Illinois’ Squishy Balanced Budget Requirement It would appear that Illinois’ budget is required to be balanced. The Illinois Constitution states that “Proposed expenditures shall not exceed funds estimated to be available for the fiscal year shown in the budget” (emphasis added). 33 However, Illinois’ balanced budget requirement has some serious limitations. First, it refers to anticipated revenues, and there is no requirement that the state adjust its spending if the anticipated revenues are not realized. There is nothing to stop a governor or General Assembly from using an unrealistically high estimate when crafting the budget. This is well known and has been acknowledged by political leaders.34, 35 In addition, Reports of the State Budget Crisis Task Force Illinois Report 18 “funds available” can include existing fund balances, even if these are intended to meet future obligations; and borrowing, even to pay operating expenses. Illinois’ balanced budget requirement is also a cash concept, referring only to the current fiscal year. This means that the balanced budget requirement does not refer to future pension liabilities or unpaid bills from the previous year. Each fiscal year from 2009 to 2012 ended with a larger stack of unpaid bills — $8 billion at the end of fiscal year 2012 — and each year these bills were ignored when projecting balance for the next year’s budget.

Questions is: Should the IL. Balanced Budget legislation be changed so the IL Constitution would read:
Proposed expenditures shall not exceed the previous year’s known funds for the fiscal year shown in the present year’s budget.
The words estimated needs to be removed, and borrowing can’t be considered revenue.

Would you be voting YES

Which party REPUBLICAN

Did you support the Gov.? YES

Would you vote for Steve [Reick] or Jeff [Lichte]? STEVE REICH

You had to rate yourself as your lib to conservative stance. CONSERVATIVE

Age 54
and sex FEMALE

Also if a union member was part of the household.

NO STINKIN’ UNION members