-
Headlines : Illinois
State universities, colleges agree to slowly pick up pension costs
A plan to gradually shift ongoing pension costs to state universities and community colleges surfaced in the Illinois House Thursday and could be the model for shifting pension costs for K-12 schools.
-
Headlines
Ex-Penn State president tops highest paid list
Presidents of public universities are taking home bigger paychecks, and a growing number are raking in more than $1 million.
-
Headlines : Illinois
How a state bond sale escaped pension penalty
Illinois got a good deal on a $300 million bond sale today, illustrating what happens when the Chicago economy and not the state's pension obligations drive how investors look at the state's creditworthiness.
-
Headlines : Illinois
Illinois Senate passes pension bill, sets up showdown with House
In the state capitol, it's a battle over two bills, competing proposals brought forward by two of the state's top democrats to deal with our nearly $100 billion dollar pension problem.
-
Headlines : Illinois
Senate leader counters with union-backed pension plan
Hanging in the balance is a fix for Illinois' worst-in-the-nation pension debt that's approaching $100 billion and gobbling up money that could be spent on education and the state's large stack of unpaid bills.
- View All News Stories
Budget timeline: Annual
Fiscal Year starts: July 1
The current state budget can be found here.
Find the legislative session calendar here.
Find the current legislative leaders here.
Gov. Pat Quinn
State Capitol
207 Statehouse
Springfield, IL 62706
Phone: (217) 782-6830
Fax: (217) 524-4049
http://www.illinois.gov/gov/
David Vaught, Director
Bureau of the Budget
603 Stratton Building
Springfield, IL 62706
Phone (217) 782-4520
Fax: (217) 524-4876
www.state.il.us/budget/
BureauBudget.OMB@illinois.gov
Illinois is required to pass a "balanced budget." Article VIII, Section 2 of the 1970 Constitution requires the general assembly to make appropriations for all expenditures of public funds, with appropriations for a fiscal year not exceeding funds estimated by the general assembly to be available for that fiscal year. Illinois law does not forbid the carrying over of a deficit from one year to the next.
Illinois has capped spending when expenditures exceed revenues the previous year. If the budget falls short on revenue by 4% or more, than the next year's budget can only spend 99% of the estimated revenue. If it is 4% short 2 years in a row, the cap is set at 98%. Despite these balanced budget requirements Illinois report more than $4 billion deficits (negative net transactions) for each of the three years studied.
There are no statutory requirements that govern what kinds of assumptions can be made about revenue or expenses. Therefore the Illinois budget is "unbalanced" in different ways in different years. [from the Institute for Truth in Accounting]
Citizens can can find data regarding the state's payroll, pension and expenditures directly from official government sources, as well as a spending blog, at IllinoisOpenGov.org.
Find the state's bond ratings here.
|
|
The Illinois Policy Institute's Budget Solutions 2011 can be found here.
|
Pensions :
-
HEADLINES: Illinois
State universities, colleges agree to slowly pick up pension costs
A plan to gradually shift ongoing pension costs to state universities and community colleges surfaced in the Illinois House Thursday and could be the model for shifting pension costs for K-12 schools.
-
HEADLINES: Illinois
Illinois Senate passes pension bill, sets up showdown with House
In the state capitol, it's a battle over two bills, competing proposals brought forward by two of the state's top democrats to deal with our nearly $100 billion dollar pension problem.
- View All Illinois articles
State Debt :
-
HEADLINES: Illinois
Illinois Pays Up to Sell Debt
Illinois had to pay a premium to sell some of its $800 million in municipal bonds Tuesday, a little more than two months after a credit-rating downgrade saw the state postpone a similar sale.
-
HEADLINES: Illinois
Quinn's budget to call for education cuts
The education cuts of nearly 3 percent are necessary because the state's annual pension payments - now more than $6 billion a year - will divert money from other government operations, Gov. Pat Quinn has said.
