Considering the constitution’s unequivocal command that the expenses can’t outstrip revenues, it’s hard to give any credibility to the Legislature’s assertion that it can go home after passing a budget that is, oh, just a couple of billions short of being balanced.
Yet, incredibly, that’s the claim being made by the Democrats who on Friday—just before a deadline—passed this $59 billion budget without indicating the source of the additional money needed make sure that “expenditures shall not exceed” revenues. “That’s a decision for the governor to make. The Legislature is not involved in spending decisions,” said Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan. “We have done our job,” Democratic Senate President Emil Jones said as he and the other legislators headed home over the weekend, congratulating themselves for getting the budget “done.”
Malarkey. Such claims would be laughable, if they didn’t take us for idiots. As a joke, the laugh is on us.
Here’s a rough idea of what the Democrats did all by themselves: The new budget increases the state’s operating budget by 6.7 percent. School funding rises $515 million, increasing per pupil funding by $225 and providing $148.5 million in construction money for 26 school districts, including Chicago. Higher education funding is increased by 2.8 percent and increases go to mental health, community care, aging and other human services. We’re supposed to believe that natural revenue growth during the overly ballyhooed “recession” is supposed to take cover the deficit.
The Senate at least feigned interest in finding a new revenue spigot. It passed a bill that would expand gambling with a new Chicago casino, slot machines at racetracks and leasing a good hunk of the state lottery to a private operator. It also would have borrowed some more money—as if we’re not already up to our eyeballs in debt—to pay down the state’s pension obligations. But even with those revenue sources and natural growth, the deficit would still gape at more than $1 billion. The House didn’t do even that much; it did nothing.
This, mind you, is the same Legislature that is upset that Gov. Rod Blagojevich has usurped its power by creating a multi-million-dollar kids’ health care program without legislative authority. Now, they say balancing the budget is the governor’s job. The truth is that neither the governor nor the legislature is doing its jobs.
Unless, of course, you think like many gleeful Democrats who passed a half-vast budget thinking that it’ll make Blagojevich look bad. Most sane people wouldn’t understand the thinking behind this tactic, but remember that we are dealing with the creatures that slink around their native habitat in the state capital. Here’s how they figure: by handing Blagojevich a budget that is out of balance, he will be forced to veto some of the spending items, and that will offend a lot of special interests, and, presumably, the voters who gain from the various forms of state largesse. The legislators are crowing about how cleverly they are forcing the governor into an embarrassing Hobson’s choice. Meanwhile, the state’s budget deficit grows, its financial crisis looms every larger, there’s more talk of taxes and more businesses are thinking that it would suit them just fine to locate their operations someplace other than a loony ward.
I don’t know of a single word that accurately describes this sorry state of affairs. We have to revert to a multitude of words to even come close: stupid, self-serving, arrogant, petty, dangerous, incompetent, dishonest, pointless, vain, absurd. But then, we just keep right on electing them, which means that many of those words should apply to the voters too.