In the 1993 guide “Reinventing Government “ David Osborne and Ted Gabler’s plead for a more efficient government, using the basics of industrial engineering and good business practices to reduce waste and streamline bureaucratic processes to deliver better services to taxpayers at a lower price. This book directly led to Vice President Al Gore’s National Performance Review which set out to “End the Era of Big Government” and “Transform Access to Government Through Technology”. One may wax nostalgic for a time when Democrats were interested in good government and Al Gore was not as obsessed with global warming (perhaps from leaving the limelight on for too long), but despite some laudable efforts (customized postage stamps!), government is bigger and badder than it was 14 years ago.

Our local good government committees also tend to make honest diagnoses and prescriptions for improving process and accountability in the State of Illinois. The Civic Federation, in their 2008 Recommended Operating Budget Analysis wisely opposed the gross receipts tax and increased healthcare spending, to focus on the state pension deficit, which is so severe as to drive tenured university professors out of the State of Illinois system. Severe questions are asked by the Civic Federation as to how the State will manage additional health care coverage, when the record of the State in covering its own employees is so poor. The Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago also offers attention to ballooning debt and pension obligations, demanding reforms such as defined contribution retirement plans for state employees and additional charter schools to improved educational choice.

What neither the Civic Federation nor the Civic Committee will rule out is an increase in Illinois state corporate and personal income tax, with the Civic Federation allowing that it “could support” a 33% increase in tax to “fully fund its pension obligations and pay for increases in education and transportation”. The Civic Committee more vaguely thinks that any spending reduction “will not be enough to cover the State’s annual costs” and that “to avoid collapse, a tax increase may be inevitable” but this could be done “without jeopardizing its competitive status”.

Both good government organizations offer various specific reforms and reductions to improve the financial structure of the State, but both beg the question, if it were not for a budget crisis, how would we ever be considering financial cuts to put the State in order? Isn’t the lack of funds a red-flag that the State may be spending more than it can manage? Does anyone really think that more funds would be properly spent on pension, education and healthcare reform? How do we get our elected representatives to make adult financial decisions if we continue to put money into the current mismanaged system?

I suggest not offering any additional funds to Springfield until the allocation of our current resources is identified and prioritized. Do we really need to expand a mostly vacant McCormick Place more than we need to cover retiree pensions? Is the DuQuoin State Fair soaking up funds better spent on infant prescriptions? Should the average resident of Illinois work until age 70 so that we can afford for our public school teachers to retire at age 52? There is an adage in industrial engineering and process control stating, “Don’t Automate, Obliterate”. There certainly are some great candidates for obliteration rather than incremental improvement in the State Budget.

John Powers is the President of the Chicago Daily Observer