“The state must pare back its portfolio so that it can better fulfill its basic obligations to its citizens,” opined Nicole Kurokawa in the 2010 Illinois Piglet Book, a joint project of the Illinois Policy Institute and Citizens Against Government Waste that identified more than $350 million in wasteful spending.
“Every day, Illinoisans make hard choices about what to spend their money on, foregoing what they want for what they need because of budgetary constraints. Lawmakers should do the same. The state owes its residents the courtesy of responsible spending.”
Institute CEO John Tillman emphasized at the time that the $350 million figure represented only documented waste. With a state government noted for opacity rather than transparency, one can only imagine what the accurate total of irresponsible spending might have been.
Bear in mind that this was more than 10 years ago, and pre-Covid. The figures for wasteful spending, documented and undocumented, are surely higher now, despite the fact that state debt has increased and state revenue has declined – thanks to the exodus of taxpayers to friendlier states and the reduced taxable income of citizens who’ve lost jobs and businesses due to irrational reactions to the alleged pandemic.
Did the state “pare back its portfolio” as the Illinois Policy Institute recommended? No, of course not. Instead, lawless lawmakers sought to borrow their way out of the hole. Makes sense, right? If you’re in a hole, dig deeper.
But Tillman was having none of it. Two years ago, he filed a petition to block the state from continuing to pay off “structural debt” bonds issued in 2003 and 2017, arguing that the 1970 Illinois Constitution permits the state to take on long-term debt only for “specific purposes” limited to capital improvements.
Tillman’s challenge is now before the Illinois Supreme Court, where state attorneys, true to form, are arguing that citizens have no right to question decisions made by legislators.
Keep rubbing our noses in it and see what happens. A day of reckoning is coming.