- View All Illinois articles
Revenue :
-
HEADLINES
Williams: Marketplace Fairness Act and Internet taxes are not the answers to state budget problems
Bob Williams: Hoping for more federal stimulus or hoping the feds will allow taxes on the Internet will not solve the budget crises the states currently face. The problem is spending, not revenue.
-
HEADLINES
What if the Internet Sales Tax Doesn't Make it Through Congress?
Some states are so anxious for the anticipated revenues they've already committed the money to various projects.
- View All Illinois articles
-
Solutions:
How Reality-Based Budgeting Can Permanently Resolve State Budget Gaps
State Budget Solutions recommends that state legislators take action in 2013 to resolve the serious state financial crises by changing their focus from inputs to outcomes by redesigning budgets from the ground up based on priorities and performance.
-
Solutions:
How to Prevent Future Pension Crises
The time for state and local governments to offer defined contribution retirement plans that protect both taxpayer dollars and public employee retirement security is now.
-
Solutions:
State Lawmakers Guide to Evaluating Medicaid Expansion Projections
Supporters of Obamacare claim that expanding Medicaid will entail little to no cost to state governments, since the federal government will fund the vast majority of the additional costs. Indeed, some analyses project states achieving savings from adopting the expansion. However, state lawmakers should be wary of accepting such analyses at face value.
-
Solutions:
Medicaid Is BrokenLet the States Fix It
Block-granting Medicaid is the best way to deliver better, cost-effective care to the most vulnerable Americans.
-
Solutions:
The Case for Reform: Prisons
Prisons are supremely important, but they are also a supremely expensive government program, and thus prison systems must be held to the highest standards of accountability.
- View All Solutions
-
Illinois
State universities, colleges agree to slowly pick up pension costs
A plan to gradually shift ongoing pension costs to state universities and community colleges surfaced in the Illinois House Thursday and could be the model for shifting pension costs for K-12 schools.
-
Illinois
How a state bond sale escaped pension penalty
Illinois got a good deal on a $300 million bond sale today, illustrating what happens when the Chicago economy and not the state's pension obligations drive how investors look at the state's creditworthiness.
-
Illinois
Illinois Senate passes pension bill, sets up showdown with House
In the state capitol, it's a battle over two bills, competing proposals brought forward by two of the state's top democrats to deal with our nearly $100 billion dollar pension problem.
-
Illinois
Senate leader counters with union-backed pension plan
Hanging in the balance is a fix for Illinois' worst-in-the-nation pension debt that's approaching $100 billion and gobbling up money that could be spent on education and the state's large stack of unpaid bills.
-
Illinois
Illinois lawmakers weighing pension options
After years of trying, lawmakers return to Springfield on Monday with something they haven't had before: two potential options for finally addressing Illinois' multibillion-dollar pension problem.
- View All Pensions
-
BLOG: Higher Education, Spending
Who is the highest paid state employee in your state?
Time to add a new diagram to the state budget and policy playbook--your state's highest paid employee is probably a football or basketball coach.
-
BLOG: Medicaid
Medicaid expansion won't yield quality health care
The bombshell Oregon Medicaid study released this week should give all states pause as they consider plans to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. States must now ask what the point of Medicaid is in the first place.
-
BLOG: Budget Gimmicks, Budget Processes and Systems, Measures to Balance Budgets, Spending, State Debt
Let's Put Privatizing Municipal Services Back on the Table
-
BLOG: Unions
Airing Out the Smoke-filled Rooms: Bringing Transparency to Public Union Collective Bargaining
To help prevent union strong-arming that fleeces taxpayers, we should know precisely what public union officials are demanding and what government employers are offering in any collective negotiation about employment terms and conditions.
-
BLOG: Budget Gimmicks, Budget Processes and Systems, Budget Transparency, Federal Government Impact, Federal Government Impact, Measures to Balance Budgets, Pensions, Revenue, Spending, State Debt
Yes, Your Paycheck is Smaller...And it May Get Worse
And it isn’t just individuals who must reconfigure budgets, the states are looking at smaller “paychecks” as well.
- View All Commentary
