On the Precipice of Disaster

It’s ugly and it’s going to hurt the public

“This is really a complex question, but the wrong answer could be disastrous, and the wrong answer is really major cuts,” said Ralph Martire, executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, a Chicago-based bipartisan think tank that studies the Illinois state budget. “If Illinois were to primarily balance its budget by cutting spending, i.e. cutting jobs, our recession would be significantly worse.”
“For regular public expenditures – things like education, health care, human services – for every dollar the state spends, you get a multiplier of $1.36 rippling through the local economy,” Martire said. “Even better are infrastructure projects, which get a $1.59 multiplier. And maintaining state spending is a significantly higher multiplier than any kind of tax relief.”
At the end of May, faced with an estimated $12 billion budget shortfall and unable to agree on a tax hike to increase state revenue, state lawmakers approved a budget that spends only the money Illinois has coming in over the next year. That means Gov. Pat Quinn will get only about half the money he’s requested for state agencies.
If the governor signs the budget, he’ll have to decide whether he treats it as a six-month budget, keeps most services intact and calls lawmakers back to Springfield around Christmas to figure out where to get the money for the second half. Or, since there’s no guarantee lawmakers will be more likely to compromise in December, Quinn could treat it as a full-year budget and start layoffs soon after the budget year begins July 1.

Rich continues a good list of consequences

It’s not a game.  Where there better budgetary decisions that could have been made decades ago that could have alleviated some of this? Yes and so what?

We are dealing with what will be draconian cuts in public safety and social services.  People use those all over the state and the only way out of the mess is raising taxes.  Screaming about budget cuts is fine—and obviously in this situation cuts need to be made, but real live people are behind these decisions and no one wants to cut off programs like drug treatment and care for those with disabilities mental or physical.

In the category of where the hell do you live:

“I think they should lay off all the state troopers. I think they’re a total waste of taxpayer money,” Tobin said. “We have too many cops and state police have proven time and time again they’re glorified Keystone Kops. We won’t miss them one bit.”

Tobin is a moron.  In more rural counties, the State Police are an essential part of the mix. It might seem wasteful if you live in Chicago or the surrounding area or even in the mid sized cities in Central Illinois, but if you go South of Springfield or those rural areas north, the State Police provide vital public safety and they are far more professionalized than county Sheriffs and small town departments.  With the challenges in rural Illinois, crime is fact of life and they are the front line to deal with it.