An independent government watchdog today criticized Gov. Pat Quinn's budget for fiscal year 2011 "because it is unbalanced and does too little to address the state’s fiscal crisis."
"Unfortunately, the Governor’s recommended budget falls short of the goal that must be a top priority for all state leaders: to stabilize the state’s finances,” said Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation, in a statement. “Borrowing five to six billion dollars for operating expenses neither balances the budget nor helps ensure next year’s budget crisis will be any better."
Authors of the Civic Fed report, released today, acknowledged Quinn's effort to reduce spending by signing a pension-reform bill earlier this year.
But they said the governor's proposed income-tax increase would not do enough to fully fund those pensions or reduce the state's $6.2 billion backlog of unpaid bills.
Most of all, the Civic Federation expressed concern with the governor's plans to borrow up to $5.7 billion. The authors wrote that such borrowing will add hundreds of millions of dollars in debt payments to upcoming budgets, trigger downgrades by bond-rating agencies and lead to higher taxes.
"Setting Illinois on the path to fiscal sustainability will require deeper spending cuts, rejection of borrowing and debt to fund operations, fully funding the state’s pension obligations, and a real commitment to eliminating Illinois’ unpaid bills,” said Msall.
The Quinn administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady seized on the report as a repudiation of Quinn's attempt to raise the state income tax.
"The Civic Federation's report should act as a wake up call for Gov. Pat Quinn to finally drop his 33 percent income tax increase plan and instead make meaningful cuts to government overspending," Brady said in a statement. "Pat Quinn's budget plans take too much money from taxpayers and don't make enough serious cuts."