Quinn To Deliver "Difficult" State Budget
By Chuck Sudo in News on Mar 6, 2013 2:45PM
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn is expected to deliver a $35.6 billion budget for Fiscal Year 2014 later Wednesday that makes drastic cuts in education while increasing spending and sending most of the revenues to the state’s underfunded pensions.
Quinn’s budget doesn’t call for any tax or fee hikes. So where will the revenue come from? Quinn’s budget director, Jerry Stermer, said “additional revenue from state sources” would account for most of it. Quinn’s budget also calls for a review of all automatic fund transfers from state coffers, including income tax revenues shared with local governments, Quinn’s aides describe as being “on autopilot.”
Quinn’s administration admitted the budget will be “balanced, honest and difficult” but his chief of staff, Jack Lavin, didn’t mince words when he said it was a result of Springfield’s unwillingness to tackle the state’s growing unfunded pension problem. Illinois’ pensions are underfunded by $96 billion and, with $6 billion in obligations next year, pensions now account for 19 percent of the state’s spending in Quinn’s budget. Stermer told the Journal-Standard:
“The difficulty of this budget is that it is a direct result of not having action by the General Assembly on stabilizing" state pensions.
Education programs will be the hardest hit by Quinn’s budget. Although his plan calls for a $500 million in education spending, it’s all earmarked for funding pensions; the costs of operating the state’s schools and universities will drop by $400 million. Quinn’s administration also budgeted funding to cover the new three-year contract his administration negotiated with American Federation of State, County And Municipal Employees Council 31. Stermer and Lavin touted higher health insurance premiums in the deal with saving the state $900 million over the course of the deal.
Lawmakers with both parties in the General Assembly already aren’t happy with the proposed budget. State Rep. John Bradley (D - Marion), chairman of the House Revenue Committee, told the Sun-Times if Quinn’s budget numbers are what they are, then he and the House are $500 million apart. Arlington Heights Rep. David Harris, the ranking Republican on the committee, told the Journal-Standard, “If the governor walks into this chamber and proposes to spend more than $35 billion, then he puts himself at odds immediately with this chamber.”
As we’ve mentioned before, it seems as though Quinn is the only lawmaker in Springfield who seems to be taking the pension crisis seriously, even if his approaches say otherwise. Legislators in both parties and houses seem content to let him shoulder the load and blame.