of whether there is a budget in place. This could easily amount to over $1.6 billion on an annual basis.

Given all of these factors, among others, it is easy to create a scenario where spending could exceed available revenues by $4 billion or more, and that would increase the state’s bill backlog to almost $10 billion. Remember, this is happening because the Legislature has not passed a balanced budget. The best way to ensure the deficit doesn’t grow is for the Legislature to pass a balanced budget. Doing so within the next month or two would go a long way toward reducing the size of that projected deficit and would put Illinois on a path to fiscal solvency. Never in the history of Illinois has the Legislature denied the people of this state a budget for this long.

DONNA: You have already taken actions this year to save money. How much have you, without assistance from the General Assembly, reduced the gap?

TIM: It’s important to note that over the last couple of decades, the Legislature has taken a significant amount of budget authority out of the hands of the executive branch of government. The areas of the budget where the governor has the power to unilaterally reduce spending are limited. For example, Medicaid payment rates and benefit levels are set in state law. That represents a very large part of the state budget that is controlled by the Legislature. The state shares state tax revenues with local governments as mandated by law. And the state’s contributions to the state pension systems are set by law. Just those items combined represent a significant portion of all state spending, and that spending cannot be reduced without approval of the Legislature.

The governor’s budget office has taken action to reduce spending in areas within our control. Many capital projects have been delayed or canceled. Social-service programs have been reduced or eliminated. Layoffs are being implemented. Agriculture programs, recycling programs, coal-technology programs, energy programs and natural-resources programs have been curbed, suspended or eliminated. We have closed state facilities. We’ve reduced payment rates for certain services. The governor has unveiled a plan to close the Thompson Center in Chicago to save costs, and that plan is moving forward. We have implemented cost controls in the state-employee group health insurance program and are pressing for further cost savings in that expensive program.

We have implemented a new focus on ensuring that those individuals who are receiving benefits from the social-service programs are actually eligible for those programs by spending more time and resources on scrutinizing eligibility factors. These efforts have helped to reduce the number of individuals on the state Medicaid program in the governor’s first year. This activity is important to restore the integrity of our social-service programs and make sure scarce resources are being used to serve those who are actually eligible for these programs.

These actions are expected to save hundreds of millions of dollars in the current fiscal year, which will extrapolate to billions in savings over the next five years.

And there is a lot more we’d like to do, such as reforming the state’s pension systems, which would require the approval of the Legislature.

DONNA: Without an enacted budget, what will happen to higher-education funding and student assistance (MAP) grants?

TIM: Higher education is an area for which no appropriation authority exists and for which there are no court orders, consent decrees or continuing appropriations. Therefore, no state spending has happened to date in the area of higher education. Our higher-education system has survived on tuition income and other revenue sources for the last six months. To their credit, many institutions of higher education are taking actions to cut costs and become even more efficient. In order for higher education to receive state support in this fiscal year, the Legislature will need to pass a balanced budget.

DONNA: There are some who say the No. 1 issue facing the state is the budget deficit, and the governor should only focus on passing a budget. As the state budget director, do you agree?

TIM: The No. 1 issue facing Illinois is our inability to adequately compete with other states for jobs and economic development. That drives everything else, economically and fiscally.

Illinois has trailed most of the nation in the creation of jobs and opportunity over the last two decades. Since the year 2000, the 50 states combined have created almost 12 million net new jobs. Illinois has created no net new jobs. Zero. Think about that. Illinois has fewer jobs today than we had 15 years ago. That’s mind-boggling to me. If we don’t correct that problem, nothing else matters. … We will never balance the budget for the long term.

That’s the problem large parts of Gov. Rauner’s Turnaround Agenda are designed to address. The goal is to make us more competitive with other states so that we can retain and attract employers to Illinois, which will create jobs and the associated economic activity that comes with those new jobs and their wages. That helps the state budget by increasing tax revenues and decreasing the demand for government services.

DONNA: There is a feeling among some that enough is enough, and the governor should just agree to a budget and leave his Turnaround Agenda items for another day. Why not?

TIM: Because that approach doesn’t work. How do I know that? Because it didn’t work. Illinois just had a four-year case study on it. Taxes were raised by 67 percent in 2011, and the tax increase was in place for four years. At the end of those four years, Illinois still has many of the same problems it had before the tax increase was passed. At the end of those four years, Illinois still had a huge pile of unpaid bills. We still have the worst-funded pension systems in America. Our schools continue to struggle. Our largest city and economic engine, Chicago, and our largest school system, Chicago Public Schools, are in dire financial straits. During the four years of the tax increase, Illinois received several credit-rating downgrades, dropping us to the lowest-rated state in the nation. Again, while the tax increase was in effect, our financial position deteriorated, and the independent rating agencies punished us for it.

If we don’t structurally change things to make Illinois more competitive to create jobs and improve our economy, no tax increase, no matter how high, is going to fix these problems. History backs that up.

DONNA: We believe Illinoisans understand that it takes time to change the political and spending culture in Springfield, but are hopeful that our economy will eventually improve as a result of Gov. Rauner’s resolve. Aside from the Turnaround Agenda reforms to state regulations and local government taxing and bargaining, what are your long-term goals for fiscal certainty and solvency for Illinois?

TIM: It is my sincere desire to take some of the bad fiscal practices of the past and make them things of the past. I’d like to see spending and revenues aligned, not just for the next year, but for the long term. Illinois has a history of lurching from fiscal crisis to fiscal crisis, and we need to fix our structural deficit and set Illinois on a fiscal path that is sustainable, stable and predictable.

I’d like to be in a position to pay off the backlog of bills and then eliminate the provisions in state law that have allowed past governors and legislatures to push off bills and evade difficult decisions. This might seem a bit optimistic given the current fiscal situation, but I’d like to see Illinois build a significant balance in its “rainy day” fund so that Illinois can weather the storm of the next inevitable economic downturn without crisis governing.

DONNA: How do you like the job?

TIM: It’s a great challenge, and I consider it to be important work. I didn’t know Bruce Rauner prior to his being elected. During my work on his transition team I came to understand that he’s taking on this challenge for all the right reasons. He has nothing to personally gain from taking on this job as governor at this difficult time. He wants to reform Illinois’ broken political systems. He wants to help fix the deep problems of his home state and return Illinois and its people to prosperity. I’m convinced this is his sole motivation, and it’s why I agreed to serve in this administration. That inspires me.

As you know, Donna, I had a great job prior to taking on this challenge. I knew full well what I was getting into when I accepted the job as budget director. I knew the severity of our problems and I’m aware we aren’t going to change them overnight.

I know a lot of legislators on both sides of the aisle. I know many of them are also here for all the right reasons. I am optimistic that the governor and the Legislature can eventually come together, and turn the state around and subsequently turn the state’s finances around. Future generations of Illinoisans are depending on us to do that. That’s why I’m here.

TAGS: balanced budget, budget

Interesting read, now it all seems to start making sense ... How bout the WSRC ..? WPT ... (YAC) ...

 

If the IDNR, WSRC, Sparta, are depending on the State introducing a budget anytime soon, they better guess again ... The State is in more trouble than anyone, even the State itself imagined so the possibility, probability, tentative thought of a budget even in 2017 are remote at best ...

Send all donations to Governor Rauner at the States Capitol building attn WSRC, IDNR, Sparta Chamber of Commerce so they can work out the details and get the place open for the grand ... Thank you for your support ... The Governor will be tied up (busy) for quite some time so there will be no additional meetings if not on the schedule already ... WPT ... (YAC) ...