Letters From: Springfield

Democrats' budget wasn't democratic

Though the new state budget was entirely crafted and passed by Democrats, there was nothing “democratic” about it. There are 177 members of the Illinois General Assembly, each representing more than 100,000 local residents, yet almost all were completely shut out of this year's budget process. The new $58 billion spending plan was negotiated in secret by three Democrat leaders.

As a result, the new state budget includes $800 million in pork projects for Democrat members to secure their votes, while nursing homes, pharmacists and others who care for the sick and disabled must wait months for state reimbursement for their services.

Over the past three years our state bond debt has nearly tripled to $20.3 billion, and our backlog of unpaid Medicaid bills owed to those who care for the sick and disabled has grown to nearly $2 billion. Yet, the new Democrat budget does nothing to address these critical problems. In fact, it adds to them, increasing state spending by another $1.4 billion that taxpayers simply can't afford.

To fund their continued spending, Democrats have once again raided the pensions of suburban and downstate teachers, and other public employees. The 5-year, $3.5 billion pension raid will ultimately cost our families $38.5 billion to repay. That”s $3,500 for every man, woman and child in Illinois.

Because Illinois now has the worst funded pension systems in the nation, Fitch Ratings, a top New York bond rating agency, has given Illinois a “negative” financial outlook and has indicated they will likely lower our bond rating, costing us more in interest for money we borrow. According to Fitch, Illinois will either have to increase revenues (raise taxes) or dramatically cut spending in the near future just to fund pensions.

The second year of each two-year session of the General Assembly is supposed to be strongly focused on our state budget, yet this spring, the second year of the 94th General Assembly, Democrats rushed through the budget process at record speed. If ever there was a time when we needed to focus our full attention on our state's fiscal problems and our budget, it is now. Hearings on various areas of the budget are normally held over the course of several months in Springfield and Chicago. This year, Democrats condensed the hearing process down to two short weeks.

A perfect example was the Human Services Appropriations hearings that account for almost 50 percent of our total state budget, yet Democrats raced through a hearing limiting citizens' and advocates' testimony to 3 minutes. That same day, they allowed only one hour to review the entire $16 billion budget for the Department of Healthcare and Family Services. These are the agencies that fund many services for children and families, the disabled, mental health services, Medicaid and children's health programs.

Throughout the spring session, House Republicans were ready to work with the Democrats on a responsible budget that would rein in spending, restore pension funding, and pay down our escalating debt. We, and the millions of families that we represent, were shut out of the process.

The foundation “democratic” government is that everyone has a voice. It's unfortunate that in this year's state budget the only voices that were heard belong to Gov. Blagojevich, House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President Emil Jones.

Tom Cross
House Republican leader, Plainfield Illinois

( emphases is our own, not the writer's )