Editorial: At budget time, Illinois ignores its own constitution - Bloomington Pantagraph
While the state is the butt of jokes about its multiple imprisoned politicians, the fact is those in power don’t follow some of the basic tenets of the state constitution. Bruce Rauner says about House Speaker Mike Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton, and vice versa, is the fact the Illinois Constitution calls for the state budget to balanced. The constitution states, “Proposed expenditures shall not exceed funds estimated to be available for the fiscal year as shown in the budget. However, the concept of a balanced budget in Illinois is a joke, and a very bad joke at that. The punch line is a massive budget deficit, billions of dollars of debt and fairly wide acknowledgment that Illinois is not only in the worst financial shape of all 50 states, it also is the worst-run state in the union. The General Assembly has not passed a balanced budget since 2001. Every year, some type of trick is used to give the illusion the budget appears balanced, but it really isn't. The idea is legislators can be heroes by getting funding for their pet projects and if the mean, old governor vetoes the pet project, it’s his fault. Rauner vetoed most of the budget sent to him by the Democratic-controlled legislature, saying it was unconstitutionally out of balance by more than $3 billion. Source: www.pantagraph.com
