Source: Rockford Register Star
Emil Jones, Illinois Senate president from Chicago, who has repeatedly demeaned our city with his oft quoted, "Where's Rockford?", recently managed to find his way here to attack Sen. Dave Syverson, claiming Dave doesn't care about Rockford because he voted against the state budget, including the capital roads plan.
Ignore for now that Dave and his party leaders were totally excluded from the budget table. Can we talk here about bipartisanship? Overlook the fact that the state road fund, if not raided for general expenditures, could have paid for needed capital improvements!
Forget that the Blagojevich-Jones-Madigan budget has underfunded state pensions $2.3 billion the past two years, created a backlog of unpaid Medicaid bills totaling $1.8 billion (20 percent of the annual cost) with a six-month reimbursement delay to providers or that the budget raids the state's road funds of another $1.2 billion. The conclusion is obvious, according to Jones and local pundits, Sen. Syverson and other local representatives are equally to blame for the lack of a capital roads program, for refusing to spend more than the state collects in revenues.
State Comptroller Dan Hynes, a member of the governor's own party, in the April issue of the Illinois Fiscal Focus Report calculates the state financial deficit increased $500 million despite general revenues increasing $620 million with an additional $671 million in cash receipts, an increase in personal income taxes of $349 million with corporate income taxes up $166 million and sales taxes growing by $345 million. Despite this $2.1 billion in new revenues, the state still had to borrow almost $1 billion to pay for the governor's increased spending.
The Chicago Tribune reported in April that the New York bond rating firm, Finch Rating, has lowered Illinois financial rating to "negative outlook," mainly due to the massive underfunding of the state's pension system. The report also stated that this underfunding could lead to "massive spending cuts or heavy tax increases in Illinois".
Only two other states received this negative rating - Michigan after six straight years of auto job losses and Louisiana, still recovering from Katrina. This year's budget once again relies on underfunding an additional $1.1 billion from the state's pension funds.
What Chicago boss Emil Jones really wants is to own Rockford's Senate seat so he can be one step closer to a veto proof Senate to remove more money from Rockford projects to fund Chicago's prolific spending habits!
Why then do some local leaders seek passage of an advisory referendum in November to support more deficit spending by the state? Even if a capital plan were approved, how can anyone believe that the governor will fund local projects this time around, when his past priorities have bypassed Rockford?
In nominating Dave Syverson for the Rockford Register Star's Men of Influence, Democratic Ald. Nancy Johnston, stated, "While rarely agreeing on political issues, as fellow advocates for Rockford, Dave (Syverson) and I are on the same page. When intergovernmental cooperation is called for, Senator Syverson has the clout and drive to succeed."
Intergovernmental cooperation is exactly why Dave was successful in finding a way for the Rockford School District to qualify for existing state school construction funds to cover more than $20 million to repay a large portion for the construction of three new schools by working together with legislators of both parties and locally elected officials!
Sen. Syverson and other local representatives should be commended not harassed for refusing to support the state budget, including the capital plan.
It is not partisan politics, but a refusal to go deeper into debt, $26 billion to date, with additional borrowing, garage sales of state assets, the old revenue shell game using state employees' pension funds or depriving low-income elderly access to health care by diverting Medicaid reimbursement payments to fund new extravagant state spending programs.
Ted Biondo is a member of the Rock Valley College board of trustees and former vice president of the Rockford Board of Education.