Illinois' budgetary problems will shift to the Thompson Center come Thursday. Photograph provided by State of Illinois.When all is said and done, there was no point to having the rank-and-file membership of the Illinois General Assembly at the Statehouse this weekend. All the financial talk and countdown to 12:01 a.m. Monday was a waste.
Because the mess that is the Illinois government budget is going to get resolved the way it always does – through a back-room deal cut by the governor and the “Four Tops.”
THAT MEANS THE four legislative leaders will all get equal say (even the Republican leaders). That’s the price the Democrats will have to pay for not being able to ram through a deal on their own before the Monday deadline.
And it means that we’re going to see just how much of a goo goo (good government type) Pat Quinn truly is.
Because as things stand now, the Illinois General Assembly took a pass on its responsibility to approve a balanced budget for government to operate with for the 2011 fiscal year (the one that begins July 1 of this calendar year).
Quinn was totally correct when he laughed derisively at the notion that an unbalanced budget be signed into law now, and that the General Assembly could come back to the Statehouse in November to try to fix the mess.
ONLY AMONG POLITICAL people would one find a group that thinks they should be credited with meeting a deadline, even though the actual work they were supposed to accomplish was left uncompleted.
So now, we’re reduced to negotiations.
Quinn met with the legislative leaders at his Statehouse office (the one that was covered with several layers of dust because former occupant Rod Blagojevich rarely set foot in there) on Monday.
About all that came out of those sessions was an agreement to resume talks on Thursday – only those talks will take place in the governor’s office at the Thompson Center building in Chicago (the office that was once taped off by the FBI as a potential crime scene while federal investigators looked for evidence against Blagojevich).
I SUPPOSE THE fact that they agreed to bother resuming talks again later this week means that no one said anything to blatantly offend someone else. They’re still talking.
But it also means that we’re no closer to knowing how the state plans to plug the billions-of-dollars shortfall it faces in the state budget for the upcoming fiscal year – even though Quinn told reporter-types he is hopeful there will be some sort of solution by July 1.
That is the new drop-dead date (as opposed to Sunday’s drop-dead date that turned out to be phony). For if state officials remain as clueless on July 1 as they are now, we then face the notion of having state government shut down.
We also face the chance of severe cuts being made to government programs – which would mean that services that some people have come to depend upon in their lives (such as medical care) will be cut.
TO THAT END, the Capitol Fax newsletter reported Monday that Quinn said he is having notices sent out informing social service groups that receive state funding to maintain their programs that they may lose their money in 30 days.
That ultimately is the problem with the people who spew rhetoric about wanting to take a narrow-minded “just make cuts” approach to the problem. It is similar to the reason why it is wrong to think of government operations as just a business.
Government can’t fail and go bankrupt. It must be propped up because it provides some services necessary to maintain our society. Thinking you can just make cuts is the cowardly way out of the problem.
So what happens now?
I DON’T KNOW. I’m sure that the General Assembly will eventually return to the Statehouse for one day, where they will be asked to vote on a proposal that makes some cuts in program funding while also imposing some sort of tax that the anti-tax types will want to demonize as the end of civilization as we know it.
A lot of legislators are going to be asked by their leaders to vote in favor of a measure they despise. All of them will find one tiny aspect of the plan they can tolerate, and will proceed to spin that aspect into something significant to make it seem like their vote is somehow responsible.
Which means that the terms of this deal is what is being negotiated by Quinn and the legislative leaders.
Some might think it totally appropriate for Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, to come up with such a deal, along with the descendant of the Cullerton family who now runs the Illinois Senate.
AS FOR THE Republican leaders of the state Senate and Illinois House respectively, Christine Ragodno, R-Lemont, and Tom Cross, R-Oswego, they will be so thankful to be suddenly relevant after going all spring not having their opinions account for much of anything that they will wind up getting caught in the deal as well.
And Quinn the good government type is going to have to cut a political deal – one that is going to hurt some people no matter how it turns out.
That is what I find to be most ironic about this whole situation. It may very well be Quinn who is behaving the most responsibly these days – accepting the idea of a significant tax hike during tough economic times and refusing to merely do what is politically expedient (such as signing an unbalanced budget with a promise of fixing it a few months from now).
But in the end, those same legislative leaders who now are crafting this deal with Quinn will wind up turning on him – calling it the Quinn budget and insisting that he receive full blame for anyone whose interests are harmed by whatever political deal is agreed upon in future weeks.
