According to a new report from TruthinAccounting.org Illinois is one of five states whose budgets the organization has characterized as a “sinkhole”:
The report explains that Illinois has $55 billion worth of assets (defined as both financial assets, and also including state parks, for example), but less than $19.6 billion is available to pay $130.2 billion of bills as they come due. Each taxpayer’s financial burden is $26,800.
How do they get away with it? In addition to not including pension obligations tied to current compensation in the annual budget, the report condemns Illinois because, according to the report: “Illinois habitually delays issuing its year-end financial report until after the next fiscal year’s budget process has been completed. That prevents citizens and public officials from having important information, leading to less-than-optimal public policy decisions.â€
How will those gaps be filled? States have already tried raising income taxes, sales taxes, corporate taxes, property taxes, lotteries and, more recently, even legalizing gambling. But one way or another it will come out of the pockets of workers and employers.
Maybe we should change the license plates.
One of my early gripes about then Governor now convicted felon Rod Blagojevich was his decision to divert funds away from public employee pension funds towards the provision of additional services. That decision is one of the reasons we’re in the fix we’re in.
Another factor that shouldn’t be underestimated: how much healthcare costs the state. It’s a problem that needs to be addressed by the federal government and dropping that ball on that will ultimately put every large state’s budget at risk.
