SPRINGFIELD, ILL-- After months of dismal news for Illinois, including a downgraded credit rating and report naming Illinois the most corrupt state in the nation, during his budget address on February 22, Governor Pat Quinn announced he will be increasing spending and expanding programs in FY13.
“I was hoping the Governor would take off the rose-colored glasses and accept that Illinois’ economy is dying and offer us specific actions and spending cuts he is pursuing to revive it,” said Sen. Christine Johnson (R-Shabbona).
“Instead, we got a proposed budget that increases spending and expands programs with, par for this administration’s course, little explanation on where the money will come from.”
Although the Governor’s Office had been telling reporters and legislators he was going to reduce spending back to the 2008 level, the budget outlined Feb. 22 actually spends $3.4 billion more than 2008.
The Governor’s numbers show the administration will increase total spending not just from 2008, but from last year as well. The budget presented would spend $550 more than in FY2012 - creating a path that Sen. Johnson says will make it nearly impossible to phase out of the 2011 67 percent income tax and 45 percent corporate tax hikes in three years as promised.
The budget presented will spend 99.5% of available revenues, leaving only $160 million in cash left over to pay the $8.5 billion the state owes in bills. Though the tax increase was supposed to take care of the bill backlog, no plan to reduce this debt was presented in the budget address.
The Governor’s budget expands Early Childhood Education by $20 million and MAP grants by $50 million. It also expands the Neighborhood Recovery Initiative, a program focused on a handful of Chicago neighborhoods, increasing its funding to $36 million, 200% more than it received in FY12.
“As the former President of the Illinois County Treasurer Association, I am shocked that the Governor would increase GRF spending for new programs and only leave enough money to pay off 2% of the $8.5 billion we owe in bills,” Sen. Johnson said.
In five years, estimates put the state backlog at $35 billion, or about $2 billion more than the state's entire annual general fund.
“I am even more offended as a taxpayer that the Governor would implement the greatest tax hike in our state’s history, supposedly to pay off the backlog and then turn around and increase spending a year later. It’s like the state is taking more of our citizen’s money to pay off its credit card and using the cash to go shopping instead,” Johnson said.
Sen. Jonson said she was also concerned that the Governor’s budget offers no specific proposals on pension or Medicaid reform, two of the state’s biggest problems.
“While I was glad to hear the Governor key in on skyrocketing public pension payments, he offered little in the way of reforms and continued to promote the idea of pushing more costs onto local property taxpayers,” Johnson said.
The Governor’s human services agency has admitted the state will face a $21 billion Medicaid backlog in five years. The FY13 appropriation was held flat at the same level as FY12 with no built-in cost for inflation, anticipating $2.7 billion in cuts. Without cuts, specifics of which were absent from the Governor’s plan, this $2.7 billion will be added to the state’s bill backlog, Johnson explained.
“One out of every two infants in this state is born on Medicaid. We are enrolling about 150,000 people to the program every year. That is like adding the entire population of Joliet to our Medicaid responsibilities every 12 months. We need a detailed, practical plan to reduce this unsustainable growth,” Johnson said.
Sen. Johnson also disagreed with the Governor’s plan to close 14 state facilities throughout Illinois, including Singer Mental Health Facility in Rockford which she says will cost many of her constituents their jobs.
“This is Governor Quinn's fourth budget. He cannot blame the problems Illinois faces today on previous administrations or national trends. Unemployment in that nation has going down, yet unemployment in Illinois is up,” Sen. Johnson said.
“We are facing these problems because the Governor has continued to take the state down a path of his choosing. Today, he has chosen to use our tax increase money to expand the government instead of making our focus paying off our bill backlog. I can only hope he will bring the GOP into this discussion, and reconsider the road of debt he is taking us down before it is too late,” Sen. Johnson said.
###
No comments:
Post a Comment