Images are taken from the Illinois Republican State Senate analysis, which can be accessed with a link found at the bottom of the press release.
Althoff: Illinois racing toward fiscal cataclysm, urges immediate spending cuts
Springfield, Ill — Even with Gov. Pat Quinn’s recent 67 percent tax hike, Illinois continues to race toward a fiscal cataclysm that will leave the state with an annual deficit of $8 billion and a cumulative deficit of more than $22 billion within five years, warns State Sen. Pamela Althoff (R-McHenry).
“Unless we act now to actively reduce state spending, in a substantial way, Illinois taxpayers will see enormous tax hikes in the future,” warned Althoff, the Republican Spokesperson on the Senate Appropriations Committee.
“As a result, families will see their household incomes drop sharply, and the skyrocketing cost of doing business in Illinois will drive away companies and jobs. Tackling the deficit isn’t just about our state’s fiscal future, it’s about our economic future, as well.”
Senate Republicans project $22 billion in total deficits over the next five years under Governor Pat Quinn's budget proposal.
Althoff said a Senate Republican review of spending and revenue trends makes it apparent that Illinois will take between $4 to $6 billion in additional spending reductions to the Governor’s proposed budget in order to put the state back on track.
That means without matching budget cuts, the “temporary” income tax hike passed by Gov. Pat Quinn and the legislative majority this year will need to become permanent in order to keep the state financially afloat, and even larger tax hikes would be necessary down the road to put Illinois back on a firm fiscal path.
The McHenry senator said a careful analysis of state spending and revenues shows that massive deficits will occur if lawmakers adopt the Governor’s proposed budget and adhere to “spending caps” that are in fact, far too generous and optimistic than the state’s revenues can sustain.
The senator is working with colleagues to identify realistic reductions, but before a discussion of cuts can occur, there needs to be a “reality check” so that the public understands how serious the situation is.
Senate Republicans predict $3 billion more in expenditures than revenues during the next several years, despite the 67% income tax hike.
“Before you can move on to a solution, you need to define the problem. Unfortunately, too few people in the Statehouse are willing to face up to the problem,” Althoff said.
“The spending plan that the Governor put before us would create a deficit every single year for the next five years – and that’s with the 67% tax increase.”
At a Statehouse press conference on Wednesday, Althoff joined Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont) and other colleagues to highlight the severe fiscal challenges facing Illinois and call on a bipartisan solution to the problem.
“I’m working with my caucus to meet two marks in the coming weeks,” Radogno (said. “First, to identify, genuine reductions and savings that will achieve a minimum of $4 billion in savings. And second, to line up sufficient support within my caucus so that we can put at least 15 votes on any proposal.”
Radogno acknowledged that it is much easier to talk about reductions than to actually line up the votes to make them happen, especially because “within my caucus, there is strong feeling that we did not create this problem over the past eight years.”
“I understand that sentiment and I’m sympathetic to it, but the reality is the situation is so severe that we have no choice. These are going to be tough, tough decisions. I am working to persuade my caucus that we have to meet the majority halfway in order to work our way out of this crisis,” Radogno said.
Those interested in viewing the Senate Republicans’ full analysis of the budget crisis can visit:
http://www.senategop.state.il.us/images/stories/2011/Quinn_path_web_bookletdraft1.pdf.
Click to enlagre the Senate Republcian Budget Plan.
I couldn’t imagine why we have a budget crisis.
Retired PE teachers receive a pension of $75,000 a year and most suburban Chicago PE teachers will also receive that pension if they started out of college at the age of 21 in 2010 or earlier and work for 35 years and retire at 56.
What a good use of money.
Couldn’t imagine why our educational system is behind other countries.
Convert the pensions to 401k or defined contribution, let the school district worry about any matching, and then the IEA can’t blame the State of IL for underfunding the Teacher Retirement System.
And stop paying PE and Drivers Ed teachers the same as you pay a physics or algebra teacher.
Teachers think because IEA wrote a good portion of TRS pension law provisions which were passed by politicians whose political campaigns were bankrolled by the IEA, they are entitled to a 5-10% matching from the state of IL and a 8.5% guaranteed rate of return.
What a joke.
Illinois has some wonderful people living in it – many of them held captive by the economy and their inability to quickly sell their homes/businesses and move out of the state.
Illinois is a financial disaster and has be driven to the disaster by Democrats and Liberals who preach to their followers that they can have it all. Oops – no, no one can have it all. This is reality not fantasyland.
And still, those who have driven the state to the disaster keep getting reelected instead of being thrown out.
How many states have had so many governors tossed in the clink?
What is wrong here? Is it really so hard to read the big big writing on the wall?
And the “wisdom” on the wall here……..is now standard operating procedure in Washington, DC.
“Unless we act now to actively reduce state spending, in a substantial way, Illinois taxpayers will see enormous tax hikes in the future,” warned Althoff, the Republican Spokesperson on the Senate Appropriations Committee…
Boy, that’s’ a brilliant deduction! It took her until now to figure out the state is in debt, big time!
Actually budgeting is pretty simple. If you only have a dollar, you can only spend a dollar. I learned this from a high priced elementary school teacher. Elected officials are supposed to decide what’s needed and what isn’t based on the voters input and then budget accordingly. But, that just doesn’t seem to happen.
Only a foolish Democrat would have believed Gov. Pat Quinn’s recent 67 percent tax hike would ever make a dent in the budget problem and would ever expire.
I wonder how in the world these elected officials even balance their own checkbook; then again, maybe they don’t.
Dear Surprise Surprise.
Althoff is a retired teacher. This overspending and budget stuff doesn’t suit her liberal bias. She sponsored a bill for teachers to get full tenure at the end of 2 years, with the official decision to give tenure mandated much sooner than that.
This is P.R. stuff from a liberal teachers-union Republican. She got gobs of teachers union money to get elected the first time to the Senate.
They raised our income tax, Cullerton wants to tax the elderly’s pensions, gas tax is one of the highest in the country. But God forbid we let people smoke on the casino’s. And how about bars and restaurants that want to have smokers,maybe they could pay for a license to allow smoking in their establishments.
We, the middle class can’t keep paying for all the spending that our government, Federal, State and local keeps doing. It’s time to rise up against business as usual. We need to vote out the old and bring in the new, they can’t do ANY worse. If we don’t get rid of our current representatives then we only have ourselves to blame.