Illinois budget remains unresolved; Quinn backs off service cuts
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - The Illinois Legislature adjourned for the week a short time ago, after a special session that appears to have brought the state no closer to ending its protracted and potentially devastating budget stalemate.
But with the July 1 (Wednesday) start of the new budget year looming, Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn appeared to back off somewhat from his earlier warning that social-services workers and clients statewide will be hit with massive funding cuts if he doesn’t get the tax hike he has been seeking. Quinn, talking with reporters, declined several times to specify exactly what will happen on Tuesday if a budget agreement isn’t in place.
In recent weeks, the administration has warned that day care, drug dependency counseling and a wide range of other human services needs will be hit with a 50-percent cut in state funding if the Legislature continues refusing to provide new revenue.
The threat has been taken seriously enough by the public that human-services workers this week held a mass demonstration in Springfield, and smaller ones in the Metro East and elsewhere, to demand that lawmakers pass Quinn’s proposed income tax hike.
Republican state Senate leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont, chided Quinn and other leading Democrats for leaving that uncertainty out there, calling it “cruel.”
“People are dangling in the wind” with no clear information about whether their funding will be cut on Tuesday or not, Radogno said.
She and others are calling on Quinn to agree to a temporary budget at last year’s levels, possibly funded on a month-to-month basis, while leaders continue to negotiate how to solve a budget deficit that Quinn’s office estimates at $9.2 billion.
Radogno acknowledged that that amount of money can’t realistically be cut from the budget, but she said that doesn’t mean she’s resigned to Quinn’s proposal for a temporary two-year hike in the state’s income tax rate, from the current 3 percent to 4.5 percent.
Lawmakers will return to Springfield Monday to continue debating the issue.
Using poor people and children as human shields is a cheap stunt. Voters are finally starting to see through it.
I love the way people who suck at the public trough are against budget cuts and in favor of tax hikes. Why not keep the gravy train rolling? Why work when you can just stand there with your hand out and demand the fruits of somebody else’s labor? Parasites.
What the people of Illinois and the media fail to understand is that the cuts to social services have already happened. Community Counseling Center in Alton, IL has had to reduce its work force by 30%, because it did not receive needed funding. The poorest of the poor in mental health are being turned away from services, because they have no insurance. People have started to lose their jobs. It has already begun. As far as a gravy train, let’s not throw stones. If by gravy train, you mean the abused and neglected children currently in foster care who just had their funding dramatically cut, shame on you.
For those who say that those citizens are parasites, you will keep that attitude until you yourself need a social service program. Another thing to think about, alot of the social service programs makes life better for everyone in the state. If they arent around for drug rehab, mental healthcare, etc. the police, jails and courts are going to have to take care of them. The state is going to have to pay to care for these people one way or another. Best to do it cheaply and earlier, rather than later and more expensive.
nice try quinn…….aim a little higher next time instead of hate and fear mongering…..
sell your airplane quinn, there is the money you need
Quinn cried “Wolf!” and no one bought his act. Instead of Quinn’s childish dramatics, Illinois residents are waiting for meaningful action.
The Illinois Policy Institute has proposed serious solutions to Illinois’ budget mess. The menu of options to avoid a $3.2 billion tax hike include:
• Rollback of Governor Quinn’s 2010 spending increases for certain
departments to 2009 levels: $980,517,000
• Across-the-board reduction for departments that
Governor Quinn did not target for a spending increase: (5%=
$321,039,850, 10%=$642,079,700, 15%=$963,119,550
• End Transfers to Select Special Funds from General
Revenue Fund: $647,599,769
• End Subsidy of Local Governments: $1,200,000,000
Payroll Reductions: 5%= $254,335,000, 10%=$508,670,000, 15%=$763,005,000
We could just cut state spending by 10% across-the-board and save
$3.1 billion then and there.
For more information on realistic solutions: http://illinoispolicyinstitute.org/news/article.asp?ArticleSource=1023
What a poor example of leadership by Quinn.
Hopefully the public continues to see through this bluff and more practical solutions get voice now. It takes a big man to threaten people who in many cases have little voice (abused children, mental health patients) in order to drum up support to raise taxes which ultimately wind up in fat cat pockets. Oh and then to leave it open ended and uncertain. Happy 4th of July!!! How about some real leadership and accountability? If the budget is so bad and he wants to be Governor how about he take a pay cut or do the job for free.
Did anyone actually BELIEVE this guy was going to be any differet than any other corrupt gov. in Illinois? Lets see, two gov’s ago is in prison, the next one, Blago, was impeached, and so forth and so on, going back to square one I have NEVER heard of an honest politician anywhere in this state! Maybe if they didn’t take that fance airplane that costs about $250,000 per trip to go 150 miles to a meeting maybe the state could recover. It does NOT take a rocket scientist to figure out that if the state refunds some of their politicians salaries, bennies, and other ‘extras’ they receive by being a poltician, maybe the state could get out of debt! I suggest starting with the gov., then the senate, then the congress, then the state rep’s! Make them accountable sice they are the one’s responsible for blowing the cash! Certainly not me! IF they raise the tax around here, I will do NO shopping in this state, I will go across the river - it isn’t that far. Not only will I buy my gas over there, which I already do, but I will work over there, buy groceries, etc. I will not fund Illinois anymore than absolutely, critically, necessary - that would be just throwing good money after bad! Why give them more to just waste? That would be stupid!!! My momma didn’t raise not stupid kids!!!
The corrupt politicians cry wolf time and time again and instead of cutting the purely patronage jobs that bring them to power they target those that need the state’s help the most.
These poor excuses of “public servants” should be ashamed of themselves.
Did they learn nothing from the Daley’s, Stroegers, Madigans, Mells Blagojevich’s, Hymes etc. of this corrupt state?