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Headlines : Illinois
Gov. Pat Quinn on pension mess: 'Everything is on the table'
Gov. Pat Quinn took his case for a budgetary crash diet directly to state lawmakers Wednesday, pushing a grim assortment of prison closures and spending cuts in a spending plan that he said wasn't built around "budget fantasies" but rather "hard realities."
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Headlines : Illinois
Quinn to call for dozens of prison, human services closures
Facing troubling finances, Gov. Pat Quinn on Wednesday plans to call for widespread closures and consolidation in agencies dealing with social services, state police and prisons, including the shutdown of the controversial super-maximum prison in deep Southern Illinois, according to budget documents.
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Headlines : Illinois
Quinn: Medicaid must be cut back
Warning about collapse of health care for the poor will come in governor's budget address Wednesday.
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Headlines : Illinois
State legislators to hold hearing on Illinois' finances before gov's budget address next week
An Illinois Senate panel is expected to meet to get a snapshot of the state's finances a week before Gov. Pat Quinn gives his budget address.
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Headlines : Illinois
Bumpy ride ahead for state budget
The problem in state government continues to be one of income versus expenses, despite last year's major income-tax increase.
- View All News Stories
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
2012 Legislative Calendar: Regular Session convenes January 11, meets throughout the year.
Legislative Budget Leaders:
Rep. Fred Crespo (D), Chair, House General Services Appropriations Committee, (217) 782-0347
Rep. Al Riley (D), Vice-Chair, House General Services Appropriations Committee, rep.riley38@sbcglobal.net (217) 558-1007
Sen. Heather A. Steans (D), Chair, Senate Appropriations I Committee, (217) 782-8492
Sen. Dan Kotowski (D), Vice-Chair, Senate Appropriations I Committee, (217) 782-3875
Rep. John E. Bradley (D), Chair, House Revenue & Finance Committee, repjohnbradley@mychoice.net (217) 782-1051
Rep. Arthur Turner (D), Vice-Chair, House Revenue & Finance Committee, (217) 782-8116
Sen. Toi W. Hutchinson (D), Chair, Senate Revenue Committee, (217) 782-7419
Sen. James T. Meeks (D), Vice-Chair, Senate Revenue Committee, (217) 782-8066
Sen. Kwame Raoul (D), Chair, Pensions and Investments Committee, (217) 782-5338
Sen. Iris Y. Martinez (D), Vice-Chair, Pensions and Investments Committee, (217) 782-8191
The current state budget can be found here.
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.
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The Illinois Policy Institute's Budget Solutions 2011 can be found here.
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Pensions :
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HEADLINES: Illinois
Gov. Pat Quinn on pension mess: 'Everything is on the table'
Gov. Pat Quinn took his case for a budgetary crash diet directly to state lawmakers Wednesday, pushing a grim assortment of prison closures and spending cuts in a spending plan that he said wasn't built around "budget fantasies" but rather "hard realities."
-
HEADLINES: Illinois
Bumpy ride ahead for state budget
The problem in state government continues to be one of income versus expenses, despite last year's major income-tax increase.
- View All Illinois articles
State Debt :
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HEADLINES: Illinois
Illinois Lawmakers Pressured for CME Tax Breaks After Increase
Lawmakers in Illinois cann bow to pressure from businesses, cut their tax load and deepen the state's $8 billion budget hole by an additional $325 million. Or they can run the risk that the operator of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade, and Sears Holdings Corp. will flee the state.
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HEADLINES: Illinois
Illinois lawmakers punt on pensions as $85B liability grows
It's unlikely lawmakers will address the problem in the one-day session they have scheduled for Nov. 29, meaning they have no way to address it again for six more months, until they reconvene in the spring.
- View All Illinois articles
Revenue :
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HEADLINES: Illinois
More State Layoffs in Illinois?
The Quinn administration released a budget outlook that shows most state operations should expect a 9 percent reduction, which the governor says is needed to help the state pay pension and Medicaid costs which have been on the rise.
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HEADLINES: Illinois
Ill. Legislature adjourns as tax package stalls
Lawmakers came to the Illinois Capitol to pass major tax relief but failed in dramatic fashion Tuesday when the legislation, meant to keep high-profile businesses from abandoning the state, was overwhelmingly rejected in the House.
- View All Illinois articles
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Solutions: Illinois, California, Texas
Amazonian-Size Taxes
Proposals to tax Internet retail sales are all the rage as states continue to look for more ways to balance their budgets in the face of revenue shortfalls.
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Solutions: Illinois
Budget Solutions 2012
To reestablish Illinois as an economic powerhouse, the Institute has proposed "Budget Solutions 2012," an alternative that does not rely on the state's recent tax hikes as a revenue source, does not include borrowing and has positive cash flow for fiscal year 2012 - all while funding core services the poor and disadvantaged rely upon.
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Solutions: Illinois, Indiana, Virginia, California, Louisiana, Colorado
What Works: Fixing State Budgets
Paper suggesting a variety of ways to fixing state budgets in crisis, including freezing or slowing public employee salary growth, privatizing infrastructure and state operations, eliminating prevailing wage and placing constitutional limits on taxing and spending.
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Solutions: Illinois
Budget Solutions 2011: A New Way Forward
A detailed, comprehensive alternative budgeting plan addressing Illinois' immediate financial problems focused on three key elements: spending reallignment, right-sizing government labor costs and pension fund reform.
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Illinois
Gov. Pat Quinn on pension mess: 'Everything is on the table'
Gov. Pat Quinn took his case for a budgetary crash diet directly to state lawmakers Wednesday, pushing a grim assortment of prison closures and spending cuts in a spending plan that he said wasn't built around "budget fantasies" but rather "hard realities."
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Illinois
Bumpy ride ahead for state budget
The problem in state government continues to be one of income versus expenses, despite last year's major income-tax increase.
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Illinois
Quinn wants $2 billion in state Medicaid cuts
Quinn said he wants to cut $2 billion from the state's Medicaid program and change it into a "wellness system" instead of a "provider payment system,"
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Illinois
A Very Important Graph About Illinois's Budget Crisis
In FY 2012, Medicaid and pension spending is equivalent to 60 percent of the state's base operating budget; by 2017, it increases to 73 percent.
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Illinois
State action urged to stop pension debt from ballooning
Illinois' multibillion-dollar pile of unpaid bills will quadruple within five years unless steps are taken to curtail state pension and Medicaid spending, a government watchdog concluded Monday in a new analysis of the state's budget.
- View All Pensions
