Rock Island Today

Brandi McGuire, Republican candidate for Illinois House District 72, recently challenged conventional thinking on the current budget crisis.

"Funding for state-worker pay and benefits increased by nearly 600 percent from 2000 to 2015," McGuire quoted from the Illinois Policy Institute's recent budget report. "Higher education spending is down 8 percent, human services funding is up only 10 percent, public safety spending is up 12 percent and funding for K-12 education is up 35 percent."

McGuire pointed out that, according to the institute's report, the budget crisis is due to the overspending and financial mismanagement of its tax revenues. Conducted by Ted Dabrowski, Craig Lesner and John Klingner, the report analyzed tax revenues versus spending and found that revenues have grown faster than inflation. Since 1983, the state has collected an extra $265 billion in tax revenue versus the actual inflation rate.

Despite the state constitution requiring a balanced budget, Illinois' last balanced budget was in 2001. Currently, the state faces $170 billion in unfunded pension costs, which is approximately 25 percent of the general fund's budget.

While legislators look to tax increases to resolve the budget issues, the temporary income tax hike from 2011 to 2014 did not result in a balanced budget. That temporary tax expired in 2015. The increased funding was not used to pay down debt, or fund education or social services. Instead, legislators increased government workers' pay and benefits.

McGuire continues to press legislators to hammer out a balanced budget that includes spending cuts and policy changes that encourage business growth. With the highest property taxes in the nation and the fourth highest state and local taxes, further tax increases will only encourage businesses and residents to move out of Illinois and exasperate the budget crisis.