 The four-year, temporary personal income tax hike of 67 percent was
approved on the final day of the previous General Assembly
legislature and recently signed by Gov. Pat Quinn. In part, the
income tax hike is designed to help Illinois catch up on past-due
bills and stop being delinquent on its payments."Our current
backlog of bills stands at $6 billion, and the increased revenues
will help address this backlog," said Kelly Kraft, spokeswoman for
the governor's Office of Management and Budget.
Not quite, according to Topinka, who is in charge of Illinois'
checkbook.
"By the time we get through four years from now and all of this
and what they're able to spend, we will probably have a debt of $12
billion of unpaid bills that have yet to be dealt with," the
Riverside Republican said.
Topinka said her office is now working on getting last August's
bills paid.
A plan to issue $8.75 billion in bonds to get social services,
hospitals and others the money they are due was introduced at the
same time as the tax increase, but the measure did not pass.
State Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, has
reintroduced the bill in the new legislature as
Senate Bill 3. Democrats, who were the only ones to vote for the
tax hike, said borrowing is essential to relieving the state's
financial distress.
"Without this component of the plan, school districts, social
service providers, hospitals and other state vendors will continue
to struggle for survival as we slowly climb out of this fiscal
hole," Cullerton spokeswoman Rikeesha Phelon said.
Because the plan involves borrowing, it needs three-fifths of the
legislature to vote aye. That means Republicans who didn't support
the tax increase would have to support borrowing.
"Republicans have to be willing to support the plan or be ready
to tell school districts and hospitals to suck it up while the party
makes a political point," Phelon added.
Shortly after the income tax increase passed the state House of
Representatives, House Republican Leader Tom Cross said his caucus
would be willing to consider voting for borrowing, but not without
some concessions.
"We'll look at it to pay our vendors, but we're going to look at
it a different way. It might be a smaller amount; we might say
you've got to cut somewhere else; we might say you have to look at
(workers' compensation) -- I don't know what else we might say,"
Cross said.
For her part, Topinka has not decided one way or another on the
borrowing plan.
"It will help to some extent, in terms of paying the bills. I
still want to look at that before we sign off on it and see exactly
where it goes. I want to read that bill and see exactly what it
does. I've signed off on borrowing when I was (state) treasurer, but
not all the time," she said.
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However, the bonds do not need Topinka's approval to be issued.
Unlike short-term borrowing, which requires the comptroller and the
treasurer to give the OK, long-term bonds only need approval from
the General Assembly and governor.
While the legislature works on the borrowing, Topinka said she is
trying to make things so she can pay bills incrementally. Currently,
any receipt given to the state has to be paid in full, which has
caused a lot of problems, according to Topinka.
"If the legislature would allow us to pay at least some of it,
then at least we can get -- especially with smaller businesses, who
might be holding on by their fingertips -- we will get them
something in an orderly, predictable fashion," she said.
Some is better than none, said Mike Heath, executive director for
Good Samaritan House Ministries, a soup kitchen, food pantry and
shelter assistance service in the southern Illinois city of
Carbondale.
"If you don't know at all when it's coming, that's not a good
thing, because you can't plan ahead. If you've got a date, knowing
you're going to get part of it, that's better from a budget point of
view than knowing nothing," Heath said.
Until social services and vendors get paid by the state, they
either have to find the money elsewhere or stop the programs all
together.
"You've got to have money to pay your bills. It's that simple,"
Heath said.
[Illinois
Statehouse News; By ANDREW THOMASON]
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