Gov's Budget Cuts: Finger Pointing and Shit Talking

By Kevin Robinson in News on Jul 25, 2008 2:00PM

If the $1.4 billion in budget cuts to social programs stand, the blame falls squarely on the House, said Senate President (and Blago buddy) Emil Jones. "We have to have a balanced budget," Jones said Thursday. "I'm not going to get involved in playing silly games and giving false hopes to people when the money isn’t there. I support many of the programs that got cut. But we in the Senate also supported the revenue to support the budget. That’s why we passed the revenue to support the budget in May. Now, if the House was genuinely sincere about passing those programs, then they in turn would pass the revenue to support it." The House voted to override the governor's budget cuts, but Jones says that he won't let the same happen.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan had a different take on the cuts. “We won’t be able to fulfill our constitutional, statutory or ethical obligations to the state,” Madigan told Crain's. “We’ll have fewer resources to help people.” Noting that her office could see cuts up to 25 percent, she said that her office is involved in “a very labor-intensive” suit against mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp, and that cuts now mean that the state may not be able to continue working on cases such as identity theft.

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