PICKING UP THE GOVERNOR’S TAB…AGAIN

2/17/11

Governor Pat Quinn (no relation) presented his proposed budget yesterday and there were no surprises: The Governor wants to spend substantially more of your money even after he, and every other Democrat in Illinois, swore up and down that, in exchange for the gargantuan tax hike that was just crammed down the throats of the taxpayers (who acted surprised even after they elected the guy who promised a tax hike and even after they raised nary a peep about all the spending that was the rationalization for that tax hike, but I digress), they would hence forth be tight with the taxpayers’ buck. The legislature even installed some now obviously toothless and risible spending caps which the governor, kicking and screaming (wink, wink), agreed to in order to gain access to more of the fruits of your labor.

How much more does the governor want to spend? $1.7 billion, which is an increase of 4.8% if one uses the state’s operating budget as one’s denominator or 3.2% if one uses the state’s overall budget as a denominator. In any case, it’s real money, unless, of course, it’s not yours. But that’s not all; Mr. Quinn (no relation) also wants to use $1.4 billion of the $8.75 billion in new borrowing he proposes in order to refinance the state’s debt (at a loss, but he doesn’t mention that) not to indeed refinance the debt but to increase state spending.

Even Mike Madigan, House Speaker and Pat Quinn’s boss, has called out the governor on his spending, saying he has blown the spending caps by $750mm. Where Mr. Madigan got $750mm, I don’t know, but, predictably, it is less than half the $1.7 billion in additional net spending. One never knows whether Mr. Madigan’s new found fiscal rectitude has its origins more in politics or in governance, though they always mix in Mr. Madigan’s view of the world and one can usually bet safely by putting one’s chips on political motivations when dealing with Speaker Madigan, but I digress again.

In the case of Mr. Quinn (no relation), however, continuing to live in a fiscal fantasy world is not only bad governance in a state that is broke, but it is also terrible politics for at least two reasons. First, in the future, when Mr. Quinn puts that characteristic smirk on his face and asks the GOPers railing for spending reduction which programs they’d cut, these profiles in courage no longer need to stammer and yammer, confine their preaching to the choir, and then change the subject. They can now instead say that we could cut the budget by at least 3.1% if we simply eliminate Mr. Quinn’s proposed new spending. When Governor Quinn (no relation) goes into his usual soliloquy about how “vital” and “essential” this spending is and how people who “live pay check to pay check” (in many cases, more properly, “government check to government check,” but again I digress) will be hurt by this, some rare Republican with even a modest degree of courage can ask how these people are surviving now without this proposed additional spending. I said “can” because given the condition of the GOP in this state “will” would be too much of a stretch. Yet another digression, but a valuable and piquant one.

Second, Mr. Quinn’s continuing to insist on spending ever more of your money gives further credence, as if more were necessary, to the very legitimate criticism of the Governor that he has no experience in the world of those of us who contribute to the public purse; having spent his whole life on the public payroll (with the exception of those “jobs” he had when the door to public employment had been slammed in his face by a presumably smarter electorate or by a former boss, like Harold Washington, who was on to this popinjay), Mr. Quinn (no relation) knows only the world of those who take from the public payroll, who could not make a living were it not for some access to the budget of some level or branch of government.