Tiring quickly of each other, Gov. Pat Quinn and legislators adjourned from a special session called to address state budget woes until mid-July.

Neither democracy nor sausage-making is supposed to be a process pleasing to the eye, but even by that low standard last week's budget battle in Springfield was an ugly business.

Gov. Pat Quinn, successor to the much-despised Rod Blagojevich, drew legislators' ire when he contended that they were not acting like adults by failing to pass a substantial state income tax increase to help bring the budget into balance. All-powerful House Speaker Michael Madigan emerged from his protective cocoon long enough to accuse Quinn of numerous flip-flops and label "regrettable" Quinn's decision to veto the portion of the state budget for human services programs.

Quinn said the state may not meets its payroll obligations on July 15. Madigan said legislators were going home and wouldn't return until July 14.

So goes the ship of state in Illinois. Only because the political costs would be so high is there any reason for confidence that legislators will avert disaster in mid-July by kicking the can further down the road.

How Quinn and his Democratic cohorts will work this one out is anyone's guess. But they've dilly-dallied for so long that they need an extraordinary majority to work out a budget plan, making the minority Republicans in the Legislature a factor in any deliberations that take place.

Illinois' budget problems are so serious and so long in the making that it's hardly surprising that Quinn and the legislators can't bear to address them.

Former Gov. Blagojevich and state legislators spent the last six years happily spending money they knew the state didn't have. Revenues grew nicely over that period of economic growth, but they still managed to exceed them. The Illinois Policy Institute reports that per capita spending in Illinois has increased by 45 percent over the past decade.

Now with the economy in a tailspin and Illinois' budget climate hostile to new businesses or expansions by existing ones, revenue shortfalls have been dramatic. There's not much hope things will change in the near future.

Quinn initially made noise about serious budget cuts in state government as a companion to any tax increase. But he lost his nerve after teachers booed when he proposed changes in how teacher pensions are funded. His new stance is that when spending doesn't match revenues the only solution is to increase revenues – even in the face of a recession.

Legislative Democrats would happily go along with that position if they could avoid taking political responsibility for raising taxes. Since Republicans, long shut out of the budget process, won't help them they have so far refused to do Quinn's bidding.

Quinn doesn't have the nerve to cut, and legislative Democrats don't have the nerve to raise taxes – at least for now.

Ironically, the fearful Quinn is using the politics of fear to stampede legislators into raising taxes. Using the victims of social service spending cuts as props, he's raised the specter of a massive government assault on the poor and helpless without new revenues. But legislators have written that tactic off as predictable, empty showmanship from a governor who spent much of his career rabble-rousing against the political establishment.

Frankly, it's hard to feel sorry for any of them. A little fiscal responsibility years ago would have avoided political agony now.