by Greg Blankenship

"Remember, George, this is no time to go wobbly." -- Margaret Thatcher to George HW Bush, August 3, 1990.

(Springfield, Ill.) In the war with Chicago Democrats to hold the line on tax increases, stop runaway state spending and bring jobs back to Illinois, it seems that a few Illinois GOP candidates are going wobbly in just the first weeks of the 2010 general election campaign.

Going weak kneed just weeks into a nine month general election campaign is not going to reverse Springfield's abuse of tax payer dollars, improve the Illinois economy, nor get any Illinoisan currently out of work a job. Those arguing they stand for fiscal responsibility need to take a strong stand against spending, that in last two decades has grown by 74% according to Americans for Prosperity, and support any and all efforts to get a handle on spending.

Springfield Should Justify Its Spending to Taxpayers, Not Extort Higher Taxes
On the contrary, only by holding firm on spending reductions can Illinois dig itself out of its budget hole. Illinois' largest economic challenge is not the structure of the tax system or high taxes, but instead continued economic instability caused by runaway spending, the constant threat of tax increases and regulations that all work to deter job creation. Only by restoring confidence through a stable political environment can state government begin to address its estimated $11 billion to $12 billion budget hole. A hole Illinois has been digging for the last twelve years.

In an attempt to begin to address this challenge, gubernatorial candidate State Senator Bill Brady (Bloomington) has suggested that in lieu of 50% tax hikes on citizens, state government get by on 90 percent of what was spent last year. That his suggestion has caused panic among Springfield spenders is understandable. That News reports in the last weeks have featured a GOP candidate for the state House of Representatives --backed by the House Leadership -- and a promising young candidate for state wide office are retreating is unfathomable.

That retrenchment is in response to the cacophony of special interest voices decrying any attempt to bring rationality to state spending. The proposal, which amounts to little more than a suggestion rather than a detailed blue print, has so shocked Springfield that the Democrat dominated State Senate last week felt the need to address the 10 percent across the board tax cuts proposal with two days of hearings. Two days of hearings that featured the pain school superintendents and college presidents would inflict on employees and students if Springfield had the temerity to spend less while the plight of ordinary Illinoisans who pay for all of this were ignored.

The goal of the hearings were to justify tax increases not justify the utility of state spending to those forced to pay for it. A recent spate of news stories goes far in explaining why these actors prefer extortion via fear over transparently reporting on all the wonderful things government is accomplishing with hard earned tax dollars.

A Litany of Recent Taxpayer Abuse
As the hearings were underway The Chicago Tribune reported on March 2nd that school superintendents were making massive cuts while, "Their own pay checks were growing comfortably."

The day after SIU President and former Democrat nominee for Governor Glenn Poshard threatened to lay off 15% of his workforce if the cuts were enacted. On March 3rd The Springfield State Journal-Register reported that Poshard's colleague, University of Illinois President Richard Ringstein, "...would make $273,500 annually as an adviser to the U of I president after his retirement this fall." The university board is scheduled to vote on the golden parachute this week and a university spokesman characterized the arrangement as routine.

During a March 8th conference call with reporters State Sen. John O. Jones (R-Mt. Vernon) informed Illinoisans that, "Potentially hundreds of non-essential jobs are being filled at agencies like the Department of Natural Resources and Department of Transportation. We are not talking about road engineers to implement the capital program, prison guards or even case workers," Jones said. "What we are talking about are $35,000 raises for assistant agency directors or legislative liaisons. How does this look to the 13,000 teachers that could be laid off as a result of a failure to prioritize?"

On March 9th, The State Journal-Register offered more reasons to suggest that Sen. Bill Brady is on the right track: "The Illinois Department on Aging plans to move from two state-owned locations in Springfield where it pays no rent into a private office building where it will lease space for more than $530,000 a year. The department said the move was in the works before the state's most recent financial problems hit, and that it will enable all of the agency's employees to be in one location."

Since the budget has been in an annual crisis for nine years, one has to wonder just how long it takes to orchestrate such a move at the Dept. on Aging. One can only shudder at the prospect of the numbers of Dept. on Aging workers it takes to change a light bulb given the justification for the move above.

The Bottom Line
It is likely that the spending atrocities highlighted above are the tip of the iceberg in Springfield. Now, is not the time to go wobbly. Instead, it is the time to highlight the abuses of taxpayer dollars occurring. Now is the time to highlight eight years bereft of results from the roughly billion dollar per year spending increases. Now is the time to highlight the utter inability of those running this state to restore the economic confidence necessary for businesses to risk hiring new employees.

To paraphrase another quote from the Iron Lady: If not us who? If not now? When?