Friday, September 17, 2010
 
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Quinn, Brady both short on budget details

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[September 17, 2010]  SPRINGFIELD (AP) -- Illinois voters are out of luck if they expect the candidates for governor to spell out which state services would be slashed and which would be spared in order to permanently close a gaping budget hole.

Will state parks close? Will poor people find it harder to qualify for medical care? Will Illinois stop providing job training for the disabled and counseling for troubled teens?

Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn and Republican challenger Bill Brady can't, or won't, provide those kinds of details. Brady even plays down the idea that painful sacrifice will be required in the face of the biggest budget crisis in Illinois history.

The two candidates are clear, however, on the general approach they'll use to fix the $13 billion problem.

Quinn has already cut billions in state spending and says he might cut more, while also pursuing a $3 billion income tax increase and continuing to let some bills go unpaid.

Brady absolutely rejects the idea of raising taxes. In fact, he wants to cut them, arguing that it would help the economy and ultimately produce more tax revenue. In the meantime, he promises to cut state spending by 10 percent.

"I think they're both being very candid. What they're not doing is being very detailed," said Steve Schnorf, who was budget director under Republican Govs. Jim Edgar and George Ryan.

Schnorf argues that by declaring their approach to the deficit, the candidates give voters the basic information they need. Other budget-watchers disagree.

"I don't believe either of them has presented enough detail to even make us think they have a clue," said Joan Walters, another former Edgar budget director.

Several experts said their biggest worry isn't the lack of detail -- it's the candidates' failure to convey the scope of the problem. They said the candidates should be preparing the public for massive cutbacks and government restructuring, not belt-tightening and a simple tax increase.

"Those are not the real options. The problem is much deeper, I believe," said R. Eden Martin, president of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago. "I don't think anybody has been dishonest. I just think nobody has given a complete, clear description of the enormity of the problem."

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Quinn bristles at any suggestion that he hasn't been clear. He often says he's the candidate who tells voters what they need to hear instead of what they want to hear.

He has put forward annual budgets and made decisions about which services to cut and what groups must wait longer to get state money.

But many of those cuts are lumped under broad headings like "efficiency initiatives," leaving voters in the dark about exactly what they mean.

Brady has said even less about his plans. He did not, for instance, introduce legislation presenting an alternative to Quinn's budget this spring. He sometimes indicates he would cut spending across the board and other times says cuts would be more specific.

John Tillman, CEO of the conservative Illinois Policy Institute, said there's a simple reason Quinn and Brady avoid ugly details when they can: Each would use those details to attack the other.

"What I think is very clear to the people of Illinois is the pathway that each of gubernatorial candidates would choose," Tillman said.

[Associated Press; By CHRISTOPHER WILLS]

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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