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Central Illinois Gazette

State budget is a mess

Posted by: Tom Kacich

Wednesday, March 18, 2009 12:02 PM

Speaking as a citizen now, I don't like the new state budget that is being proposed today by Gov. Quinn.

Take the pension funding as an example.

According to various newspaper and Web accounts (and according to some legislators), the budget calls for skipping a pension payment this year (the fourth quarter payment of about $500 million), plus all of the payment for next year, and maybe even the year after.

But if that is the case you can't tell it from either the 41-page budget highlights printout the Quinn budgeteers gave reporters last night, nor the 400-page-plus CD that they are distributing.

In three pages of "Pension Reform" highlights in the handout, tthere is no mention of skipped pension fund payments. Nor is it mentioned in the three pages under "Public Retirement Systems" on the 482-page budget CD. In fact, the CD says, "The governor proposes to fully fund the fiscal year 2010 normal cost of $1.517 billion and the $544 million in debt service on the Pension Obligation Bonds, for a total fiscal year 2010 contribution of $2.061 billion."

Something's amiss. And based on some other things that weren't mentioned in the budget briefing or were skipped over, I suspect the problem is the gov's office. This was not a good budget rollout for an office that has promised to move away from the gimmicks and trickery of the Blagojevich budgets.

I hope the governor is more forthcoming in his budget address.

UPDATE: Here's what Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno has to say about the state budget and the apparent pension skip ...

"It proposes to make some reforms to the pension benefits packages – an idea with merit – but then proposes to use those reforms as an excuse to reduce, by over $3 billion, our scheduled payments into those very same systems. Illinois’ unfunded pension liabilities are the highest in the nation at an astounding $73 billion."