GOP budget: Up to $6 billion in cuts now will ease pain later

[March 11, 2011]  SPRINGFIELD -- As Democrats try to trim close to a billion dollars from Gov. Pat Quinn's budget for the upcoming fiscal year, Republicans are unveiling their own spending plan.

Senate Republicans on Thursday suggested that the only way Illinois can avoid a $22 billion deficit in five years is to slash between $4 billion and $6 billion from the fiscal 2012 budget. The GOP leaders say the cuts will be deep and painful. But Republicans also say they want to wait a bit before saying what would be chopped.

"If we'll make the tough choice now -- some of it's fat and waste; some of it will hurt a little bit -- but if we can do that now, the reward in 2016 will be tremendous," said state Sen. Matt Murphy, R-Palatine.

The GOP plan uses numbers from Quinn's budget plan, including a $1 billion difference between expected money and what the governor wants to spend, and adds that to about $4 billion of the state's backlog of unpaid bills. Simply adding that difference year after year, the GOP leaders say, increases the Illinois deficit to $22 billion.

State Sen. Pam Althoff, R-Crystal Lake, said the numbers show that the recent 67 percent personal income tax increase is not enough.

"Illinois will begin the next fiscal year with a deficit of $4.35 billion," Althoff said. "The state will take in $33.93 billion. But (the governor) plans to spend $34.98 billion."

Althoff said that unless state government stops spending, Illinois will never erase its deficit.

Quinn's budget office is quick to say that if GOP lawmakers can find a way to save billions, they welcome the suggestions. Kelly Kraft, the governor's budget spokeswoman, said she'd love to hear new ideas on how Illinois can pay its massive pension payments and take care of the needs of the state on $6 billion less.

"These are required payments that the state has to pay," Kraft said. "If you just take a look at a $5 billion (pension) payment, and we're talking about (an operating budget) of $32 billion, that leaves $27 billion on essential services here in the state -- education, health care, every single thing that we provide for the residents of our state."

Kraft has said for months that if lawmakers want to erase the state's backlog of unpaid bills, they should approve a multibillion-dollar borrowing plan.

Democrats are on board, but Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont, is drawing a hard line against any more borrowing. Radogno said borrowing simply pushes the state's debt into the future.

"It's always cheaper not to borrow. Period, the end," she said. "You are always paying interest. You're always incurring costs for borrowing."

Kraft counters that the massive backlog of bills is already costing Illinois.

"No one likes the idea of borrowing," Kraft said. "But the facts are, we already owe this money."

But there may be another reason the Senate GOP is cold to the idea of borrowing. If Republicans agree to loans to erase the deficit, some fear it will only give the governor and future Democratic leaders a reason to push to make the temporary income tax increase permanent.

"If we have any hope of getting rid of the tax increase," said Murphy, "we have to be willing to make tough decisions now."

The Senate Republicans are promising a "menu" of cuts sometime next week.

[Illinois Statehouse News; By BENJAMIN YOUNT]