By Greg Bishop/Illinois Radio Network
SPRINGFIELD – Taxpayers need to start demanding that lawmakers pass balanced budgets as a first step toward addressing very large projected annual deficits in the state, according to a government spending watchdog group.
Over the next six years, Illinois’ government expects to spend annually, on average, roughly $41.2 billion while only bringing in about $34.8 billion. Truth In Accounting (TIA) founder and CEO Sheila Weinberg said taxpayers need to understand what that means.
“What a deficit means is it is a deferred tax increase because eventually, this money will have to be paid back in some format,” Weinberg said.
Weinberg said taxpayers could speak up and tell lawmakers where to cut the budget.
“Let’s honestly balance this budget by either raising taxes or cutting expenditures, but something has to be done.”
Another area of concern, the state’s $130 billion unfunded pension liability, is something Weinberg expects to continue to balloon.
Meanwhile, Weinberg said the state’s growing backlog of unpaid bills, at more than $10.6 billion, is just like a bankrupt household adding charges to its credit card.
“In addition to not balancing the budget, that doesn’t include other bills that aren’t even getting in the budget, so we’re really running a $13 billion deficit every single year.”
Weinberg said the state has the balanced-budget requirement in the state constitution to hold elected officials accountable, but that it’s too easy to circumvent.
“We’ve just totally lost that sense of accountability because we just haven’t been and will continue not to balance the state budget.”
TIA estimates that taxpayers are on the hook for $45,000 per taxpayer.
Republicans in the General Assembly said they want economic reforms to grow the tax base before agreeing to revenue increases pushed by Democrats.
