A Chicago Tribune editorial yesterday reported on Illinois’s financial shape. It’s horrible. But then we knew that. As I commented back in May, the state legislature passed a phony budget at that time. They didn’t raise taxes; they didn’t cut spending. They just played budget games. Now, the game will be up after the election.
Governor Quinn has already said he wants to raise the income tax after the election, so that it will stay at 5% instead of going down to 3.75% as we were promised in 2011, when the Democrats also raised taxes after an election.
While the Democrats are apparently planning on doing all of their work after the election (and before the newly elected legislators take office), Bruce Rauner is being criticized for not being specific on how he plans to control spending.
I wish Mr. Rauner would be more specific, but I find it more than a little rich that so much of this criticism is coming from Democrats who won’t even tell us their plans when they are in government, let along just campaigning for it.
But beyond that, saving money in Illinois is not just about doing less. It is about running the state more intelligently. I do not know, if Mr. Rauner is elected, whether the Democrats in Springfield will let him do things better. States can be run more efficiently. They can do more for less – if the governor and the legislature want to and are willing to work together to do it. As I talked about in August, Mitch Daniels did it in Indiana. Scott Walker is doing it in Wisconsin.
I hope Bruce Rauner will get a chance to try in Illinois. Part of it will be up to him. Another part, at least as big, will be up to the Democrats in the legislature. I don’t know if the Democrats will work with Bruce Rauner, but at least with Bruce Rauner we will have a chance. With Pat Quinn, we have no chance.
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