-30-
Because the mess that is the Illinois government budget is going to get resolved the way it always does – through a back-room deal cut by the governor and the “Four Tops.”
THAT MEANS THE four legislative leaders will all get equal say (even the Republican leaders). That’s the price the Democrats will have to pay for not being able to ram through a deal on their own before the Monday deadline.
And it means that we’re going to see just how much of a goo goo (good government type) Pat Quinn truly is.
Because as things stand now, the Illinois General Assembly took a pass on its responsibility to approve a balanced budget for government to operate with for the 2011 fiscal year (the one that begins July 1 of this calendar year).
Quinn was totally correct when he laughed derisively at the notion that an unbalanced budget be signed into law now, and that the General Assembly could come back to the Statehouse in November to try to fix the mess.
ONLY AMONG POLITICAL people would one find a group that thinks they should be credited with meeting a deadline, even though the actual work they were supposed to accomplish was left uncompleted.
So now, we’re reduced to negotiations.
Quinn met with the legislative leaders at his Statehouse office (the one that was covered with several layers of dust because former occupant Rod Blagojevich rarely set foot in there) on Monday.
About all that came out of those sessions was an agreement to resume talks on Thursday – only those talks will take place in the governor’s office at the Thompson Center building in Chicago (the office that was once taped off by the FBI as a potential crime scene while federal investigators looked for evidence against Blagojevich).
I SUPPOSE THE fact that they agreed to bother resuming talks again later this week means that no one said anything to blatantly offend someone else. They’re still talking.
But it also means that we’re no closer to knowing how the state plans to plug the billions-of-dollars shortfall it faces in the state budget for the upcoming fiscal year – even though Quinn told reporter-types he is hopeful there will be some sort of solution by July 1.
That is the new drop-dead date (as opposed to Sunday’s drop-dead date that turned out to be phony). For if state officials remain as clueless on July 1 as they are now, we then face the notion of having state government shut down.
We also face the chance of severe cuts being made to government programs – which would mean that services that some people have come to depend upon in their lives (such as medical care) will be cut.
TO THAT END, the Capitol Fax newsletter reported Monday that Quinn said he is having notices sent out informing social service groups that receive state funding to maintain their programs that they may lose their money in 30 days.
That ultimately is the problem with the people who spew rhetoric about wanting to take a narrow-minded “just make cuts” approach to the problem. It is similar to the reason why it is wrong to think of government operations as just a business.
Government can’t fail and go bankrupt. It must be propped up because it provides some services necessary to maintain our society. Thinking you can just make cuts is the cowardly way out of the problem.
So what happens now?
I DON’T KNOW. I’m sure that the General Assembly will eventually return to the Statehouse for one day, where they will be asked to vote on a proposal that makes some cuts in program funding while also imposing some sort of tax that the anti-tax types will want to demonize as the end of civilization as we know it.
A lot of legislators are going to be asked by their leaders to vote in favor of a measure they despise. All of them will find one tiny aspect of the plan they can tolerate, and will proceed to spin that aspect into something significant to make it seem like their vote is somehow responsible.
Which means that the terms of this deal is what is being negotiated by Quinn and the legislative leaders.
Some might think it totally appropriate for Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, to come up with such a deal, along with the descendant of the Cullerton family who now runs the Illinois Senate.
AS FOR THE Republican leaders of the state Senate and Illinois House respectively, Christine Ragodno, R-Lemont, and Tom Cross, R-Oswego, they will be so thankful to be suddenly relevant after going all spring not having their opinions account for much of anything that they will wind up getting caught in the deal as well.
And Quinn the good government type is going to have to cut a political deal – one that is going to hurt some people no matter how it turns out.
That is what I find to be most ironic about this whole situation. It may very well be Quinn who is behaving the most responsibly these days – accepting the idea of a significant tax hike during tough economic times and refusing to merely do what is politically expedient (such as signing an unbalanced budget with a promise of fixing it a few months from now).
But in the end, those same legislative leaders who now are crafting this deal with Quinn will wind up turning on him – calling it the Quinn budget and insisting that he receive full blame for anyone whose interests are harmed by whatever political deal is agreed upon in future weeks.
-30-
1 comment:
Your 5th paragraph/section has the wrong info. It says FY2011, but I think you meant FY2010.
Post a Comment