Ten Ways To Balance 6.
Pass the Illinois Efficient Government Act to
The Budget Without
Tax Hikes
Governor Pat Quinn claims that $3.2 billion in
new personal and corporate income tax receipts
are necessary to put Illinois’s budget back in the
black. In a down economy, however, the last
thing that families and businesses need to worry
about is the dangling noose of higher taxes.
The Illinois Policy Institute recently released
an alternative plan: Budget Solutions 2010,
which the Chicago Tribune called “a smart new
June 4, 2009
smorgasbord” of spending reforms for our
state. Here are 10 “Budget Solutions” steps
legislators can take to put the state budget on
sounder fiscal footing without job-killing tax
hikes:
1. Reduce Governor Quinn’s $30.6 billion
General Revenue Fund budget proposal for
2010 by just 10 percent (worth $3 billion).
Policy•Point
2. Roll back the 2010 spending increases
Governor Quinn scheduled for certain
departments over their 2009 allocations (worth
$980 million). Pare back the budgets of the
remaining “Governor’s Agencies” (a 15 percent
cut is worth $963 million).
3. Reduce budgets for legislative, judicial, and
elections agencies (a 10 percent cut is worth
$80 million).
4. Stop the flow of general revenues into
certain special state funds (worth upwards of
$647 million). Stop the flow of state income tax
receipts to localities (worth $1.2 billion).
5. Reduce government payroll costs (a 10
percent reduction is worth $508 million).
Require greater health care and pension
contributions for public employees and retirees.
help “right-size” state government by fostering
competition, efficiency, and innovation in
service delivery to Illinois taxpayers.
7. Adopt the savings suggestions of the
Taxpayer Action Board, which focused on the
areas of government operations, public safety,
education, pensions, Medicaid, human services,
and public employee and retiree health care.
8. Begin Medicaid delivery reform by
implementing a mandatory managed care
system, rebalancing long-term care away from
institutions toward lower-cost community care,
and requesting a waiver from federal mandates
in order to give Illinois a greater degree of
flexibility.
9. Prevent future deficits and ensure that the
government does not grow beyond taxpayers’
ability to pay for it by passing an expenditure
limit tied to population growth and inflation.
If this had been passed in 2004, the state could
have saved $13.7 billion over the past six years.
10. Pass the Illinois Policy Institute’s Economic
Reform Agenda, which consists of four
common-sense proposals (PAYGO, 3/5
supermajority requirement for tax increases,
Sunshine Act, and Stimulus Watch Act) that
address the root causes of Illinois’s fiscal and
economic crisis.
Illinois leaders do not need to increase taxes
to balance the state’s budget. Deciding to hike
taxes on Illinoisans is a choice, not a necessity.
Nor do state leaders need to impose
“doomsday” budget cuts. Our alternative
approach shows that the deficit can be resolved
with a variety of sensible and reasonable
spending reforms. For more information,
visit our “Budget Solutions 2010” plan at
www.illinoispolicyinstitute.org.