SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - In the latest indication of just how fervent Illinois’ budget-cutting battle this year has become, a group a Chicago-area activists has announced they’re staging a Statehouse hunger strike to protest proposed human-services cuts. I’m told this kind of stuff hasn’t been seen around here since the ERA fights of the 1970s.

To review: The big battle this week is between people like Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, who has proposed budget cuts but also wants to raise the state’s income tax to 4.5 percent (from the current 3 percent flat-rate) to address a projected $11- to $12 billion budget deficit; and fiscal conservatives and other anti-tax folks say he should cut deeper before even talking about raising taxes.

[Just to truth-squad this item a little, and I say this as someone who would have to pay this increased income tax if it passes: As a practical matter, it's not mathematically possible to actually cut enough out of the budget to balance it without new revenue of some kind, which the more serious of the conservatives will admit when pressed. The problem is that the state's most expensive obligations are for things like education, Medicaid and pensions, which cannot practically (and in many cases, cannot legally) be significantly cut, so the tax-versus-cuts construct that both sides are presenting out there is a little misleading. That's not to say that a tax hike is inevitable or desirable -- there are other ways to raise money, and there's always the strategy of ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who used to just pretend that the budget was balanced --  but anyone who tells you that just being more efficient in governing can close this deficit is mistaken or lying.]

In any case, they have to figure it all out in the next few days. The General Assembly is scheduled to adjourn for the summer this Sunday.