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Past Due: Rauner Says Stable Budget Will Require Sacrifice

Bruce Rauner at Inauguration 2015
Brian Mackey
/
NPR Illinois

 Gov. Bruce Rauner is saving the details for his budget address next month, but he did have a few things to say about the state’s fiscal situation after he was sworn in Monday.

“We must forget the days of feeling good about just making it through another year—by patching over major problems with stitches that are bound to break,” Rauner said during his inaugural speech. “Those stitches are now busting wide open and we must begin by taking immediate, decisive action.”

After being sworn in, Rauner signed an executive order that calls for a review of any contracts signed since November, a possible indication that he suspects former Gov. Pat Quinn might have made some sweetheart deals on his way out of the office.  

When the current budget was approved, both opponents and supporters acknowledged that it was not intended to full fund government operations through the entire fiscal year. But the executive order calls upon state agencies to attempt to operate with their current budgets and avoid requesting additional funding for the current fiscal year. The order calls for a freeze on out-of-state travel and the purchase or lease of new vehicles. It limits in-state travel and also calls for cutting energy costs by turning down heat and turning off lights. 

While Rauner did not give specifics, he did hint that budget cuts are on the horizon. He said that getting the state back on track would require “sacrifice.”

“Sacrifice by all of us—politicians and interests groups, business and labor, those who pay for government and those who depend on government’s services,” Rauner said. “Each person here today and all those throughout the state will be called upon to share in the sacrifice, so that one day we can again share in Illinois’s prosperity.”

Rauner called the state’s budget woes a problem for which both political parties share the blame. However, he did call out some specific players when describing what he sees as the state’s dysfunction. “Illinoisans see insider deals and cronyism rewarded. They see lobbyists writing bills for special interests and taxpayers being left with the tab. They see government union bosses negotiating sweetheart deals across the table from governors they’ve spent tens of millions to help elect. It’s a corrupt bargain and the people of Illinois are left to wonder where they fit in.  Who’s looking out for them and their families?”

He added: “Taxpayers’ money belongs to them; not the government. We have a moral obligation to minimize how much we take and to ensure what we do take is spent efficiently and effectively. Every dollar we spend unnecessarily inside government is a dollar we can’t put into classrooms or social service providers, or leave in the pockets of entrepreneurs and homeowners.”

Most everyone who follows Illinois government would likely decry many of the budgeting gimmicks, such as borrowing from special funds for operational funding and pushing off billions in bills to the next fiscal year, that have become commonplace. In a crisis, some of these tactics can become necessary. The problem is that Illinois has been in budget crisis mode for years, and policymakers were using these tricks even before it was.

Rauner is stepping into office with a budget that was not meant to fully fund the current fiscal year. In a month, he will present a budget proposal for next fiscal year that will, under current law, lose about $2 billion in revenue. State statute requires that his plan be based on current revenue when he makes his presentation—meaning that the proposal cannot include any tax increases. He can pitch an increase, but he has to make a plan for what to do without one. When he is smack in the middle of a budget crisis, some of those gimmicks could look a bit more tempting.

“We have an opportunity to accomplish something historic: to fix years of busted budgets and broken government; to forge a path toward long-term prosperity and a brighter future; to make Illinois the kind of state others aspire to become, a national leader in job growth and education quality,” Rauner said in his speech. Next month, Illinois will see how he begins to try and make good on that opportunity.

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